Creative & Original Programming at the MHS

By Gavin Kleespies, Director of Programs, Exhibitions and Community Partnerships

The MHS offers a variety of creative and original programs throughout the year. Here is a look back at some of the original programs we hosted in the winter and spring as well as an overview of a few programs that are coming up this summer. Stay tuned for more information about a series we are planning for fall 2019 that explores the history of subsidized housing in Boston.

This winter, we partnered with the Old South Meeting House to host a three part series on the history of the Great Molasses Flood. These discussions commemorated the 100th anniversary of the disaster and addressed the critical social themes raised and the aftermath. Many who know of the Flood perceive the events as almost tragi-comedy or as an anomalous catastrophe outside the bounds of historical contextualization. In fact, the Flood, and the trials that followed, bring up many questions as to how we frame or mythologize historical events, the responsibilities of businesses and government oversight, and the rights and status of immigrant communities. Our panelists included local scholars and activists along with  Stephen Puleo, the author of the seminal book on the Molasses Flood titled, Dark Tide as well as many other books on Boston area history. Hundreds of people attended these talks where they had the chance to engage in thoughtful dialogue, share their stories or insights, and pose questions to the panelists.

Great Molasses Flood program
The Great Molasses Flood Revisited

In February, we hosted a program with Prof. Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton University; Michael Tomasky, editor of Democracy; and radio personality Robin Young, WBUR and NPR, to discuss how political polarization has led our country to a state of almost complete dysfunction. The conversation was steered by Robin Young giving Zelizer and Tomasky the chance to reflect on past political strife as well as modern day gerrymandering and conflicts within parties which force both sides towards the extremes. The conversation that ensued was a great example of using history to explain current events.

In May, the panel discussion Boston Women Designers: Then and Now offered a creative and original look at how gender norms have been changing in the field of design in Boston. MHS President Catherine Allgor began the program with a historical note about women designers in Boston. The discussion that followed explored how the field has changed and what walls still need to come down. We partnered with the Fenway Alliance and the Boston Preservation Alliance to produce the show, which helped us reach new audiences and sparked a lively set of questions at the end.

Panelists - Boston Women Designers
Boston Women Designers, 14 May 2019

On Saturday, 1 June, the official historian of the Boston Red Sox, Gordon Edes, will join panelists Leigh Montville, Jane Leavy, and John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball, in a discussion to mark 100 years since the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. For many, this infamous sale was the catalyst of a nearly century long losing streak and still stokes a rivalry between the New York and Boston teams. At the time, Red Sox owner, Henry Frazee, justified the move stating: “With this money the Boston club can now go into the market and buy other players and have a stronger and better team in all respects than we would have if Ruth had remained with us.”[1] In fact, it was widely speculated that the princely sum paid for Ruth ultimately financed Frazee’s ventures as a Broadway producer and was never used to replenish Red Sox talent. Regardless, the deal left Boston fans to look on with irony, superstition, or just plain frustration as the Red Sox failed to bring a World Series pennant home to Boston for another 86 years.

The Sale of the Century panel is just one of the exciting original public programs offered by the MHS this summer. In July, we will host a series of talks on the early China trade in Massachusetts, drawing on the expertise of local scholars and curators who will examine the ways in which the China trade helped shape the global profile of the Bay State. This series of programs is especially important to the MHS community because of its strong ties to our collection. In 1984, the China Trade Museum of Milton converted to the Forbes House Museum. In the process, it gave the bulk of its manuscript collection to the MHS. Art and objects headed to the Peabody Essex Museum. For the first panel talk in the series, Layla Bermeo, Assistant Curator of Paintings at the MFA; Karina Corrigan, Curator of Asian Export Art at PEM; and Peter Drummey, the Stephen T. Riley Librarian at the MHS, will take a closer look at the art inspired by the trading period along with intersections between these prominent collections.

Click on the links below for more information about these programs. And visit our online calendar for a look at everything we have planned in the coming months.

Sale of the Century: How the Red Sox Peddled Babe Ruth to the Yankees

The Legacy of the China Trade in Massachusetts: Art, Artifacts, & Manuscripts in Local Collections

The Legacy of the China Trade in Massachusetts: The Emergence of a Global Boston

The Legacy of the China Trade in Massachusetts: Families, Fortunes, & Foreign Luxuries

[1] O’Leary, James C. “Red Sox sell Babe Ruth for $100,000 cash.” Boston Globe. 6 January 1920: bostonglobe.com. Web. 29 May 2019

Posted in MHS News

This Week @MHS

The MHS will be closed on Monday, 27 May and Friday, 31 May but we still have a number of programs planned for the week including a brown-bag lunch, an evening talk about Oliver Wendell Holmes, a tour, and a daytime program about the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Here’s a look at what is planned:

On Wednesday, 29 May, at 12:00 PM: The Right to Hail an Officer at Night: Contests of Authority in Occupied Boston with Nicole Breault, University of Connecticut. Who had authority in occupied Boston? The arrival of British regulars and the encounters that followed raised such questions for Boston’s night watch. Using official reports and complaints filed by the night watchmen in November of 1768, this talk explores the logistical and emotional dimensions of occupation at street level.This is part of our brown-bag lunch program. Brown-bags are free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, 29 May, at 6:00 PM: Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, & Ideas with Stephen Budiansky. Oliver Wendell Holmes twice escaped death as a young Union officer in the Civil War when musket balls missed his heart and spinal cord by a fraction of an inch at the Battles of Ball’s Bluff and Antietam. He lived ever after with unwavering moral courage, unremitting scorn for dogma, and an insatiable intellectual curiosity. Named to the Supreme Court by Theodore Roosevelt at age sixty-one, he served for nearly three decades, writing a series of famous, eloquent, and often dissenting opinions that would prove prophetic in securing freedom of speech, protecting the rights of criminal defendants, and ending the Court’s reactionary resistance to social and economic reforms. 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 Saturday, 1 June at 10:00 AM: The History & Collections of the MHS. This is a 90-minute docent-led walk through of our public rooms. The tour is free and open to the public. 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.

