By Elaine Grublin

The April starts off busy, as we offer six free public programs this week. Mark you calendar and be sure to join us for one of the following:

Tuesday, 3 April at 5:15 PM, the Boston Early American History Seminar brings Len Travers, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, to the MHS to present his paper “The Court-Martial of Jonathan Barnes.” Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College, will give the comment. 

Wednesday, 4 April at 12:00 PM, join in the conversation at a brown-bag lunch program.  Joanne Melish, University of Kentucky, will present her finding on the topic “Making Black Communities: White Laborers, Black Neighborhoods, and the Evolution of Race and Class in the Post-Revolutionary North.” Then at 6:00 PM join in a second conversation, are our conversation series, Considering the Common Good: What We Give Up/What We Gain, offers its latest installment with Lewis Hyde, Kenyon College and Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, presenting “Common as Air: A Conversation with Lewis Hyde.” A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Friday, 6 April at 12.00 PM, Robert Turner, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia Law School presents The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy in a lunchtime program. And at 2:00 PM, the MHS’ Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey presents a gallery talk “Being Mrs. Adams” in conjunction with a viewing of our current exhibition A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885.

And Saturday, 7 April, our 90-minute tour “The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society” departs the front lobby at 10:00 AM. 

For additional details about all of these events please visit our online calendar.