By Elaine Grublin

On Tuesday, April 26, eight women from the Forbes House Museum in Milton, MA, visited the library at the MHS for an introductory tour.  The visitors, a mix of docents, staff, and trustees from the museum spent the morning learning about how to access the MHS collections (both in the library and online), taking a tour of the library, and getting up-close to some specially selected documents from the Robert Bennet Forbes Papers, the Forbes Family Papers, and the Thomas Handasyd Perkins Papers.

_{The group posed for a picture on their library tour}

The MHS is home to a number of manuscript collections, including but not limited to those listed above, with strong connections to the Forbes House Museum.  This visit, organized by the efforts of Robin M. Tagliaferri, executive director of the museum, was a step in developing a stronger connection between the MHS staff and the Forbes House Museum docents, preparing them to conduct research in the MHS collections in support of projects and other initiatives undertaken by the museum. 

Looking at documents with Librarian Peter Drummey

We look forward to a long and productive relationship with the Forbes House Museum docents and staff.  Our first major collaboration, Three Days, Three Viewpoints: The Worlds of Thomas Hutchinson, is a workshop scheduled for July 12 – 14.  The workshop, which is open to the general public with special added sessions for K-12 teachers, travels from the MHS through downtown Boston, and out to the Forbes House in Milton (which is on property that once comprised Hutchinson’s 95-acre country estate) over the course of the three days.  Please contact Kathleen Barker at the MHS if you are interested in more information about the workshop.  And thank you to the folks at Forbes House Museum for such a wonderful visit.