On Saturday, 1 June at 3:00 PM: Sale of the Century: How the Red Sox Peddled Babe Ruth to the Yankees with Gordon Edes, Boston Red Sox historian; Jane Leavy; Leigh Montville; and John Thorn, official historian of Major League Baseball. At 24, Babe Ruth was already regarded as one of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball, having helped deliver three World Series titles to the Red Sox in just four seasons. In 1919, he was coming off a season in which he successfully transitioned to outfielder and shattered the Major League record for home runs in a season. Then, on December 26, 1919, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee agreed to sell Ruth to the Yankees for an astronomical sum. In pinstripes, Ruth became the most famous player in baseball history setting a course in which the Yankees won 40 American League pennants and 27 World Series titles. The Red Sox, however, went 86 years without winning a World Series. This drought became known as “The Curse of the Bambino.” Join us as our panel discusses the deal that altered the face of baseball history. A display of Ruth related artifacts will be part of the reception. A pre-talk reception and chance to view the display will begin at 2:00; the speaking program begins at 3:00. There is a $25 per person fee ($10 for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders).

“Can She Do It?”: Massachusetts Debates a Woman’s Right to Vote is open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Featuring dynamic imagery from the collection of the MHS, the exhibition illustrates the passion on each side of the suffrage question. For over a century, Americans debated whether women should vote. The materials on display demonstrate the arguments made by suffragists and their opponents. While women at the polls may seem unremarkable today, these contentious campaigns formed the foundations for modern debates about gender and politics.

Take a look at our calendar page for information about upcoming programs.

Posted in This Week @MHS

Announcing the 2019-2020 MHS Research Fellows

by Katy Morris, Research Coordinator & Book Review Editor

As an institution that has collected since 1791, the MHS offers spectacular opportunities to conduct cutting-edge research on the nation’s past. Our collections consist of manuscripts, portraits and artifacts, photographic images, newspapers, maps, and the personal papers of three presidents. These carefully preserved items lay nestled in their designated folders, boxes, and storage rooms awaiting the curious minds and discerning eyes of scholars who will ask questions that lead to new ways of telling the American story.

Every year, the Research Department at the MHS administers roughly a quarter million dollars in research support to help scholars from all career stages access our remarkable collections. These fellowships range from short-term funding (4-8 weeks) to long-term residency (4 to 12 months). Hundreds of graduate students, historians, literary scholars, art historians, and independent researchers submit their applications for consideration. Our selection committees review these diverse proposals and carefully select the very best for funding. We look for projects that make good use out of our collections, that thoughtfully present their ideas, and that make significant contributions to their particular field of study.

After months of review, we are proud to announce the fellowship winners for the 2019-2020 year. This cohort of fellows explores a wide variety of topics, such as the histories of motherhood, race and citizenship, empire and colonialism, maritime cultures, twentieth-century politics, popular literature, education, domesticity, abolition, Jewish identity, animals and the environment, medicine, and sexuality. Over the next year, these research fellows will travel to the archive to comb through the documents and artifacts that shed light on the past. They will stumble upon new discoveries, labor patiently over seemingly impenetrable records, and spend long hours interpreting the past.

They will also join the humming research community at the MHS. In additional to administering fellowship awards, the Research Department offers a range of programming that bring together academics and the public to workshop research projects, talk shop, and enjoy history together. At brown bag lunch talks and seminar sessions, research fellows will have the opportunity to share their work and connect with other scholars. Keep an eye on our calendar and come join the conversation.

Congratulations to our incoming fellows – we can’t wait to learn more about your work!

MHS Research Fellows, 2019-2020

MHS-NEH Long-Term Fellows

Lauren Duval
American University
The Home/Front: Gender, Domestic Space, & Military Occupation in the American Revolution

Sean Griffin
Lehman College
Labor, Land, and Freedom: Antebellum Labor Reform & the Rise of Antislavery Politics

Peter Wirzbicki
Princeton University
The Abolitionist Nation: An Intellectual History of Nation, Democracy, & Race During Reconstruction, 1863-1877

Kelly O’Donnell
Thomas Jefferson University
Hippocratic Vows: How the Doctor’s Wife Transformed American Medicine

Suzanne & Caleb Loring Fellowship on the Civil War, Its Origins, and Consequences

Kevin Hooper
University of Oklahoma
Seizing Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, & the Pursuit of Citizenship in the Antebellum United States

MHS Short-Term Fellows 2019-2020

African American Studies Fellowship
Aston Gonzalez
Salisbury University
Brilliant Contests: Black Genius during the Long Nineteenth Century

Andrew Oliver Research Fellowship
Chip Badley
University of California, Santa Barbara
The Practiced Eye: Painting & Queer Personhood in Nineteenth-Century America

Benjamin F. Stevens Fellowship
David J. Gerleman
George Mason University
History on the Hoof: New England’s Horse and Cattle Industry During the American Civil War

Conrad & Elizabeth H. Wright Fellowships
Kristen Beales
The College of William & Mary
Thy Will Be Done: Merchants and Religion in Early America, 1720-1815”

Malcolm & Mildred Freiberg Fellowship
Lance Boos
Stony Brook University
Print & Performance: The Development of a British Atlantic Musical Marketplace in the Eighteenth Century

Marc Friedlaender Fellowship
Miriam Liebman
City University of New York
A Tale of Two Cities: American Women in Paris and London, 1780-1800

Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship
Catherine Treesh
Yale University
Creating a Continental Community: Committees of Correspondence & the American Revolution

Military Historical Society of Massachusetts Fellowship
Thomas Rider
University of Wisconsin – Madison
War by Detachment: the Continental Army & Petite Guerre

Ruth R. Miller Fellowships
Abena Boakyewa-Ansah
Vanderbilt University
The Currency of Freedom: Black Women & the Making of Freedom During the American Civil War

Erica Schumann
Binghamton University
A Republic of Numbers: Enumeration and Ideology in the Early American Household

B. H. Dowse Fellowships
Nicholas Garcia
University of California, Davis
The New England Company & the Rise of English Colonialism

James Farwig
Ohio State University
‘Any Indyan which they shall attain to’: Slavery & Early Intercultural Contact in North America and the Caribbean

Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships
Yuri Amano
Johns Hopkins University
Bodies in Pain: The Medical Culture of Sympathy in the United States (1830-1865)

Elizabeth Herbin-Triant
University of Massachusetts Lowell
The Lords of the Lash & Loom: Abolitionists, Anti-Abolitionists, & the Business of Manufacturing Slave-Grown Cotton

Samantha Payne
Harvard University
The Last Atlantic Revolution: Race & Reconstruction in Cuba, Brazil, & the United States, 1865-1912

Patrick Browne
Boston University
The Ordeal of Homecoming: Northern Civilians & the Social Response to the Returning Union Veteran

Matthew Gallman
University of Florida
Loyal Dissenters, Angry Copperheads, & Violent Resisters: The Northern Democratic Party & the American Civil War

