By Dan Hinchen

Here is the round-up of events in the week to come here at the MHS:

– Tuesday, 20 June, 6:00PM : Starting off the week is an author talk with the Society’s own Conrad Edick Wright, editor of Pedagogues and Protestors: The Harvard College Student Diary of Stephen Peabody, 1767-1768. Through the lens of of the daily journal entries of Stephen Peabody, Wright guides us through the relationships among students, faculty, and administrators at Harvard College in the lead-up to the largest student strike at any colonial college. The culmination of months of tensions between undergraduates and faculty resulted in over half the student body leaving campus in protest against new rules regarding class preparation. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

– Wednesday, 21 June, 5:00PM : MHS Fellows are invited to the Society’s annual business meeting. RSVP by e-mailing wlindsey@masshist.org or calling 617-646-0572. This event is open only to MHS Fellows.

The library closes early on Wednesday at 3:45PM in preparation for the annual meeting.

– Friday, 23 June, 12:00PM : “Bonds Burst Asunder: The Revolutionary Politics of ‘Getting By’ in Civil War and Emancipation” is a rare Friday Brown Bag talk. In this project, Kathleen Hilliard of Iowa State University examines the transformation of southern political economy during the era of the American Civil War and African American emancipation, exploring how crisis and transition exposed weaknesses in slavery’s cruel paternalist bargains. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Saturday, 24 June, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led walk through the public spaces of the Society. 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

– Saturday, 24 June, 4:00PM : Come in on Satuday afternoon for “‘Impossible Dreamers’: The Pennant-Winning 1967 Boston Red Sox.” This special program features a temporary exhibition of photographs and artifacts that runs through July 8. However, only on Saturday will you be able to see the 2004, 2007, and 2013 World Series trophies! There is also a panel discussion on Saturday moderated by Red Sox historian Gordon Edes with panelists Herb Crehan (author of The Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox: Birth of Red Sox Nation), Bill Nowlin (The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium on the Field), and Tom Whalen (The Spirit of ’67: Cardiac Kids, El Birdos, and the World Series That Captivated America). This program is open to the public and registration is requried with a fee of $20. Please register and pay online using the RSVP link. 

The library closes early on Saturday at 3:00PM in preparation for the afternoon program.

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In the week ahead there are just two events on the calendar here at the Society. Those events are:

– Thursday, 15 June, 6:00PM : “Final Courses” is the last program in the Cooking Boston series and it takes place at Mount Auburn Cemetery. A docent-led tour of the cemetery will visit the graves of notable chefs, inventors, and confectionares, including 19th-century cookbook author Fanny Farmer, chefs Joyce Chen and Gian Franco Romagnoli, chocolate makers Walter Baker and William Schrafft, Harvey Parker of Boston’s famed Parker House, and many more. This event is open to the public, though registration is required. Cost is $20 per person (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows) and space is limited.

– Saturday, 17 June, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led tour through the public spaces of the Society’s home on Boylston Street. 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

By Dan Hinchen

Coming up this week, we have programs featuring ice cream, the “other” speaker at Gettysburg, and interstate trade during the Civil War. Here are the specifics:

– Tuesday, 6 June, 6:00PM : Ice Kings is the next installment in our Cooking Boston series or public programs. In this panel discussion, Gus Rancatore, Jeri Quinzio, and Judy Herrell discuss Boston’s unusual obsession with ice cream. Moderated by Kathleen Fitzgerald, the talk will look at where this devotion to ice cream comes from and how institutions like Bailey’s ice cream parlor and innovators like Steve’s have changed the country’s taste for frozen treats. Samples of ice cream from Toscanini’s and Herrell’s are available at the reception. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking progam at 6:00PM. 

– Wedensday, 7 June, 12:00PM : This week’s Brown Bag talk is put on by research fellow David Montejano of University of California, Berkeley. “From Southern Plantation to Northern Mill: Traveling the Cotton Trail During the Civil War” looks at the vigorous cotton trade between the north and south that re-emerged through the neutral port of Matamoros, Mexico. Montejano looks at how the politics of war were trumped by the “invisible hand” of the market by following the cotton stream from Texas to Massachusetts and making visible the many hands involved in this suspect wartime commerce. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Thursday, 8 June, 6:00PM : Join us for a talk with Matthew Mason of Brigham Young University, author fo Apostle of Union: A Political Biography of Edward Everett. Everett’s distinguished career, from the 1820s through the Civil War, reveals a complex man who shifting political opinions illuminate the nuances of Northern Unionism. Everett’s political and cultural efforts to preserve the Union, and the response to his work from citizens and politicians, help us see the complexity of the coming of the Civil War. This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (No charge for MHS Members or Fellows; no charge for Members of the Union Club of Boston). Reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the talk at 6:00PM. 

