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As the end-of-year holidays approach we are slowly applying the brakes to our programming schedule here at the Society. However, we still have a few public events coming in the next couple of weeks. Here are the items on offer in the week ahead:

– Tuesday, 12 December, 5:15PM : Hannah Anderson of University of Pennsylvania leads the discussion in the this week’s Environmental History Seminar. “Lived Botany: Settler Colonialism, Household Knowledge Production, and Natural History in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania” examines how colonists developed ways of interpreting their landscapes that simultaneously partook of and deviated from the norms of eighteenth-century natural history. Domestic spaces became sites where colonists created information about the natural world, allowing them to feel secure in the new environments where they claimed dominion. Thomas Wickman of Trinity College is on-hand to provide comment. 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.

– Wedensday, 13 December, 6:00PM : Come in for an author talk with Manisha Sinha of University of Connecticut, whose most recent work is The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition. This book broadens the chronology of abolition beyond the antebellum period, and sets the abolition movement in a transnational context and illustrates how the abolitionist vision ultimately linked the slave’s cause to the struggle to redefine democracy and human rights across the globe. This event is open to the public; registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

– Saturday, 16 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