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The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 16 April, for Patiots’ Day/Marathon Monday. Enjoy the race!

After the holiday we get right back into the public events here at the MHS. Here are the details:

– Tuesday, 17 April, 5:30PM : This week’s seminar, part of the History of Women and Gender series, is “Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the High School U. S. History Curriculum: A Conversation.” This panel discussion, featuring university faculty, secondary educators, and activist curriculum specialists, aims to seed an ongoing discussion between high school and post-secondary instructors of American history about gendering the U.S. History curriculum. What topics in women’s and gender history and in the history of sexuality get covered when, where, and how? How can college- and university-based scholars do more to connect their work with high school classrooms? How are secondary educators—and their students—advancing and reshaping the field? This program takes place at the Fay House, Radcliffe Institute, in Cambridge.

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Tuesday, 17 April, 6:00PM : What fuels a family’s compulsion for philanthropy? Charitable giving is an intrinsic part of our culture and its story can be told through a colorful, multifaceted family whose actions mirror America’s attitudes towards giving. Between 1638 and today, the Browns of Rhode Island have provided community leaders, endowed academic institutions, and transformed communities through art and architecture. However, they also have wrestled with society’s toughest issues slavery, immigration, child labor, inequality and with their own internal tensions. Sylvia Brown, of the family’s 11th generation, and Edward Widmer will explore this story in “Grappling with Legacy.”

This program is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception starts at 5:30PM, followed by the conversation at 6:00PM.

– Thursday, 19 April, 6:00PM : What would the week be without some talk of the first shots of the American Revolution? “Lexington & Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World” is an author talk with George C. Daughan who will discuss his recent book by the same name on the anniversary of those pivotal events. The mounting political tensions that ignited the battles of Lexington and Concord are critical to the narrative of the American Revolution. However, the economic forces that propelled these iconic battles are another vital part of this history. When Benjamin Franklin wrote home describing the living conditions in Britain and Ireland, his country men were appalled. Could the Crown’s motive be to reduce the prosperous American colonies to such serfdom? This threat inspired the vast turnout of Patriot militiamen that so shocked the British and led the colonists to victory in the first armed conflictsof the War of Independence.

This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception starts at 5:30PM, followed by the conversation at 6:00PM.

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It is a quiet week ahead at the Society as we lead into a long weekend. Here are the programs on the schedule for coming week:

– Tuesday, 10 April, 5:15PM : This week’s seminar is part of the Environmental History series and features Andrew Robichaud of Boston University, with David Spanagel of Worcester Polytechnic Institute providing comment. “The Ice Trade: Frederic Tudor’s ‘Slippery Speculation’” reexamines the emergence and development of the ice trade in Boston and North America, described in 1806 by the Boston Gazette as a “slippery speculation.” What can the ice trade tell us about environmental, economic, political, and spatial change in nineteenth-century Boston and North America?

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Wednesday, 11 April, 12:00PM : Stop by at noon on Wednesday for a Brown Bag lunch talk with Kimberly Blockett of Pennsylvania State University at Brandywine, whose talk is titled “#sayhername: Recovering the Itinerant Ministry of Zilpha Elaw, 1820-1873.” During the Second Great Awakening, almost all denominations discouraged female preachers. Of course, some women did it anyway. Elaw ignored her husband and clergy, faced significant danger, and preached from Maine to Virginia. Then famous, now Elaw and her published Memoirs are mostly unknown. Blockett will discuss the silences of race and gender in the archive. This talk is free and open to the public.

The exhibition Yankees in the West is now CLOSED. The exhibition galleries remain closed through the month of April as we prepare for our next exhibit, Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825, which opens to the public on Friday, 11 May.

Please note that the Society is CLOSED on Monday, 16 April, in observance of Patriots’ Day.