– Saturday, 10 June, 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

By Dan Hinchen

Returning from a long weekend, this week’s schedule is heavy at the tail-end. Here is what’s coming up in the week ahead:

The MHS is CLOSED on Monday, 29 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 30 May. 

– Thursday, 1 June, 6:00PM : The seventh annual Cocktails with Clio takes place at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum at Columbia Point. We invite you to join us for a festive evening in support of the Center for the Teaching of History at the MHS featuring Jill Lepore in conversation with Robin Young. The evening will begin with cocktails in the pavilion space overlooking the harbor. A seated dinner will follow. Registration is required for this event. 

– Friday, 2 June, 2:00PM : A Description of the New York Central Park by Clarence C. Cook, published in 1869, is recognized as the most important book about the park to apper during its early years. Stop by on Friday for a talk with Maureen Meister, who recently penned the introduction to a re-publication of the work. This talk is free and open to the public. 

The Library closes early on Friday at 2:30PM.

– Saturday, 3 June, 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

– Saturday, 3 June, 1:00PM : Begin at the Beginning – “‘They being stolne’: Conflicting Views of Slavery and Governance in Early Massachusetts.” Holly Brewer of the University of Maryland leads a discussion of primary documents revealing Massachusetts’s contradictory views and practice on slavery.  Compared to other British colonies, where elements of slavery were justified with broad and near-feudal rationales, she argues, Puritan Massachusetts resisted the right of kings and broadened the idea of consent. These ideas helped restrict slavery, even in the face of royal approval and promotion of slavery during the later 17^th century and into the eighteenth century. This event is open to the public and registration is required at no cost. 

By Dan Hinchen

It is a very quiet week ahead as we approach a long holiday weekend, with only one event on the calendar. It is:

– Tuesday, 23 May, 6:00PM : The House of Truth: A Washington Political Salon and the Foundations of American Liberalism is the title of a new book, and this talk, by Brad Snyder of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Through the lens of a group of ambitious young men disillusioned with the slow pace of change in the Taft Administration, Snyder looks at how ideas shifted from progressivism into what today we refer to as liberalism. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

Remember that our current exhibit, The Irish Atlantic, is open to the public free of charge, Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM. 

The MHS is CLOSED, Saturday, 27 May-Monday, 29 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 30 May. 

By Dan Hinchen

– Tuesday, 16 May, 5:15PM : This week’s Environemental History seminar is headed by Jason L. Newton of Syracuse University and is rescheduled from 14 March. “The Winter Workscape: Weather and the Meaning of Industrial Capitalism in the Northern Forest, 1850-1950,” draws on methods from environmental and labor history and the history of slavery and capitalism to characterize industrial capitalism as a force that will sustain seemingly anachronistic modes of production as long as they remain profitable. Richard W. Judd, University of Maine, provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

– Thursday, 18 May, 6:00PM : Join us for the next installment of the Cooking Boston series. This episode, titled Sweet Boston, looks at the unusually strong interest in sweets that has long held in Boston. This panel discussion features Joyce Chaplin of Harvard University Department of History, author Michael Krondl, and Carla Martin, Founder and Executive Director of the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institution and Lecturer at the Harvard University Department of African American Studies. This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

– Saturday, 20 May, 10:00AM : The History and Collection 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

– Saturday, 20 May, 2:00PM : Stop by for a free author talk with Andrew Carroll of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University, and author of My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War. Registration is required for this event at no cost. 

By Dan Hinchen

It is a pretty quiet week here at the Society. This is what is on tap:

– Tuesday, 9 May : The Environmental History Seminar is CANCELED. 

