– Monday, 29 October, 6:00 PM: Armistice: WWI in Memory & Song, a collaboration of the MHS and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, with John Brancy, Baritone; Peter Dugan, Piano; and Peter Drummey, MHS. A temporary exhibition on the end of World War I will be coupled with songs and a conversation about the journey home that men and women faced at the close of The War to End All Wars. This program will explore both the history of the war and the memory of it. On Tuesday October 30 at 8:00 pm, John Brancy and Peter Dugan will perform their program “Armistice: The Journey Home” in Seully Hall at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. A pre-program reception begins at 5:30 PM; the speaking program begins at 6:00 PM.
– Tuesday, 30 October, 5:15 PM: Governing the “Black Power” City: Leon H. Sullivan, Opportunities Industrialization Centers Inc., & the Rise of Black Empowerment with Jessica Ann Levy, Johns Hopkins University, and comment by Julia Rabig, Dartmouth College. This paper traces the Opportunities Industrialization Center’s rise from its meager founding in North Philadelphia to one of the largest black community development programs in the United States. In doing so, it sheds new light on the financial and intellectual investments made by American business, government bureaucrats, and civil rights entrepreneurs like Sullivan in transforming black dissidents into “productive citizens,” “productive” having economic and civic connotations. This is part of the Boston Seminar on Modern American Society and Culture series. Seminars are free and open to the public.
– Thursday, 1 November, 5:30 PM: “No Ideas But in Things”: Writing Lives from Objects with Deborah Lutz, University of Louisville; Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Amherst College; Susan Ware, Independent Scholar, and moderator Natalie Dykstra, Hope College. 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? This is part of the New England Biography Seminar series. Seminars are free and open to the public.
– Saturday, 3 November, 10:00 AM: The History & Collections of the MHS. Join us for a 90-minute docent-led tour of our public rooms. The tour is free, open to the public, with no need for reservations. If you would like to bring a party of 8 or more, please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.
Fashioning the New England Family is open Monday through Saturday, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The exhibition explores the ways in which the multiple meanings of fashion and fashionable goods are reflected in patterns of consumption and refashioning, recycling, and retaining favorite family pieces. Many of the items that will be featured have been out of sight, having never been exhibited for the public or seen in living memory. The exhibition is organized as part of Mass Fashion, a consortium of cultural institutions set up to explore and celebrate the many facets of the culture of fashion in Massachusetts.
Take a look at our calendar page for information about upcoming programs.