Michael D’Alessandro
Duke University
Staged Readings: Contesting Class in Popular American Literature & Theatre, 1830-1875

Todd Whelan
Graduate Theological Union
Calling the Unconverted: Jews, Indians, & Missionary Publishing in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1649-1830

Madeline Zehnder
University of Virginia
Pocket-Sized Nation: Cultures of Portability in America, 1790-1840

Lila Teeters
University of New Hampshire
Native Citizens: The Fight Over Native American Citizenship in the United States, 1866-1924

Louis Leonard Tucker Alumni Fellowship
Hannah Smith
University of Minnesota
The ‘Midwifery Debates’ in Britain & Early America

Yoav Hamdani
Columbia University
Uncle Sam’s Slaves: Slavery in the United States Regular Army, 1797-1865

New England Regional Fellowship Consortium

Asaf Almog
University of Virginia
Looking Backward in a New Republic: Conservative New Englanders & American Nationalism, 1793-1854

Kathryn Angelica
University of Connecticut
Career Activists: Women’s Organization & Social Reform in New England, 1830-1890

Catherine Sasanov
Independent scholar
The Last & Living Words of Mark: Following the Clues to the Enslaved Man’s Life, Afterlife, & to His Community in Boston, Charlestown, & South Shore Massachusetts

Lilian Barger
Independent scholar
A Cultural History of Feminist Thought & the Gender Revolution, 1750-2000

Lucian Bessmer
Harvard University
What Should We Teach Our Teachers? The Changing Educational Priorities in New England, 1950-1990

Nicole Breault
University of Connecticut
The Night Watch of Early Boston

Lily Brewer
University of Pittsburgh
Contemporary Landscape: Photography & the Post-9/11 United States Frontier

Robert S. Bridges
University of Georgia
‘Dragged up hither from the sea’: The New Bedford Whaling Industry & Linkages to Capitalist Development

Emily Clark
Johns Hopkins University
Renouncing Motherhood: Women’s Sexualities & Labors in Eighteenth-Century New England

Christopher Costello
University of California San Diego
A Vast Consolidation: Everyday Agents of Empire, the United States Navy, & the Processes of Pacific Expansion, 1784-1861

Mary Eyring
Brigham Young University
Saltwater: Globalizing Early American Grief

Andrew Fogel
Purdue University
Comics & the Politics of Jewish Identity in America, 1938-1955

Elizabeth Groeneveld
Old Dominion University
Embodying Lesbianism: How 1980s Lesbian-Made Pornography Reimagined Sex & Power

Cory Haala
Marquette University
The Progressive Center: Midwestern Liberalism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992

Amber Hodge
University of Mississippi
The Meat of the Gothic: Animality & Social Justice in United States Fiction & Film of the Twenty-First Century

Chad Holmes
West Virginia University
Sheriffs, Capitalism, & Civil Society in Early Republic New England

Kevin Hooper
University of Oklahoma
Seizing Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, & the Pursuit of Citizenship in the Antebellum United States

Jared Lucky
Yale University
Cattle, Empire, & ‘Cowboys’ in Colonial New England

Matthew Marsh
University of North Dakota
Byzantium in the Long Late Antiquity

John Morton
Boston College
To Settle the Frontier on Sober Principles: Power, Faith, & Nationality in the New England-Maritime Borderlands

Kevin Murphy
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Coercion & Sworn Bond in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic

Minami Nishioka
University of Tennessee Knoxville
Civilizing Okinawa: Intimacies Between the American & Japanese Empires, 1846-1919

Leslie-William Robinson
Brown University
Morale & the Management of Men: The Control, Resistance, & Rebellion of Soldier-Workers in Early Twentieth-Century America

Peter Wirzbicki
Princeton University
The Abolitionist Nation: An Intellectual History of Nation, Democracy, & Race During Reconstruction, 1863-1877

Dylan Yeats
New York University
Shaping Northern Political Culture: Evangelical Networks & the Politics of State Building, 1790-1840

Posted in MHS News

Abigail Adams’s “favorite Scotch song”

By Gwen Fries, Adams Papers

Have you ever wondered what Abigail Adams’s favorite song was? Or maybe you wondered if John and Abigail had a song that was their song. A series of letters written between 1778 and 1787 seems to provide the answer.

Abigail Adams had an established affinity for “Scotch” songs. She was moved by the “Native Simplicity” of the lyrics and thought they had “all the power of a well wrought Tradidy.” While John was overseas serving as a commissioner at Paris, Abigail and her two youngest sons, Charles and Thomas, were fending for themselves in one of the severest winters Braintree had ever known. Abigail’s daughter, Nabby, was staying in Plymouth with friends, and her eldest son, John Quincy, was in France with his father.

“How lonely are my days? How solitary are my Nights?” Abigail wrote to her husband on 27 December 1778. “Secluded from all Society but my two Little Boys, and my domesticks, by the Mountains of snow which surround me . . . I am solitary indeed.” Someone Abigail identified only as a young lady found her in the midst of “a Melancholy hour” and decided to sing to her to cheer her up. That was when Abigail first heard the song “There’s Nae Luck about the House”—a song she would fondly cite again and again over the years.

Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams
Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 27 December 1778

The traditional song, attributed to Jean Adam, tells the story of a wife excitedly greeting her seafaring husband, or “gudeman,” after he’s been “awa’.” Abigail, deeply moved by the sentiments of the song, begged for the music. Her son Charles, then eight years old, learned the song so that he could sing it and console Abigail whenever she needed.

Abigail enclosed the music in one of her letters to John, telling him “It has Beauties in it to me, which an indifferent person would not feel.” She drew out several couplets that she found particularly relatable: “His very foot has Musick in’t, As he comes up the stairs” as well as “And shall I see his face again? And shall I hear him speak?”

On 13 February 1779, when John received the music in France, he was similarly affected. “Your scotch song . . . is a charming one. oh my leaping Heart.”

Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 13 February 1779

Abigail’s affection for the song was shared with her dearest friends. On 15 March 1779, Mercy Otis Warren wrote to her, “You May feelingly join with me and the Bonny Scotch Lass, and Warble the Mournful Chorus from Morn to Eve. Theres Little pleasure in the Rooms When my Good Mans awaw.”

In 1785, when Abigail tried to illustrate to her teenaged niece Lucy the importance of expressing genuine sentiments simply, she referenced the song again. “It is that native simplicity too, which gives to the Scotch songs a merit superior to all others. My favorite Scotch song, ‘There’s na luck about the house,’ will naturally occur to your mind.”

