By

It is the middle of the month and it appears that the lion of March is not making way for the lamb. Below is the round-up of events in the week to come, just be sure to keep an eye on our website to ensure that the event you want to attend is not affected by weather-related closures. 

– Tuesday, 20 March, CANCELED : This week’s seminar, “On Fantasy,” is canceled due to illness.

– Tuesday, 20 March, 6:00PM : People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, & A New Movement for City Making is the new book by Karilyn Crockett, who will be on-hand for this author talk. In 1948, inspired by changes to federal law, Massachusetts officials started to plan highways circling and cutting through the heart of Boston. But when officials began to hold hearings in 1960 the people pushed back. The story of how an unlikely multiracial coalition of urban and suburban residents, planners, and activists emerged to stop a highway is one full of suspenseful twists and surprises. And yet the victory and its aftermath are undeniable: federally funded mass transit expansion, a linear central city park, and a highway-less urban corridor that serves as a daily reminder of the power of citizen-led city-making and has had lasting national implications.

This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). 

– Thursday, 22 March, 5:30PM : Often a biographer confronts silences in the record of her subject, when part of the life story is not documented with words. Mute sources—objects in the subject’s archive—can pose a challenge for interpretation, but also offer rich opportunities. How can biographers read objects as eloquent sources? “‘No Ideas But in Things’: Writing Lives from Objects” is a panel discussion with Deborah Lutz of University of Louisville, Karen Sanchez-Eppler of Amherst College, independent scholar Susan Ware, and moderator Natalie Dykstra of Hope College. 

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Saturday, 24 March, 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: Yankees in the West.

– Saturday, 24 March, 10:00AM : In celebration of Women’s History Month, the MHS is calling for items–pink hats, signs, pins, t-shirts, photographs, written accounts–from the 2017 and 2018 Women’s March events. We invite the public to stop by 1154 Boylston Street in Boston to donate 2017 and 2018 Women’s March memorabilia—pink hats, signs, pins, t-shirts, photographs (prints or digital images)—as well as written accounts to its collection. If you do not want to part with your Women’s March items, consider wearing them to the MHS and having your picture taken (a photographer will be on site) to be added to our collection. We also encourage written experiences and accounts of the marches to be shared. These can be e-mailed to collections@masshist.org or mailed to: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA, 02215, attention Brenda Lawson.

If you are unable to come to the MHS on 24 March but have items you would like to donate, please contact Anne Bentley (abentley@masshist.org or 617-646-0508) or Brenda Lawson (blawson@masshist.org or 617-646-0552) to discuss.

Selected items collected on 24 March will be displayed as part of our 2019 exhibition on women’s suffrage.