Here is a look at the virtual events we have planned this week:
On Tuesday, 1 February, at 5:15 PM: The American Funding with Katie Moore, University of California, Santa Barbara; Ann Daly, Mississippi State University; and comment by Simon Middleton, The College of William & Mary.
This panel discussion will consider two papers on the history of money from the mid-18th through the early 19th centuries. Katie Moore’s essay will examine the political, economic, and monetary preconditions that informed the colonial Massachusetts land bank “controversy.” While previous scholars have linked the land bank to parallel events such as the Great Awakening or to the coming of the American Revolution, this paper reappraises it as a solution to the dull demand for labor that shaped Massachusetts’ economic decline after Queen Anne’s War and imperial restrictions that prohibited the colony from issuing its own currency after 1741. Ann Daly’s essay will then consider the cultural construction of monetary value in the antebellum US through two approaches to valuing individual coins. Known as the ‘science of real money,’ the first was a system of scientific analysis developed by federal scientists at the US Mint for elite capitalists. At the same time, lower-class Americans developed a competing, sensory approach to assessing coinage. Whether they deployed scientific assessment or embodied inquiry, all Americans needed to gather knowledge to protect themselves from bad money. This event is part of the Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar series. Register for this online event.
On Thursday, 3 February, at 3:30 PM: MHS Mid-Year Fellows Meeting.
MHS Fellows are invited to this mid-year meeting to discuss proposed bylaws changes and vote. All elected MHS Fellows are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be held online and in-person so that more people can participate in the discussion. Please note, that only those participating in-person will be able to vote. Register to attend online or register to attend in person.
Visit www.masshist.org/events for a complete schedule of events. If you missed a program or would like to revisit the material presented, please visit www.masshist.org/video or our YouTube channel. A selection of past programs is just a click away.