A year later, while living in London, Abigail learned that her family back home in Massachusetts “were all turning musicians.” Her niece was becoming adept at the harpsicord, her nephew had taken up violin, and John Quincy and Charles were learning the flute. “Our young Folks improve fast in their musick,” her sister reported in May 1786. “Two German Flutes, a violin and a harpsicord and two voices form a considerable concert.”

Though she was now reunited with her husband and daughter, Abigail’s family was still separated by the Atlantic Ocean. “Here you would have felt a pleasure which you never experienc’d in a drawing Room at St James,” her sister wrote on 14 July 1786. “To vary our Scene musick is often call’d for . . . and then my sister how do I Wish for you. No one ever injoyd the pleasures of young People more than you use’d too.”

Abigail couldn’t join their late night concerts by the fire, but she came up with a way to make her presence felt. In the winter of 1787, she received a letter from home: “The musical society at Braintree return their thanks for those Scotch Peices of Musick whih you so kindly Sent them.”

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged ,

The 2019 Season of National History Day in Massachusetts

By Elyssa Tardif, Director of Education

The 2019 season of National History Day in Massachusetts is nearing its end, and we are so proud of the 5,900 students who participated across the state as well as their incredible teachers! This year’s theme was “Triumph and Tragedy,” which inspired students to tackle some of the more complex historical moments and figures in history. Projects ranged in topic and include an exhibit on the Harlem Hellfighters; a website on Comfort Women and the Creation of the Korean Council; a performance on the friendship between Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren; and a documentary on the Woburn Cancer Cluster.

This year, 791 students competed in the regional competitions in March, and 333 students competed at the state competition in April. There are 70 students who will compete at the national competition which will take place in College Park, Maryland, in June.

Students presenting at National History Day in Massachusetts
National History Day in Massachusetts student participants

We are very pleased to report that 64 schools participated in the NHD program this year. This is a 20% increase from last year! With generous funding from the Mass Cultural Council and Mass Humanities, we have been able to expand the program by offering introductory workshops to new schools and will continue this work next year to reach even more students and teachers.

We celebrated the National History Day program at the Massachusetts State House on 22 April, in commemoration of the beginning of public education in America that took place in 1635 with the founding of the Boston Latin School. The State House event was sponsored by Rep. Chynah Tyler, and we were joined by our partners at Mass Cultural Council as well as Sen. Jason Lewis, Rep. Alice Peisch, Rep. Elizabeth Poirier, and Rep. Peter Capano.

Photo of 22 April 2019 event at the State House
National History Day celebration at the Massachusetts State House, 22 April 2019

We welcome members of the public to learn more about the NHD program.  There is no better way than to serve as a judge at one of our competitions! Please contact us at education@masshist.org for more information.

Posted in MHS News Tagged

This Week @MHS

We have a Brown-bag lunch program and an evening talk scheduled at the MHS this week. We hope you can join us!

On Wednesday, 22 May, at 12:00 PM: Samuel Hooper, Merchant & Politician with Ann Daly, Brown University. Samuel Hooper is best known as a politician and architect of Civil War era financial reforms like the greenback, but before arriving in Congress, Hooper made a fortune in the China trade. Using Hooper’s papers and published writings, this talk examines how Hooper’s work as a China trader shaped his understanding of the relationship between banking, trade, and democracy; and argues that his time as a merchant directly influenced his later work regulating of banking and currency markets. This is part of our brown-bag lunch program. Brown-bags are free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, 22 May, at 6:00 PM: American States of Nature: The Origins of Independence, 1761-1775 with Mark Somos. In the British colonies, the phrase “state of nature,” or the condition of human beings before or without political association, appeared thousands of times in juridical, theological, medical, political, economic, and other texts from 1630 to 1810. But by the 1760s, a distinctively American state-of-nature discourse started to emerge. In laws, resolutions, petitions, sermons, broadsides, pamphlets, letters, and diaries, the American states of nature came to justify independence at least as much as colonial formulations of liberty, property, and individual rights did. The founding generation transformed this flexible concept into a powerful theme that shapes their legacy to this day. No constitutional history of the Revolution can be written without it. 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).

“Can She Do It?”: Massachusetts Debates a Woman’s Right to Vote is open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Featuring dynamic imagery from the collection of the MHS, the exhibition illustrates the passion on each side of the suffrage question. For over a century, Americans debated whether women should vote. The materials on display demonstrate the arguments made by suffragists and their opponents. While women at the polls may seem unremarkable today, these contentious campaigns formed the foundations for modern debates about gender and politics.

Please note that the MHS will be closed on Saturday, 25 May and Monday, 27 May. Take a look at our calendar page for information about upcoming programs.

Posted in This Week @MHS

The World of Constance Coolidge & Her Infamous Charms

By Rakashi Chand, Reader Services

I have recently embarked on a journey . . . a journey through the papers of Constance Coolidge* (1892-1973). The MHS houses many incredible and fascinating collections yet I am rarely swept up the way that I am with this one. Turning each page of the collection carefully, I am full of eager anticipation to learn what will happen next and have been literally on the edge of my seat!

Constance Crowninshield Coolidge was as Bostonian as one could be. She was a descendant of the Adams, Amory, Coolidge, Copley, Crowninshield, and Peabody families. She even received regular relationship advice from her financial guardian, Uncle Charles Francis Adams (1866-1954), written on his ‘Secretary of the US Navy’ stationary.  I am only just beginning to learn about Constance and her world. Like a fascinated spectator, I am enthralled by her life and her lifestyle, and am falling for her infamous charms—as did all who knew her. Constance was loved by many men and admired by many more. Better than a scene from the Great Gatsby, each letter, item, and photograph in the collection is striking, provocative, sometimes sad, at other times delightful, or simply shocking.

Here is a sampling of some of the letters and photographs along with a postcard and telegraph found in the collection.

On Thursday, 22 November 1923, Felix concludes a letter to Constance with:

“I Love you, sweet Constance, and I can hardly wait to hold you in my arms again. Don’t be angry with me, I really don’t deserve it. Can’t we dine together Saturday night?

Devotedly,

Felix”

Letter to Constance from Felix
Letter from Felix written 22 November 1923

Just a few days later, on Saturday, 24 November 1923, Constance receives a letter from Eric (roughly transcribed):

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I believe more that it won’t affect you much, You haven’t even taken the time to answer my last cable, and I’m beginning to think you are incapable of feeling anything serious, or of realizing how much you hurt others. Perhaps, however, you don’t read my letters or cables any longer. I have your telegraph and also a most pitiful letter from mother. How she came to know is a mystery – I never told her anything.

