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The week ahead is a busy one, loaded with public programs. Here is the round-up for the week:
The library closes early on Monday, 18 June, at 4:00PM.
– Monday, 18 June, 6:00PM : Join us for our first Juneteenth Open House, with a one-day display celebrating milestones on the road to the end of slavery. Featured items explore the 1783 abolition of slavery in Massachusetts; celebrations within the African American community in Boston of the ending of slavery in the British West Indies in 1833; Garrisonian protest banners; and a look at the evolution of depictions of Crispus Attucks’s death in the Boston Massacre as a symbol of black abolitionism before and during the Civil War.
This talk is free and open to the public, though registration is required.
– Wednesday, 20 June, 12:00PM : Matthew Fernandez of Columbia University leads the first Brown Bag talk of the week, titled “Picturing Modernism in the Work and Archive of Henry Adams.” This talk examines three interrelated elements of Henry Adams’s literary output: his transnational focus, his reconsideration of subject/object relations, and his interest in the visual arts. While travelling during the 1890s, Adams took a break from writing to immerse himself in painting and sketching—after which he produced acclaimed works like Chartres and The Education. His time abroad represents an important transitional moment between the Romanticism of the nineteenth century and the Modernism of the twentieth century.
This talk is free and open to the public.
– Thursday, 21 June, 6:00PM : Chateau Higginson: Social Life in Boston’s Back Bay, 1870-1920 is a recent work published by Margo Miller, Boston Globe (retired), and the title of this author talk. Miller’s work is a vivid and absorbing account of one man’s efforts to construct a building that would create “a new way for Bostonians—and Americans—to live.” Henry Lee Higginson is best known for founding the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but exploring his housing gamble helps bring him to life, as well as a whole social class in 19th-century urban America.
This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.
– Friday, 22 June, 12:00PM : The second Brown Bag talk this week is with Joshua Morrison of University of Virginia, and is called “Cut from the Same Cloth: Salem, Zanzibar, and the Consolidation of the Indo-Atlantic World, 1820-1870.” This talk explores the economic and cultural exchange between New England and Zanzibar, the premier entrepôt of the Western Indian Ocean. This trade network linked the cotton magnates of Massachusetts with the Omani elite, Indian merchants, and Swahili slaves of Zanzibar. As the trade expanded, each close-knit community found themselves increasingly dependent on an incredibly foreign counterpart for survival. This project maps the many compromises, adaptations, and concessions made in the name of profit.
This talk is free and open to the public.
– Saturday, 23 June, 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: Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825.
The library closes early on Saturday, 23 June, at 3:00PM.
– Saturday, 23 June, 4:00PM : Join us for a special Saturday program to celebrate “The All-American Girls: Women in Professional Baseball.” Baseball is not just a beloved pastime for American boys and men. From 19th-century college teams formed at Vassar and Smith and the nationally celebrated Boston Bloomer Girls to the formation of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League when major male talent faced the WWII draft, women players have increasingly found ways to make their mark on the game. Today, more women than ever before are playing baseball at a world-class level, staking a claim on the most nostalgic and patriotic of American sports. This event features a panel discussion moderated by Red Sox historian Gordon Edes, and panelists Maybelle Blair and Shirley Burkovich (All American Girls Professional Baseball League); Donna Mills (Women’s World Cup of Baseball MVP); Marti Sementelli (U.S. Women’s National Baseball Team); and Dr. Kat Williams (Women’s Sports historian at Marshall University). Also, through a partnership with the Red Sox, MHS is offering a limited quanity of tickets for audience members who want to follow the afternoon panel discussion with a 7:15 Red Sox game against the Seattle Mariners. Tickets are available for purchase through our program registration link.
This program is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). Reception begins at 3:30PM followed by the panel discussion at 4:00PM.