– Wednesday, 10 May, 12:00PM : Join us for a Brown Bag lunch talk with Emily Gephart of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. “Avian Affinities and Refashioning Roles: Feathers, Millinery and American Bird Protection” examines the storyof how bird death led to rejection of fashion’s mandates, a process that was neither swift, nor direct, nor simple, but reveals a complex politics of hybridity, in which roles, refusal, and refashioning play off one another in dynamic exchange. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Thursday, 11 May, 6:00PM : Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth is the title of a recent publication as well as the title of a talk with the author, Holger Hoock, of University of Pittsburgh. Often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, Hoock shows that the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war that shaped the nation and the British Empire in ways we have only begun to understand. This talk is open to the public. Registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

There is no tour this week, but you can still come in to view our current exhibition, The Irish Atlantic, anytime during normal exhibit hours, Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM. 

By Dan Hinchen

– Tuesday, 2 May, 5:15PM : We start the week with an Early American History Seminar, this time in panel format. “Nathaniel Hawthorne and Friends” is a discussion with Philip Gould of Brown University and Thomas Balcerski of Eastern Connecticut State University. The conversation revolves around their respsective essays, “Hawthorne and the State of War” and “A Work of Friendship.” Maurice Lee of Boston University provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

– Wednesday, 3 May, 12:00PM : Stephen Engle of Florida Atlantic University leads this week’s Brown Bag lunch talk, titled “Politics of Civil War Governance: A Conversation about Lincoln and his Loyal Governors during the Civil War.” Engle discusses his most recent book, Gathering to Save a Nation: Lincoln and the Union’s War Governors and how it led to his current project, a biography of Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Wednesday, 3 May, 6:00PM : “Where to Go” is the next installment of the Cooking Boston series of public programs here at the MHS, exploring the culinary history of Boston. In the 20th century, Boston clung to two identities: that of thrifty Puritans and of cosmopolitanism through education. This created some remarkably bland food but also made the city fertile ground for a culinary revolution. In the 1960s, chefs like Julia Child and Joyce Chen brought the flavors of the world to America through Boston. This event features a discussion with James O’Connell, Corky White, and Eriwn Ramos, moderated by Peter Drummey of the MHS. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members of Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

– Saturday, 6 May, 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

– Saturday, 6 May, 1:00PM : The practice of slavery in the early modern Atlantic world generated a variety of theological debates about its nature, origins, and legitimacy. “Of One Blood? New England Slavery and Theology,” part of the Begin at the Beginning series of talks, is a discussion led by PhD candidate Eduardo Gonzalez of Boston College. This program is open to the public, registration required at no cost. The discussion is based on primary readings listed on the reigstration page. 

By Dan Hinchen

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LIBRARY IS CLOSED ON WEDNESDAY, 26 APRIL, FOR A STAFF EVENT. 

This week’s program schedule is heavy in the middle, with a seminar and a pair of public programs. Here are the specifics:

– Tuesday, 25 April, 5:15PM : Anna M. Blankenship of North Dakota State University leads a Modern American Society and Culture seminar, titled “Interreligious Responses to the Settlement House Movement, 1880-1924.” This paper analyzes how Catholic and Jewish immigrant communities in New York City responded to the Protestant origins and agenda of their benefactors prior to the 1920s, when many settlement houses secularized activities in order to receive money from the Community Chest. Kristen Petersen of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

– Wednesday, 26 April, 6:00PM : Join us for an author talk with David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason, author/editors of a recent book titled John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery: Selections from the Diary. Within, the authors offer an unusual perspective on the dramatic and shifting politics of slavery in the early republic. By juxtaposing Adams’ personal reflections of slavery with what he said – and did not say – publicly on the issue, the editors offer a nuanced portrait of how he interacted with prevailing ideologies during his consequential career and life. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the program at 6:00PM. 

– Thursday, 27 April, 6:00PM : “Eating Other People’s Food” is the second installment of the Cooking Boston series. In this program, Alex Prud’homme, Laura Shapiro, Stephen Chen, and moderator Megan Sniffin-Marinoff discuss Americans’ re-introduction to the food of the world in the second half of the 20th century. The expansion of the American palate that began with television chefs like Julia Child in Cambridge continued with restaurants across greater Boston and helped reshape the idea of dinner. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception starts at 5:30PM, followed by the program at 6:00PM. 

– Saturday, 29 April, 9:00AM : Civil Rights in America is a teacher workshop sponsored by the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, and is made possible thanks to a grant form the Lincoln and Theresa Filene Foundation. This program is SOLD OUT and registration is closed.