For her sake I suppose I suppose I must try [—-] myself and find a job that will keep her alive. If it were not for her I should have no hesitation in killing myself.

It seems impossible to make you feel anything but in case it may make you think twice before treating some other unhappy man in the same way, I [—] you that you have broken my heart and any belief  I ever had in human nature.

Remembering what we have been to each other and the hours we have spent together, it is impossible to imagine how you could have brought yourself to do this & in this way.

Your letters are too numerous to return, so I am destroying them. Your [aunts] charm and the watch you gave me I shall send to you.

I should try to forget you altogether, but it would be useless because I still love you. In a new life without friends, beliefs or hopes of any kind, my memories of the racecourse and of will be all that
I have left.

In spite of everything I love you – you may not believe, but I do.

I love you Constance

Eric”

Letter from Eric to Constance
Letter from Eric written 24 November 1923

And those are just two letters, from two lovers, who not only had affairs with Constance, but were completely and wholeheartedly in love with her. She had begun affairs with both of these young men while in still in China as the wife of diplomat Ray Atherton. However, they were not her first. Love letter after love letter can be found in the folders of this collection. Love is also found in the letters of friends and relatives, proof that there was something very special about Constance. Frequently in the limelight and sometimes in the news-paper, as is often the way in high Society, Constance was criticized for her un-lady like ways. She enjoyed things that were typically reserved for men such as horse racing and gambling. Yet, she could care less about what people would say about her and went on living her own independent life.

Biographers often seek this collection, and once you begin to read the letters, the reason quickly becomes apparent. Constance was more than a Boston Brahmin, a Femme Fatale, and  world-travelling heiress that lived a life reserved for fiction. She was charm encapsulated in a female figure. She was simply irresistible and she rarely resisted. This, of course had its consequences. A letter dated 8 July 1921 from the wife of Frank Fearon clearly demonstrates:

“ Before your questions could you define friendship for me, not the kind mentioned on paper, but the real thing?

Is it friendship when a woman sneaks off with another woman’s husband for half of the night, without a word to the wife and leaving the latter to find her way home the best she can?

Is it friendship for a woman to who pretends to be another woman’s friend to continually write to the latter’s husband addressing the letter to his office, when he has a home?

Is it friendship where a woman knows she has hurt her so called friend, by carrying on with her husband, to continue hurting her by the same method? …”

Letter written to Constance from Mrs. Fearon
Letter from Mrs. Fearon written 07-08-1921

While Constance loved Felix, and trailed Eric along, she also had an affair and deep friendship with Harry Crosby. In fact, her photograph was in Harry’s wallet the day he committed murder-suicide with another one of his lovers. Constance was also friends with Caress, Harry’s wife. The affair between Harry and Constance was one of the only affairs that bothered Caress (they had a very open marriage).  Perhaps this was because of the emotional connection?

Constance’s social circles and influence brought her in contact with suitors from far and wide. When the famed author H. G. Wells met Constance, the beautiful Boston Belle, he too fell under her spell. The collection contains 46 letters from H. G. Wells to Constance. Some poke fun of her Boston accent as she would walk her “dorg” in the morning.

H. G. Wells letter to Constance
Letter from H. G. Wells written March 13, 1935

Constance’s true loves were her horses and horse racing. She took great pride in her award-winning stables and in her success in a field rarely entered by women. Below are some wonderful photographs that Constance sent to her grandmother in a letter that reflect her happiness and joy. As well, they feature her irresistible smile.

Three photos of Constance and her horses
Photos Constance sent to her grandmother

Here is a wonderful postcard Constance sent to her father of herself and Katherine Rogers on the beach in their bathing suits.

Constance and Katherine Rogers on the beach
Constance and Katherine Rogers on the beach

Constance and Katherine were mutual friends with another fascinating woman, Wallis Simpson, The Duchess of Windsor. Letter from the Duchess also appear in this collection.

Wallis Simpson note to Constance
Note from Wallis Simpson

And finally, I would like to share one of many telegraphs in the collection. This is perhaps the most entertaining telegraph I have ever come across.

Telegram sent to Constance
Telegram from Felix

My exploration of this collection and this incredible woman are only just beginning. Stay tuned for further findings and more wonderful pieces from the world of Constance!

*The papers of Constance Coolidge are part of the Crowninshield-Magnus Papers at the MHS.

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“They Dont Stop for Meetinghouses Nor Anything Else”: The Civil War Letters of Dwight Emerson Armstrong, Part II

By Susan Martin, Processing Archivist & EAD Coordinator

This is the second post in a series. Part I can be found here.

On 16 July 1861, after a month at the Hampden Park training camp in Springfield, Mass., the men of the 10th Massachusetts Infantry began their journey South. Among them was Private Dwight Emerson Armstrong, whose letters to his sister Mary were recently acquired by the MHS.

The regiment passed through Medford, Mass., where they camped on the banks of the Mystic River at what Dwight called Camp McClellan. (Regimental histories by Joseph K. Newell and Alfred S. Roe use the name Camp Adams; the land had once belonged to John Quincy Adams.) This location was practically idyllic compared to Hampden Park, but the respite was short-lived. Just five days later, the first major battle of the Civil War broke out.

Photo of destroyed stone bridge
Carte-de-visite photograph of stone bridge destroyed in First Battle of Bull Run (Photo. #3.806)

The First Battle of Bull Run, known to the Confederates as the First Battle of Manassas, was fought near Manassas, Va. on 21 July 1861. Dwight heard via telegraph that “the rebels were beaten and 1500 stand of arms taken and a 1000 prisioners.” But these initial reports were wrong—the battle was a terrible loss for the Union Army, and the 10th Regiment was ordered to move to Virginia sooner than anticipated. Dwight gamely told his sister Mary, “I hope we shall not have to stay a great while and I don’t beleive it is going to be a long war.”  On 23 July, he wrote his last letter before leaving Massachusetts, closing with “about 900 pounds” of love to his nieces Annie and Jennie.

By 28 July, Dwight and his regiment had reached the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard. He described to Mary the steamer journey up the Potomac River, between the Confederate state of Virginia and the border state of Maryland. He saw a few masked rebel batteries, Mount Vernon (“a most beautiful place”), and “two or three old dillapidated looking negroes,” but no enemy soldiers so far.