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It’s a new month and here at the Society we keep on rolling with our public programs. This is what we have on tap in the week ahead:

– Tuesday, 3 April, 5:15PM : Brendan McConville of Boston University starts the week with an Early American History seminar, “Terror Twice Told: Popular Conventions, Political Violence, and the Coming of the Constitutional Crisis, 1780-1787.” This paper argues that the wave of political violence after the American victory at Yorktown in 1781 ultimately reflected conflicts within the American political community over who could be an American, what institutions constituted “the people” in a republic, and the character and limits of the “the people’s” power to form self-governing institutions. These disputes played an important role in creating the 1787 constitutional crisis.

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Wednesday, 4 April, 12:00PM : This week’s Brown Bag lunch talk is given by research fellow Natalie Joy of Northern Illinois University. “Native Americans in the Antislavery Movement” explores Native American participation in the American antislavery movement from the 1830s to the 1860s. In addition to attending meetings, Indians signed petitions, donated money, organized fundraising fairs, held positions in antislavery societies, and assisted fugitive slaves. Most significantly, they influenced abolitionist thought on a number of issues. This talk is free and open to the public.

– Wednesday, 4 April, 6:00PM : “Private Land” is the first event in a new series called This Land is Your Land. Some of the early efforts to preserve open space for the physical and spiritual benefits offered by access to nature came from private organizations. Mount Auburn Cemetery was the first large-scale designed landscape open to the public in North America and as such began the rural cemetery movement that later led to public parks. In 1853 the Laurel Hill Association was founded in Stockbridge, inspiring a national Village Improvement Society movement. Later generations have benefited from the first private, statewide conservation and preservation organization, The Trustees of Reservations. Historic New England has saved traditional farms and Mass Audubon and other private organizations preserve and manage open space across the state. How common is this preservation by private organizations? How sustainable is this concept for future generations? This talk is open to the public though registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows, EBT Cardholders, and Members of Co-Sponsoring Institutions). A pre-talk reception kicks-off at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

– Thursday, 5 April, 6:00PM : “Distilling Boston: From the Colonial Period to the Present” is a special event for MHS Fund Giving Circle Members, Fellows, and Members, who are invited to a lively evening that explores the culture and history of alcohol consumption in Boston. Using illustrations, photos, and multimedia clips, Stephanie Schorow will speak about Boston’s drinking history beginning in the colonial period, continuing through Prohibition and into the current craft cocktail scene. Following the talk, enjoy a reception, sample cocktails, and continue the conversation. Registration required at no cost. This progam begins at 6:00PM.

This is the final week to view our current exhibition, Yankees in the West! The exhibit closes on Friday, 6 April. The next exhibition, Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825, opens to the public on 11 May.

There is no building tour this week.

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After three straight weeks with canceled programs or weather-induced closures, here is hoping that the last week of March lets us exit the month like a lamb. This is the slate of programs coming in the week ahead:

– Tuesday, 27 March, 5:15PM : First up this week is a seminar from the Modern American Society and Culture series with John Bezis-Selfa of Wheaton College, titled “La Villania Arizoniana: Disenfranchisement, Citizenship, and Defining the Body Politic in the Early 20th-Century US-Mexico Borderlands.” In 1909 and 1912, the Arizona legislature enacted requirements that all voters be literate in English, sparking a storm of multilingual protests in the papers and the courts. How and why Anglo-Arizonans took the right to vote from thousands of Mexican-American men and how Spanish-speakers fought back shows how conflicting views of race and ethnicity have influenced citizenship in the U.S.’s southwestern borderlands. Alex Keyssar of the Harvard Kennedy School provides comment. 

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Wednesday, 28 March, 12:00PM : Jaclyn Schultz of University of California at Santa Cruz leads this week’s Brown Bag lunch talk, “Learning the Values of a Dollar: Childhood & Cultures of Economy, 1825-1900.” Nineteenth-century children rarely had access to money, even when they worked. Yet, several forms of authority instructed children in specific expectations of spending, saving, and giving. This talk explores how and why children were taught to interact with and value financial resources as well as how these lessons were racialized. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Thursday, 29 March, 6:00PM : Protest & Citizenship is a panel discussion with Stephen Kantrowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Crystal Feimster, Yale University; John Stauffer, Harvard University; and Chad Williams, Brandeis University. Throughout American history many groups have struggled to establish their rights as citizens. While the United States was a grand experiment in republican government, in the beginning only a small percentage was allowed to participate. Over time, citizenship has grown, but this has often not been a simple or a smooth process. This talk explores this history of citizenship and protest. How have groups throughout American history used agitation to help change the dialog about their position as citizens? How can this history help inform our views and reactions to the changing political climate we see today?

