Here are the programs on the schedule for coming week:

• Monday, 11 February, at 6:00 PM: Lincoln & the Jews: A History
  with Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University. Historian Jonathan D. Sarna reveals how Lincoln’s remarkable relationship with American Jews impacted both his path to the presidency and his policy decisions as president. Expressing a uniquely deep knowledge of the Old Testament, employing its language and concepts in some of his most important writings, Lincoln also befriended Jews from a young age, promoted Jewish equality, and appointed numerous Jews to public office.A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30 PM; the speaking program begins at 6:00 PM. There is a $10 per person fee (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders).

• Tuesday, 12 February, at 5:15 PM: Amputated from the Land: Black Refugees from America & the Neglected Voices of Environmental History with Bryon Williams, Academy at Penguin Hall, and comment by John Stauffer, Harvard University. This paper focuses on dictated narratives from the 1840s and ‘50s, accounts delivered by blacks who fled the U.S. to settle in the wilds of Ontario. These first-person accounts of environmental encounter and expertise are unrivaled in depth, breadth, and detail among black ecological writing of any era. New environmental histories need such accounts that not only counter dominant American environmental and political myths, but offer black-lived stories of environmental belonging and agency. This is part of the Boston Seminar on Environmental History series. Seminars are free and open to the public.–

• Wednesday, 13 February, at 6:00 PM: Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize Ceremony with Douglas L. Winiarski and Stephen Marini. Please join us for a special evening in which Douglas L. Winiarski will receive the 2018 Gomes Prize for Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in 18th-Century New England. Winiarski will join historian Stephen Marini in a conversation about religious revivalism and the shaping influence of religious awakenings on faith and culture in eighteenth-century New England.A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30 PM; the speaking program begins at 6:00 PM. W

• Saturday, 16 February, at 10:00 AM: The History & Collections of the MHS. Join us for 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.

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. 

Please note that the MHS will be closed on Monday, 18 February. Take a look at our calendar page for information about upcoming programs.