In fact, Dwight was preoccupied with and angry about the army’s provisions, which consisted entirely of hard bread and rotten ham…for the enlisted men. He blamed Quartermaster John W. Howland and the commander of the regiment, Colonel Henry S. Briggs. It wouldn’t be the last time he wrote in such defiant tones.

I know it is a serious offence to say anything about our officers but I don’t care when I get mad and I will say that we have got a Quarter-master that don’t know enough to go in when it rains and a Col. that so long as he can keep his own contemptible old stomach full of beef steak don’t care what his men have to eat.

The next letter in the collection is dated 12 September, more than six weeks later. By this time, the 10th Regiment had settled at Camp Brightwood (a.k.a. Fort Massachusetts, a.k.a. Fort Stevens) in northwest Washington, D.C., which would be its home for seven months. Brightwood was one of dozens of encampments constructed during the war to improve the capital’s defenses. In one interesting passage, Dwight described building fortifications, which necessitated the destruction of a local church.

We have been at work for sometime past building batterries; and have not got through yet by considerable. It is a great deal of work to build them but there are a great many to do it. […] The first one we built has got a good brick meetinghouse inside of it. It stood on a hill right where they wanted the battery so the meetinghouse has got to be pulled down. […] It seems a pity to take it down for the heathen want it or at least need it as bad as they do any where but in war time they dont stop for meetinghouses nor anything else.

This church, the Emory United Episcopal Church, whose bricks were literally pulled down and used to build the fort, was later rebuilt and operates today as the Emory Fellowship. Fort Stevens is a national park, and some of its earthworks still exist.

Dwight was optimistic about the outcome of the war, felt safe at Camp Brightwood, and was adjusting fairly well to military service, despite the nits and cockroaches that were, in his words, “just like the Southerners never satisfied with what they have got but always want more territory.” The food had even improved since the “Quartermaster was very Providentially taken sick.”

He’d seen no combat yet, but every once in a while an alarm was raised, and the troops were “tumbled out of [their] tents” and held in readiness to march at a moment’s notice. None of these alarms had come to anything, and Dwight found the whole thing kind of amusing.

It is curious how anyone can get used to almost anything so as to not mind anything about it. […] They were having a battle only a few miles off and we could hear the cannons thundering away almost as plainly as if we had been there but we had got so used to disturbances of this sort that no one minded anything about it and all laid down with their guns beside them and went to sleep as quietly as though they were a thousand miles from any danger.

Please join me for the next installment of Dwight’s story!

Signature line of letter from Dwight Armstrong to Mary Armstrong
Detail of letter from Dwight Armstrong to Mary (Armstrong) Needham, 12 Sep. 1861
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This Week @MHS

Here is a look at what is happening at the MHS this week:

On Tuesday, 14 May, at 6:00 PM: Boston Women Designers: Then & Now with Mikyoung Kim, Tamara Roy, Regan Shields Ives, Justine Orlando, and moderator Catherine Allgor. Join us for a conversation with women working in architecture, design, and planning. They will explore social and political landscapes for women designers in Boston today and when they got started, some challenges they overcame to get to where they are today, how Boston compares with other cities on the topic of gender equity, and if Boston is receptive to women in leadership roles. 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 Wednesday, 15 May, at 12:00 PM: Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: Black Children’s Cultural & Political Resistance with Crystal Webster, University of Texas at San Antonio. This talk examines the lives of African American children in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston during the late-18th to early-20th centuries by focusing on Black children’s labor, play, and schooling. It argues that northern Black children intersected shifting constructions of race and childhood, as a group upon which society experimented with treatments of the newly recognized social category of the child, and came to terms with the social and economic place of the nascent free Black community. This is part of our brown-bag lunch program. Brown-bags are free and open to the public.

On Thursday, 16 May, at 6:00 PM: Fenway Fans with Richard Flavin, Bill Nowlin, and Larry Ruttman. Red Sox poet laureate Dick Flavin, author Bill Nowlin, and chronicler of Red Sox history Larry Ruttman will gather to share stories and reminisce about some of the highs and lows in the thousands of Red Sox games they have attended. With the joy of winning the World Series fresh in our memory, these stalwart fans and prolific scribes will tell of behind-the-scenes moments not often heard. And, perhaps a mystery guest will be there! Bring your own story to tell. 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 Saturday, 18 May at 10:00 AM: The History & Collections of the MHS. This is a 90-minute docent-led walk through of our public rooms. The tour is free and open to the public. 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.

“Can She Do It?”: Massachusetts Debates a Woman’s Right to Vote is open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Featuring dynamic imagery from the collection of the MHS, the exhibition illustrates the passion on each side of the suffrage question. For over a century, Americans debated whether women should vote. The materials on display demonstrate the arguments made by suffragists and their opponents. While women at the polls may seem unremarkable today, these contentious campaigns formed the foundations for modern debates about gender and politics.

Take a look at our calendar page for information about upcoming programs.

Posted in This Week @MHS

George Hyland’s Diary, May 1919

By Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services

Today, we return to the diary of George Hyland. If this is your first time encountering our 2019 diary series, catch up by reading the January, February, March, and April 1919 installments first!

As the growing season commences in earnest, George’s labor increases and diversifies beyond chopping and hauling wood. In May he spends time at multiple households mowing lawns, trimming walks, planting flowers, pruning trees, and weeding vegetables. In addition to being paid in cash, he also earns half a rhubarb pie, half a jar of pear preserves, and ten doughnuts. He is also often fed dinner and supper, and nearly always tea with milk. His routine is punctuated in May by a trip to Boston on the 6th, where he does some banking, eats lunch at a restaurant near Rowe’s Wharf, and catches an airshow above Boston harbor. “They turned over,” George reports,  “made summersaults (end over end) dove down straight, and went up straight in the air. Some of them dove down in spiral form. When they were very high in the air they looked like a flock of hawks.”

Without further ado, join George on his daily rounds during May 1919.

* * *

PAGE 329 (cont’d)

May 1. Par. clou. to cloudy. W.S., S.E. a few sprinkles in aft. Worked 5 1/2 hours for A.E. Litchfield improving […] 11 1/2 hours in all. 300.  Called at Uncle Samuel’s late in aft. had supper there. Grace Whiting (nee Lee) and little girl there. Stanley Dorr called there to take them home in auto. He has lately returned from California. Light rain in eve.

2d. Fine weather tem. 44-66; W.S.W. In aft. worked 2 1/4 hours for Mrs. Salome Litchfield — dug up garden. Late in aft. went to N. Scituate — called at Charlie’s. Had supper there. Walked down and back. Fine eve. N. Light’s in eve. Conj. of Venus and moon.