This talk is open to the public, though registration is required. PLEASE NOTE – PEOPLE REGISTERING FOR THIS PROGRAM AFTER 3/15/18 MAY BE ASKED TO SIT IN OVERFLOW SEATING (The overflow seating is on the same floor, one room over with a live video feed).

This program is made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities. 

– Saturday, 31 March, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Tour is 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.

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Yankees in the West. 

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It is the middle of the month and it appears that the lion of March is not making way for the lamb. Below is the round-up of events in the week to come, just be sure to keep an eye on our website to ensure that the event you want to attend is not affected by weather-related closures. 

– Tuesday, 20 March, CANCELED : This week’s seminar, “On Fantasy,” is canceled due to illness.

– Tuesday, 20 March, 6:00PM : People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, & A New Movement for City Making is the new book by Karilyn Crockett, who will be on-hand for this author talk. In 1948, inspired by changes to federal law, Massachusetts officials started to plan highways circling and cutting through the heart of Boston. But when officials began to hold hearings in 1960 the people pushed back. The story of how an unlikely multiracial coalition of urban and suburban residents, planners, and activists emerged to stop a highway is one full of suspenseful twists and surprises. And yet the victory and its aftermath are undeniable: federally funded mass transit expansion, a linear central city park, and a highway-less urban corridor that serves as a daily reminder of the power of citizen-led city-making and has had lasting national implications.

This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). 

– Thursday, 22 March, 5:30PM : 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? “‘No Ideas But in Things’: Writing Lives from Objects” is a panel discussion with Deborah Lutz of University of Louisville, Karen Sanchez-Eppler of Amherst College, independent scholar Susan Ware, and moderator Natalie Dykstra of Hope College. 

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Saturday, 24 March, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is 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.

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Yankees in the West.

– Saturday, 24 March, 10:00AM : In celebration of Women’s History Month, the MHS is calling for items–pink hats, signs, pins, t-shirts, photographs, written accounts–from the 2017 and 2018 Women’s March events. We invite the public to stop by 1154 Boylston Street in Boston to donate 2017 and 2018 Women’s March memorabilia—pink hats, signs, pins, t-shirts, photographs (prints or digital images)—as well as written accounts to its collection. If you do not want to part with your Women’s March items, consider wearing them to the MHS and having your picture taken (a photographer will be on site) to be added to our collection. We also encourage written experiences and accounts of the marches to be shared. These can be e-mailed to collections@masshist.org or mailed to: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA, 02215, attention Brenda Lawson.

If you are unable to come to the MHS on 24 March but have items you would like to donate, please contact Anne Bentley (abentley@masshist.org or 617-646-0508) or Brenda Lawson (blawson@masshist.org or 617-646-0552) to discuss.

Selected items collected on 24 March will be displayed as part of our 2019 exhibition on women’s suffrage.

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It is a fairly quiet week ahead, so this round-up will be brief:

– Wendesday, 14 March, 6:00PM : Between 1638 and today, the Browns of Rhode Island have provided community leaders, endowed academic institutions, and transformed communities through art and architecture. However, they also have wrestled with society’s toughest issues slavery, immigration, child labor, inequality and with their own internal tensions. Sylvia Brown, of the family’s 11th generation and author of Grappling with Legacy, explores this story in conversation with Edward Widmer.

This event is open to the public, though registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows, and EBT cardholders). 

– Saturday, 17 March, 9:00AM : “Monuments & Historical Memory” is a teacher workshop that explores how monuments can help students understand history, historical memory, and how national symbols play a critical role in articulating culture and identity. Highlights include looking at WWII and Holocaust commemoration across the globe; learning about the history of Confederate monuments in America; and a tour of Reconstruction-era Boston monuments. 

This program is open to all K-12 educators, and registration is required with a fee of $25 per person. 

