By Dan Hinchen

This week is your final chance to take part in some public programs here at the MHS for the year 2016. Please note that the library closes at 3:30PM on Monday, 12 December. Here are the progams ahead:

– Monday, 12 December, 6:00PM : Building Old Cambridge: Architecture and Development, is an author talk with Susan Maycock and Charles Sullivan, centered on their book Building Old Cambridge. In this talk the authors explore Old Cambridge’s architecture and development in the context of its social and economic history; the development of Harvard Square as a commercial center and regional mass transit hub; the creation of parks and open spaces; and the formation of a thriving nineteenth-century community of booksellers, authors, printers, and publishers that made Cambridge a national center of the book industry. This program is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM and the talk begins at 6:00PM.

– Tuesday, 13 December, 5:15PM : The final seminar of 2016 is a panel discussion from the Environmental History series. “Recreation and Regional Planning” features Elsa Devienne of the Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense and Princeton University, and Garret Nelson of Dartmouth College. Brian Donahue of Brandeis University provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. 

– Wednesday, 14 December, 6:00PM : Join Tamara Thornton of SUNY Buffalo as she discusses her new book, Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers. Fleshing out the multiple careers of Nathaniel Bowditch, this book is at once a lively biography, a window into the birth of bureaucracy, and a portrait of patrician life, giving us a broader, more-nuanced understanding of how powerful capitalists operated during this era and how the emerging quantitative sciences shaped the modern experience. Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM and the program starts at 6:00PM. This talk is open to the public free of charge, registration required. 

– Saturday, 17 December, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led walk through our public rooms. The tour is free, open to the public, with no need for reservations. If you would like to bring a larger party (8 or more), please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Turning Points in American History.