3d. Worked 5 hours or Mrs. Salome Litchfield — 7 1/4 hours in all — 1.75. Early in eve. went to N. Scituate. Got some eggs there for Uncle Samuel — He gave me 10 cts. Mrs. S. L. gave me 1/2 jar of pear preserves and 10 doughnuts.

4th. (Sun.) Warm weather; W.S.; tem. 54-76. Clear to par. clou. Eve. par. Clou. 11:30 P.M., Lightening N. of here. Cloudy.

5th. Worked 7 1/4 hours for Walter and Mrs. Emma H. Sargent (nee E.H. Bailey) — 210.  Helped Mrs. S. make a garden — round garden — about 11 ft. in circum. Then I mowed the lawn, trimmed the grass around the house, then worked on the driveway. Wheeled off 1 load of sod and about 10 loads of stones and coal cinders. Had dinner there. Walked down ret. — rode 1 3/4 miles with Lemuel Hardwick — in auto. Very warm weather, tem. 48-86; W.S.W. wind changed to N.W. about 6:40 P.M. Light rain, did not get very wet. Thunder tempest S. of here in eve. E.F.S. very […] 10:45 P.M. par. Clou. […]

6th. Went to Boston. bought a $50 U.S. Bond — (5th) Victory Liberty Loan. Paid $10 to-day — will pay the balance $40 as soon as I can. got my 4th L.B. to-day at the state St. […] Bank. Walked to N. Scituate then rode to Black Rock Sta. (Cohasset) with Harry Pratt, then tr. to Boston on tr. return went to Pemberton (Hull) on the Steamer “Betty Alden” (725 tons) then tr. to Nantasket. Staid there about 1 1/2 hours then walked to N. Cohasset then tr. to N. Scituate — rode 1 3/4 miles with Arthur E. Litchfield. Had supper at Uncle Samuel’s. While at Nantasket I visited Paragon Park. Had lunch at Plakia’s restaurant off Rowe’s Wharf. Clear. Very cool — tem. 47-54. W.N.E., S.E. Eve. clear. Very cool. 7 aeroplanes were in the air over Boston. They had a sham battle in the air — They turned over, made summersaults (end over end) dove down straight, and went up straight in the air. Some of them dove down in spiral form. When they were very high in the air they looked like a flock of hawks. Most of them were sea planes, and came there from the Sta. at Chatham, Mass. Saw the Met Line Stem. “North Land,” and Stem. “Gov. Dingley.”

7th. Weeded and hoed rhubarb plants 6 hours for W.O.Clapp. […] par. clou. to clou. W.S.W. began to rain about 3:30 P.M. Shower at times. tem. To-day about 40-62.

8th. Weeded and hoed rhubarb plants 7 hours for W.O.C. — had supper there. Cool. W.N.W.N.E. Saw a Star Shell in eve. Same as used in the late war to light […].

PAGE 330

May 9. Weeded and hoed rhubarb plants 6 1/2 hours for Will Clapp. Par. clou. to cloudy; W.N.E., S.E. Very damp eve. par. clou.

10th. Weeded and hoed rhubarb 5 1/2 hours for W.O. Clapp. Forenoon cou. very damp. cold. W.E. began to rain about 3 P.M. rain all eve W.E.

11th. Cold storm — rain all day and eve.; W.N.E.; tem. About 38. Early in eve. went to Fred Litchfield’s and bought 2 loaves of bread. Cold and windy day and eve.

12th. Cold storm, light rain all day and eve. W.N.E. tem. 48. Chopped wood (in woodhouse) 2 1/2 hours for Mrs. Salome Litchfield — 40. Had dinner there. 11:15 P.M. still raining. Windy.

13th. Weeded and hoed rhubarb plants and carried off the weeds and grass (dog grass) 3 1/4 hours for W.O. Clapp — 28 1/4 hours in all — 7.00. Late in aft. went to N. Scituate rode 1 mile with Archie Mitchell — ret. rode 1/3 mile with Liba Litchfield and 1 1/4 mile with a man in auto (a Russian). Fine weather, clear; W.N.E., S.E., tem. About 44-52. Fine eve.

14th. Worked 7 1/2 hours for Mrs. Ethel Torrey (nee Speare) on flower gardens and front walk. 2.25. Carried my dinner. Walked down — ret. rode to Comcasset Hall with Henry Newcomb — then rode 1/2 mile with Frank Bates. Warm weather, W.S.W.; tem. 55-80. Wind changed to N.E. late in night. Cold and windy. Mrs. Emma Sargent stopped where I was working and said she would like to have me work for her to-morrow. [half a line scratched out]

15th. Worked 6 hours for Mrs. Emma Sargent — mowing lawn, trimming walks and […] she worked with me — is a very nice gardener. X 180. Carried a lunch — she gave some tea, milk, and other things. Rode down with Mr. Samuel Benson — junk dealer. ret. rode 1 3/4 miles with Albert Litchfield. Cold and windy. tem. About 40-6. W.N.E. gave Mrs. Ethel Torrey 2 Canterbury Bell, and 2 foxglove plants — carried them there this A.M. and transplanted them for her. Bought a new watch yesterday at Mrs. Seavern’s store. 1.25. Belva C. Merritt wound and set it for me. Eve. cloudy. cold. W.E.

16th. Fair W.N.E., S.E., tem. clou. 48-58. In aft. Worked 4 hours for Mrs. Salome Litchfield — cleared up a very large grape vine (cut it all down) and trimmed a cherry tree. — 100. Eve. cloudy; W.S.E. very damp. Some fog.

17th. Worked 5 ½ hours for Mrs. Emma F. Sargent — 1.65. Had dinner there. Cloudy until about 9:30 A.M., W.S.E. Aft., fair; W.S.W. windy. tem. About 46-68. Walked down — ret. rode 1 1/4 miles with Galen Watson in auto. Had supper at Uncle Samuel’s. Began to rain about 6:30 P.M. Rain all eve. Thunder storm S. of here. Mrs. S. worked with me in garden.

18th. (Sun.) Fine weather, clear; tem. About 47-67; W.S.W., N.W.

19th. Worked 4 hours for Mrs. Salome Litchfield — 1.00. Fine weather, tem. About 50-69; W.N.W.; S.W.; clear. Made a trellis for grape vines and did other work. B.D.P.B.B. 2W. Fine eve. Mrs. S.L. gave me 1/2 rhubarb pie — gave me a plate of mashed potatoes.