– Remember to come in and view our current exhibition, Yankees in the West, before it ends on 6 April. 

There is no Saturday tour this week.

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As of this writing, it is a very dreary and soggy day outside. After you dry your bones this weekend, consider visiting the MHS in the week ahead for one or more of these upcoming events:

– Tuesday, 6 March, 5:15PM : We start our programs this week with a seminar combo, bringing together Environmental History and Early American History into one neat package. “Common Spaces: Environmental History and the Study of Early America” is a panel discussion with Christopher Pastore, State University of new York at Albany; Nancy Shoemaker, University of Connecticut at Storrs; and Conevery Bolton Valencius, Boston College; with Matthew McKenzie of University of Connecticut at Avery Point moderating. Environmental historians are concerned with concepts such as ecological imperialism and non-anthropocentric empires, built and natural environments, controlling and organizing space, and the relationship between borders and frontiers. How does or might this influence scholarship on early America? How can work on early American history enrich environmental historians’ understanding of empire, metropoles and borderlands, movement and colonization?

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Wednesday, 7 March, 12:00PM : The Brown Bag discussion this week features G. Patrick O’Brien of University of South Carolina, who presents “A Massachusetts Family’s Exile & Return, 1775-1790.” After being forced to flee Marblehead in May 1775, the Robie family joined fellow refugees in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In exile, each family member developed a unique perspective on his or her new home and outlook for the future. Repatriation further complicated these understandings and divided the family between two nations. This project explores how a family in exile struggled to maintain kinship networks while its members adapted to a new social environment. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Wednesday, 7 March, 6:00PM : Join us for an author talk with Liesl Olson of the Newberry Library as she discusses her recent work, Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis. From the 1893 World’s Fair through mid-century, Chicago writers revolutionized literary forms during the first half of the 20th century, a period of sweeping aesthetic transformations all over the world. Olson’s enthralling study bridges the gap between two distinct and equally vital Chicago-based artistic “renaissance” moments: the primarily white renaissance of the early teens and the creative ferment of the “Black Metropolis” of Bronzeville. This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). 

– Saturday, 10 March, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Tour is 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.

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Yankees in the West.

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Here is a look at events taking place at the Society in the week ahead as the calendar turns another page:

– Monday, 26 February, 6:00PM : Starting things off this week is an author talk with Pual Finkelman of Gratz College. Supreme Inustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court examines the careers of three important antebellum Supreme Court Justices: John Marshall, Roger B. Taney, and Joseph Story, who all upheld the institution of slavery in multiple rulings. Finkelman establishes an authoritative account of each justice’s proslavery position, the reasoning behind his opposition to black freedom, and the incentives created by his private life. This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members, or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

– Tuesday, 27 February, 5:15PM : This week’s seminar is part of the Modern American Society and Culture series and is a panel discussion. In “Capitalism and Culture,” Jonathan Cohen of University of Virginia and Davor Mondom of Syracuse University examine the reaction against welfare state capitalism in the mid-20th century U. S., looking at two companies that promoted themselves as bastions of free enterprise or as a solution to high state taxes. Sven Becker of Harvard University provides comment. 

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Thursday, 1 March, 6:00PM : MHS Fund Giving Circle members are invited to Dinner with Dolley, a festive evening with good food, fine wine, and lively conversation inspired by Dolley Madison. During dinner, MHS President Catherine Allgor, who is known for her published work on Dolley Madison, will provide history and fun facts about dining with Mrs. Madison. 

This event is open only to MHS Fund Giving Circle Members. Join a Giving Circle today at www.masshist.org/support/mhsfund. 

– Saturday, 3 March, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Tour is 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.

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Yankees in the West.

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The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 19 February, for Presidents Day. 

It is a holiday-shortened week but there is still plenty of action happening here at the Society. Below are details for what we have on tap.

