By Dan Hinchen
As spring struggles to take hold we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that the potential storm does not interrupt any of the programs on tap this week.
First up, on Tuesday, 25 March, is “Boston’s Chinatowns and Recent Senior Migration,” the next edition of our Immigration and Urban History Seminar series. Presented by Nicole Newendorp of Harvard University, the discussion centers on the life ways and services available to low-income, primarily non-English speaking Chinese seniors who live in Boston’s downtown Chinatown and Quincy, a satellite Chinatown in the suburbs. In so doing, it re-focuses attention away from the traditional question of defining Chinatown through residential space to the problem of defining community more generally for a heterogeneous group of migrants with a rich diversity of life experiences. Wing-Kai To of Bridgewater State University will provide comment and the talk begins at 5:15PM. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.
Then, on Thursday, 27 March, there is a special event for new Members and Fellows of the Society.”New Faces & New Acquisitions” begins at 5:30PM and is a unique opportunity for new Fellows and Members to learn more about and view a selection of the Society’s most recent acquisitions, including letters from a stunning collection of Adams and Cranch family correspondence and items from the Civil War archives of Capt. Luis F. Emilio of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. There will also be a reception and the chance to view the current exhibition, Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial. Registration is required at no cost. Please call 617-646-0560 or register online by clicking here. For more information about becoming a Member, click here.
Finally, on Saturday, 29 March, there will be no public tour. Instead, beginning at 12:00PM is a special public program: “Tell It With Pride.” Visitors are invited to enjoy an afternoon program of exhibition tours and special talks at the MHS related to the Tell It With Pride exhibition currently on display. The afternoon will feature a presentation from the men of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment Company A, time to view the exhibition and to converse with the men of the 54th Regiment, and two lectures. The first lecture, starting at 2:00PM, is from author Kathryn Greenthal and titled “Augusts Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial: Its Context and Its Creation.” The second lecture, starting at 3:00PM, is “Consecration and Monument: Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment,” presented by Henry Duffy, Curator of Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH. This program is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Public Garden. To Reserve: Click here to register online or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560. Please register if you plan to attend ANY part of this program (even if you can not join us for the entire afternoon).