20th. Worked 6 hours for Mrs. M.E. Seaverns chopping up boxes, barrels, etc., and mowing lawn, trimming grass in front of house and store — 1.80. Fine weather. W.N.W. in forenoon — S.E. in aft. tem. About 48-69. Carried a lunch — Mrs. S. gave me some tea and milk. Walked down — ret. rode 1 1/2 miles with Hubert Harriman. Fine eve. Paul spent eve. Here. 11 P.M., clou., W.S.E.

21st. Worked 6 hours for Mrs. Seaverns — mowing, chopping up old barrels and housing the wood, made a garden and transplanted 3 foxglove, 3 Canterbury bell, 3 Hollihock, and about 15 cornflower plants (from my garden) — for Mrs. S. — 1.80. Mrs. Emma Sargent and her mother Mrs. Bailey called to see if I will work for Mrs. B. Walked down. — ret. — rode 1 mile

PAGE 331

with Margaret and Mother Brown in auto. Cloudy, damp. W.S.E. Carried my dinner. Eve. clou., foggy; W.S.E. to E. rain in night.

22nd. Rainy nearly all day. W.S.E.

May 21. Sergt. Alvin C. York, Co. 328th Inf. (U.S.N.A.) […] in New York. While he as in the great war (about 6 month) he k. 25 Germans, captured 132, and destroyed (or cap.) 32 German machine guns. Was the 82nd U.S. Div. 2nd Corps. U.S. Army. 45 off. And 780 men of the 82nd Div. Arr. to-day — from Fr. 82nd Div. Com. by Maj. Gen. Geo. P. Duncan — he said it’s true about Sergt. York. York belongs in Pall Mall, Tenn. The 82nd Div. is composed of men from Tenn., Ala., and Ga.

23rd. Worked 6 hours for Mrs. M. E. Seaverns — 180. Walked down — ret. rode 1 mile with George Hardwick in auto. Fine weather, W.S.W. to W. Clear. Tem. about […] Have sold 3 hollihock [sic], 3 Can. bell, 3 foxglove, and about 15 cornflower plants [two half lines crossed out] and 1 Calio[…] plants to Mrs. Seaverns — 100. Gave Mrs. Emma F. Sargent 2 Can. bell and 1 foxglove plants — carried them to her this A.M. and transplanted them for her. Carried my dinner. Mrs. S. gave me some tea — with milk. Fine eve. Called at Uncle Samuel’s — had lunch there Mrs. Fernald there.

24th. Worked 7 hours for Mrs. M. G. Seaverns — mowing, raking, grass, trimming around currant bushes and etc. — 210. Very warm and muggy. par. clou. in aft. W.S.W. rode 2 miles with Harry Brown and his mother in auto. H. just arr. from [sic] home from France — has been in the Great War — was in the U.S. Army over a year — in the 306th Field Art. 77th (N.Y.) Div., 2nd Corps. One of the ^best [inserted] Divisions in the army. Carried my dinner to-day. Walked home. Eve. clou. Warm. Light rain at times.

25th. (Sun.) rain at times all day. Thunder tempest S.W. of here late in aft. Eve. clear. W.N.W.

26th Worked 6 1/2 hours for Mrs.Salome Litchfield — 162. Had dinner there. Warm. par. Clou. Very windy. N.W. Eve. par. Clou.

27th. Worked 5 hours for Mrs. Eudora Bailey (Mrs. Emma F. Sargent’s mother) — 100. Walked down ret. rode back with Albert Litchfield. Fair. Warm and damp. Carried my dinner — Mrs. Bailey gave me some tea and milk. Paul s pent eve. here.

28th Worked 5 hours for Mrs. Bailey. 100. Fine weather. Clear. W.S.E. rode 2 miles with Albert Litchfield — ret. rode 2 miles with Lemuel Hardwick — in auto. Stopped and worked 1/2 hour on father’s lot in Mt. Hope Cem. fine eve. Hired box no. 2, at N. Scituate P.O. paid $300 due to the So. Scituate Bank — paid $800 for rent of the James place for June 1919. Have hired the place. Did all these things this A.M. — before I went to work. Carried my dinner — Mrs. B. gave me some tea and milk. […] in eve.

29th. Worked 6 hours for Peter W. Sharpe — mowing in X field, helped him spray his orchard and set up 30 bean poles. Had dinner there, fine dinner. X 150. Very hot weather tem. About 69-92. W.N. to N. W. Walked down ret. road near home with Margaret E. Brown in auto. last part of the way. Eve. hazy. An aeroplane passed over the house about 7 P.M.

30th. (Decoration Day) Worked 2 hours for Mrs. M. G. Seaverns — 60. Also worked some on the James place — in garden. Walked down. Late in aft. Went to Hingham Cen. at Henrietta’s — had supper there. ret. to N. Scituate on 7:15 tr. walked home. Walked 12 miles to-day. Went to Mt. Hope Cem. in morning — put flowers on graves of father and mother, grandfather Hyland and grandmother Hyland — also  my […] grandmother H. (his 2nd wife), also on aunt Emeline’s grave. Little Esther and Marion’s graves (Emeline’s children), Charlie’s children — (Edward and Olive) and on my great-grandmother’s grave (nee Lois Ellines) —

PAGE 332

and her 2nd husband […] G.A.R. there with band and S. of V. Boy Scouts and Soldiers of the Great War. Fred Jackson, Scituate Cen. Very fine weather, W.N.E., clear. Fine eve. Charles, Lucy, and Daisy on some […].

31st. Worked 7 hours for Peter W. Sharpe. Hoeing garden, potatoe [sic], corn, and pea and tomatoe [sic] plants — 163. Had dinner and supper there. After supper Peter, Nellie, and I moved (poled) some hay and put it all in one large pile. Walked down, rode home with Peter; Ella (Mrs. S.), Margery and Nellie in their auto. Very fine weather, W.N.E. and S.E. clear eve. clear. damp.

* * *

If you are interested in viewing the diary in person in our library or have other questions about the collection, please visit the library or contact a member of the library staff for further assistance.

*Please note that the diary transcription is a rough-and-ready version, not an authoritative transcript. Researchers wishing to use the diary in the course of their own work should verify the version found here with the manuscript original. The catalog record for the George Hyland’s diary may be found here. Hyland’s diary came to us as part of a collection of records related to Hingham, Massachusetts, the catalog record for this larger collection may be found here.

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