By Dan Hinchen

Things are pretty quiet here at the Society as we enter August, at least as far as the calendar is concerned. Here is what’s happening in the week ahead:

– Wednesday, 2 August – Friday, 4 August : “Teaching LGBTQ History” is a three-day teacher workshop that explores ideas about sexual orientation and gender identity through the lives of New Englanders. Investigations will take participants from the Puritan era through the twenty-first century, as well as to local repositories and historical sites, working with primary sources and curricular materials that will help contextualize current debates over LGBTQ rights. This program is open to all K-12 educators. For more information, or to register, contact the Center for the Teaching of History at the MHS: education@masshist.org or 617-646-0557.  

– Wednesday, 2 August, 12:00PM : Stop by for a Brown Bag lunch talk with Paul Gilje, University of Oklahoma. “The Year 1800: The Union of the Personal and the Political” focuses on the elections of 1800 to reveal the extensive intrigues of a year that historians have often reduced to a single political contest. The personal and the political were inseparable among women and men in New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, where power, prejudice, servitude, insiders, and foreigners converged in illicit unions that rocked individuals and families and altered electoral outcomes. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Saturday, 5 August, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Tour 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.