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The calendar is a bit top-heavy this week with a slew of events in the first few days. Here is a look at the programs in the week ahead:

Please note that on Thursday, 7 December, the library opens late at 12:00PM.

– Monday, 4 December, 6:00PM : Join us for a special program presented by a group of undergraduate students from Boston University, called Reforming Boston: Remaking the 19th-Century City. In this presentation and virtual exhibit, Professor Andrew Robichaud and his students present more than twenty rare artifacts and documents from the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. From prison and asylum reform, to education and temperance, to women’s rights and abolitionism, this presentation explores many dimensions of reform in Boston. How did Boston reformers understand their changing world, and how did they understand social change and improvement? This program is open to the public at no cost, though registration is required. Light refreshments served after the presentations. 

– Tuesday, 5 December, 5:15PM : This week’s seminar is from the Early American History series and features Adrian C. Weimer of Providence College, with Walter Woodward of University of Connecticut providing comment. “Petitions and the Cry of Sedition” looks at the political upheavals of the early Restoration in which a remarkable number of Massachusetts men and women expressed keen dissatisfaction with the monarch or General Court, leading to trials over seditious speech. The rich theological language in the petitions and feisty curses in the trial records offer an unrivaled glimpse into the significance of religion for the mobilization of local political communities in this tumultuous era. Seminars are free and open to the public. To RSVP, e-mail seminars@masshist.org or call 617-646-0579. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. 

– Wednesday, 6 December, 12:00PM : Chris Pastore of State University of New York at Albany leads this week’s Brown Bag discussion with “Constructing the Ocean’s Edge: Toward an Environmental History of the Atlantic World.” This presentation examines the environmental history and cultural geography of the North Atlantic shore during the Age of Exploration. A closer look at the ways coasts blurred the bounds of natural knowledge, conventions of conduct, and even the distinction between good and evil, may help us write uncertainty into an otherwise linear narrative of human progress, and, by extension, global expansion.

– Wednesday, 6 December, 6:00PM : MHS Fellows and Members are invited to the Society’s annual holiday party. Enjoy an evening of holiday cheer, celebrate the season, and wish a happy retirement to MHS President Emeritus Dennis Fiori. Holiday cocktail attire requested. RSVP by 1 December. Not a Member? Join today!

– Saturday, 9 December, 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: Yankees in the West.