By Dan Hinchen
August is creeping by and the summer is beginning its downward trajectory toward fall. So to with the event schedule here at the Society. This week is the last of the month to feature public programming so be sure to stop by and take part!
First, on Monday, 12 August 2013, there is a Brown Bag lunch taking place at 12:00 PM. Zara Anishanslin of College of Staten Island, CUNY, presents “Rebelling Subjects, Revealing Objects: The Material and Visual Culture of Making and Remembering the American Revolution.” Anishanslin’s research uses objects and images to narrate how ideology, politics, and war – and their material practices – were ambivalent and fluid in the Revolutionary era. The project considers how women, Loyalists, slaves, and Native Americans, as well as Patriots, experienced, made, and remembered the American Revolution from 1763 to 1791, with a coda about historical memory arranged around General Lafayette’s Jubilee Tour. This talk is free and open to the public so pack a lunch and come on by!
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 13-14 August, the MHS sponsors a two-day teacher workshop taking place at Coolidge Point in Manchester, Massachusetts. “Old Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation” concentrates on how to use local resources to examine historical issues with a national focus. The workshop highlights the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area in the period just after the Revolution, a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. Questions to be investigated include: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? How much did geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of the region influence peoples concerns? How does a local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history? The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty includes Jayne Gordon, Kathleen Barker, and Laura Lowell of the MHS, historian Christian Samito, and Dean Eastman, a local educator and previous recipient of an MHS Teacher Fellowship. Workshop partners include Salem Maritime National Historic Site and The Trustees of Reservations. An additional two-day workshop in Pittsfield, Massachusetts is scheduled for 8-9 November. To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your payment to: Kathleen Barker, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215. For Additional Information: Contact the Education Department: 617-646-0557 or education@masshist.org.
On Wednesday, 14 August, join us for another Brown Bag lunch talk. This time, Kristin Allukian from the University of Florida presents “Working to Become: Women, Work, and Literary Legacy in American Women’s Postbellum Literature.” This interdisciplinary project has foundations in both 19th-century women’s history and literature, focusing on literary representations of career women by late 19th-century American women writers. Allukian’s research re-imagines the interconnections of society and women’s paid labor, showing that work, and women’s work in particular, was no longer a fixed entity that showed up in the lives of those living during the 19th-century but, rather, was a shaping force. This Brown Bag lunch is free and open to the public and begins at 12:00 PM.
Finally, on Saturday, 17 August, stop in for The History and Collections of the MHS, a 90-minute docent-led tour that explores all of the public rooms in the building while touching on the art, architecture, history, and collections of the Society. The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.
And don’t forget that there are currently three exhibitions on display. The exhibitions feature a variety of artifacts and manuscripts from the Society’s holdings and are free and open to the public Monday-Saturday, 10:00am-4:00pm.