This paper is an excerpt from a book project that examines the musical revue Pins and Needles—a production of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) which became the longest running Broadway show of the 1930s. Specifically, the paper examines how the unique feminist nature of the ILGWU and the emphasis on social justice shaped the cast of workers’ experiences during the rehearsals, as well as the content of the show, and how they navigated their unexpected stardom status to claim their place in American culture, celebrating working-class ideology of gender equality and solidarity. 

In the 1990s, public libraries underwent a historic transformation catalyzed by new digital technologies, patrons’ changing demands, and neoliberal commitments to making public institutions and the individuals who used them more entrepreneurial. These changes are evident in the architecture and organization of space, as well as libraries’ outreach to the growing ranks of displaced contingent workers and self-employed who struggled to find stability outside the structure of conventional, full-time work. As public libraries sought to help their patrons maintain a foothold in the changing economy, they were challenged to assert their own distinctive value as once-restricted resources became widely available.

For more than sixty years, the Boston Common hosted one of the nation’s largest soapboxing districts, where speakers from all walks of life—religious, political, and otherwise—practiced the art of public speaking and preaching along the Charles Street mall. Originating around a conflict over religious freedom in the late 1880s, city authorities established the so-called People’s Forum in the early 1890s, modeled after the famed Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park. This paper examines the rise and fall of the People’s Forum and the Common’s legacy as a terrain of free speech—one that was both treasured and contested.

This panel will consider the relationship between race and culture in late twentieth century Boston. David Faflik's work examines the impact of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox on the regional complications of race during the Boston Busing Crisis. Faflik's paper employs the local sports scene surrounding the Red Sox in the 1970s as a framework for understanding race relations in the city in the late twentieth century. Jeffrey Melnick's paper explores Boston’s musical activity in the period marked off by the school desegregation crisis of 1974 through the end of the twentieth century. 

To announce the arrival of 1908, at midnight on December 31, 1907, The New York Times dropped a time ball from its new building in Longacre Square (now known as Times Square).  The spectacle was an immediate and recognized success, described as “remarkable,” “entirely different,” and “wonderful.”  Large-scale and widespread New Year’s Eve celebrations were new at the start of the twentieth century.  With midnight as their focal point, they trumpeted the temporality of clocks rather than calendars as had prevalent New Year’s Day rituals and activities. This paper tells the story of the emergence of New Year’s Eve in America.

This paper examines Black artisans’ role in South Carolina’s transition from slavery to wage labor in the aftermath of the Civil War, opening up new perspectives on the transformation of the Southern economy in the wake of emancipation—and on the ways in which individuals’ labor skills determined their experience of that transformation. Special attention is given to Reconstruction Era manifestations of old conflicts over the training and employment of Black artisans, as well as to the evolution of the postbellum artisan labor economy.

In the late 19th century, political cartoonists often pictured the nation at the table, consuming more than just food. The well-known cartoon, Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Table, by Thomas Nast in 1869 appears to have become a 19th century “meme” for later cartoonists. By 1900, cartoonists repeatedly seized on the motif of the nation at the table as the country debated immigration, citizenship, the growing power of the US in the world, and US imperial expansion. This paper explores what those images reveal about narratives about national identity and power in the late nineteenth century -- and asks why the dinner table proved such a popular vehicle for exploring those issues.