Please note that the MHS is closed on Monday, 15 April. Here is a look at the programs planned for this week:
On Tuesday, 16 April, at 5:30 PM: The Long 19th Amendment with Corinne Field, University of Virginia; Katherine Turk, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and moderator Susan Ware, Schlesinger Library. With popular and scholarly attention focusing on the August 2020 centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, this session will explore “the long Nineteenth Amendment” stretching from the woman’s suffrage movement to second-wave feminism and beyond, with an eye toward continuities, challenges, and unfinished business. This is part of the Boston Seminar on the History of Women, Gender, & Sexuality series. Seminars are free and open to the public.
On Wednesday, 17 April, at 6:00 PM: The City-State of Boston: The Rise & Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865 with Mark Peterson, Yale University. In the vaunted annals of America’s founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary “city upon a hill” and the “cradle of liberty” for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clichés, Mark Peterson highlights Boston’s overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a path-breaking and brilliant new history of early America. 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).
On Thursday, 18 April, at 5:15 PM: Historians & Ethics: The Case of Anne Moody with Francoise Hamlin, Brown University, and comment by Chad Williams, Brandeis University. In the process of conducting research for her book project, Hamlin encountered an ethical conundrum regarding the papers of Anne Moody, author of the iconic autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi. This paper explores this case in depth and probes how historians should record the lives of those who might not have wanted to be found. This is part of the Boston Seminar on African American History series. Seminars are free and open to the public.
Opening at the MHS on 26 April: “Can She Do It?” Massachusetts Debates a Woman’s Right to Vote
Commemorating 100 years since Massachusetts ratified the 19th Amendment, this exhibition explores the activism and debate around women’s suffrage in Massachusetts. Featuring dynamic imagery from the collection of the MHS, “Can She Do It?” illustrates the passion on each side of the suffrage question. The exhibition will be open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM through 21 September.