– Tuesday, 20 February, 6:00PM : Kendra Field’s epic family history, Growing Up with the Country, chronicles the westward migration of freedom’s first generation in the 50 years after emancipation. Fields traces the journey of her ancestors out of the South to Indian Territory, where they participated in the development of black towns and settlements. When statehood, oil speculation, and segregation imperiled their lives, some launched a back-to-Africa movement while others moved to Canada and Mexico. Interweaving black, white, and Indian histories, Field’s narrative explores how ideas about race and color powerfully shape the pursuit of freedom. 

This talk is open to the public. Registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the program at 6:00PM. 

– Wednesday, 21 February : All K-12 educators are invited to register for Yankees in the West, an all-day teacher workshop. Using the Society’s current exhibition as a guide, participants will investigate how writers, artists, and photographers sensationalized the frontier experience for eastern audiences and conceptualized the West for Americans who increasingly embraced the nation’s manifest destiny. 

Registration is required for this program with a fee of $25 per person. 

– Wednesday, 21 February, 12:00PM : “Billets & Barracks: The Quartering Act & the Coming of the American Revolution” is a Brown Bag talk with John McCurdy of Eastern Michigan University. The arrival of British soldiers in the 1750s forced Americans to ask “where do soldiers belong?” This project investigates how they answered this question, arguing that it prompted them to rethink the meaning of places like the home and the city, as well as to reevaluate British military power.

This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Thursday, 22 February, 6:00PM : After the Civil War, artists and writers from Boston faced a question that haunted America: what’s next? For cultural leaders like Charles Eliot Norton and Isabella Stewart Gardner, Reconstruction left them feeling directionless and betrayed. Shunning the Whig narrative of history, these “Boston Cosmopolitans” researched Europe’s long past to discover and share examples of civil society shaped by high ideals. “For the Union Dead: Bostonians Travel East in Search of Answers in the Post-Civil War Era” is a public talk with Mark Rennella.

This program is open to all, free of charge, though registration is required. Click on the link and look for the Register button. 

– Saturday, 24 February, 9:00AM : The second teacher workshop this week examines how the personal and political philosophies of Justices John Marshall, Roger B. Taney, and Joseph Story influenced their proslavery positions. In “Slavery & the U.S. Supreme Court,” Paul Finkelman, President of Gratz College, will discuss why these three influential justices upheld the institution of slavery and continued to deny black Americans their freedom. Participants will connect these federal rulings to local court cases, as well as antislavery and abolitionist efforts to undermine these unpopular decrees. 

This program is open to all K-12 educators. Registration is required with a fee of $25 per person. 

There is no public tour this week.

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At the Society this week, we’ll be talking about capitalists and fishermen, as well as hosting our building tour. Read on for more information. 

– Tuesday, 13 February, 5:15PM : Francis Sargent was a Cape Cod fisherman-turned-public servant. In his positions as Director of Fisheries, head of Public Works, and eventually, governor of Massachusetts, Sargent bridged the gap between working-class fishers and government. The seminar this week comes from the Environmental History series and is called “Governor Francis W. Sargent: Fisheries Manager.” This paper, presented by Benjamin Kochan of Boston University, examines Sargent’s ability to speak directly to fishermen, arguing that his post-1974 disengagement from public life robbed fishermen of an ally who might have soothed tensions created by late-1970s federal regulations. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

– Thursday, 15 February, 6:00PM : Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of American Wealth & Populism in America’s First Gilded Age is the title of a recent work authored by Noam Maggor of Queen Mary University, London, and is the subject of this author talk. The work explores how they moneyed elite of Boston mobilized to reinvent the American economy in the aftermath of the Civil War, traveling far and wide in search of new business opportunities following the decline of cotton-based textile manufacturing and the abolition of slavery. They found these opportunities in the mines, railroads, and industries of the Great West, leveraging their wealth to forge transcontinental networks of commodities, labor, and transportation leading the way to the nationally integrated corporate capitalism of the 20th century. 

This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

– Saturday, 17 February, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led tour through the public rooms here at the Society. The tour is free and open to the public with no need for reservations for individuals or small groups. If you would like to bring a larger party (8 or more), please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley in advance at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org. 

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Yankees in the West. 

Please note that the Socety is CLOSED on Monday, 19 February, for Presidents’ Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 20 February.