Exhibition, Revolution 250 Fire! Voices From the Boston Massacre this event is free 31 October 2019 to 30 June 2020 Gallery hours are: Mon., Wed., Thu., Fri., and Sat.: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and Tue.: 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.

On the evening of March 5, 1770, soldiers occupying the town of Boston shot into a crowd, killing or fatally wounding five civilians.

In the aftermath of what soon became known as the Boston Massacre, questions about the command to “Fire!” became crucial. Who yelled it? When and why? Because the answers would determine the guilt or innocence of the soldiers, defense counsel John Adams insisted that “Facts are stubborn things.”

But what are the facts? The evidence, often contradictory, drew upon testimony from dozens of witnesses. Come learn about the Boston Massacre and “hear” for yourself—through a selection of artifacts, eyewitness accounts, and trial testimony—the voices of ordinary men and women, and discover how this flashpoint changed American history.

Learn more about the Massacre on our companion website.

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Public Program The Revolutionary Era in Boston with Prof. Robert Allison Register registration required at no cost 3 April 2020.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PM This is an online program. Robert Allison, Suffolk Univeristy

Join us for a live virtual Q and A with Professor Robert Allison who will address your questions on the Revolutionary War in Boston and beyond. Subscribers will get access to a curated list of videos from the MHS program archive to watch at home. This content will help viewers engage with the political, social, and intellectual aspects of the Revolution ahead of the question and answer session. 

Please note: This is an online event. Bring your questions or just listen in on the conversation. Links to video content will be included in the confirmation email following registration. Information on how to join the live webinar will be emailed to participants the day before the event.

For questions regarding this event, please message programs@masshist.org.

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Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar POSTPONED: “Our Turn Next”: Slavery and Freedom on French and American Stages, 1789-99 registration closed 7 April 2020.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PM THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED Heather S. Nathans, Tufts University Comment: Jeffrey Ravel, MIT

As the French abolitionist movement gathered momentum alongside the Revolution, Parisians could have seen hundreds of theatrical performances on themes related to race and slavery. By contrast, the American stage grappled with the choice to perpetuate a slave system within a democracy. Some performances hinted at slavery’s cruelty, some depicted newly-freed black characters living happily alongside whites, and others proposed returning blacks to the continent as the solution for a dilemma Thomas Jefferson described as holding “a wolf by the ears.” This paper explores the black revolutionary figure on the U.S. and French stages during the last decade of the eighteenth century, as both nations struggled to put their principles of universal freedom into practice.

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Environmental History Seminar POSTPONED: “Contrary to the Rules and Maxims of the Law and Nation”: The Destruction of Colonial New England's River Fisheries registration closed 9 April 2020.Thursday, 5:15PM - 7:30PM THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. Zachary Bennett, Connecticut College Comment: Matthew McKenzie, University of Connecticut

Long before industrialization, New Englanders dammed their rivers. The dams that powered saw and grist mills saved farmers days of backbreaking labor, but they also blocked fish migrations which generations of colonists and Indians depended on for food. Although laws protected people’s right to fish, New England colonies refused to enforce them. This inaction destroyed herring and salmon runs, triggering a cascade of ecological changes that ultimately dragged the region into the market economy.

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Author Talk, Online Event Virtual Book Talk: When It Was Grand: The Radical Republican History of the Civil War Register registration required at no cost 10 April 2020.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PM This is an online event LeeAnna Keith

In 1862, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison summarized the Civil War: “There is a war because there was a Republican Party. There was a Republican Party because there was an Abolition Party. There was an Abolition Party because there was Slavery.” Garrison’s statement expresses the essential truths at the heart of LeeAnna Keith’s narrative, which introduces us to the idealistic Massachusetts preachers and philanthropists, rugged Midwestern politicians, and African American activists who collaborated to protect escaped slaves from their captors, create and defend black military regiments, and win the contest for the soul of their party. In the 1850s and 1860s, the Republican Party stood for a demanding ideal of racial justice—and insisted that the nation live up to it.

Please note: this is an online event. Registrants will receive an email with links and instructions on how to join the event.

Order the book here!

 

 

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MHS Tour The History and Collections of the MHS this event is free 11 April 2020.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

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.

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Public Program, Author Talk Registration closed until further notice: Kooks & Degenerates on Ice: Bobby Orr, the Big Bad Bruins, & the Stanley Cup Championship That Transformed Hockey registration closed 16 April 2020.Thursday, 6:00PM - 7:00PM Registration closed. Thomas J. Whalen

During the 1969–1970 season, the “Big, Bad Bruins,” led by the legendary Bobby Orr, brushed off their perennial losing ways to defeat the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals for their first championship in 29 years. Thomas J. Whalen brings to life all the colorful personalities and iconic players from this Stanley Cup-raising team. Whalen situates this winning season into its historical context as the United States struggled with issues of war, race, politics, and class, making his book a must-read for sports enthusiasts, hockey fans, and those interested in twentieth-century American history.

We are thankful to Rockland Trust Investment Management Group for the sponsorship of the reception for this program. 

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Public Program, MHS Tour, Revolution 250 John Adams & the Boston Massacre Trials this event is free 17 April 2020.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PM Amanda Norton, the Adams Papers at MHS

Amanda Norton of the Adams Papers will walk visitors through our exhibition of the Boston Massacre, which explores and reinterprets the events of March 5, 1770 and the courtroom drama that unfolded after the massacre through the archival material found in the MHS collection.

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MHS Tour The History and Collections of the MHS this event is free 18 April 2020.Saturday, all day

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.

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History of Women, Gender and Sexuality Seminar POSTPONED: Boston Feminists on Drugs, 1970-1990 registration closed 21 April 2020.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PM THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED Trysh Travis, University of Florida Comment: Elizabeth Lunbeck, Harvard University

With the current opioid crisis as a backdrop, this paper examines the role various groups of Boston feminists played in the development of women’s substance abuse treatment in the 1980s and ‘90s. Organizations such as Women, Inc. (Roxbury), The Dorchester Green Lite Network, and the Cambridge and Somerville Program for Addiction Recovery had roots in and connections to well-known feminist collectives across the city. These historical connections between radical women’s organizing and the development of “behavioral health” services for women sheds light not only on the evolution of late-20th century public policy and medicine, but also of popular feminist culture.

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Public Program, Conversation Registration closed until further notice: Bringing Back the Pilgrims: Living History at Plimoth Plantation registration closed 22 April 2020.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:00PM Registration closed Catherine Allgor, MHS; Richard Pickering, Plimoth Plantation; Malka Benjamin, Plimoth Plantation; and moderator William Martin

How do historians create authentic public history? How do they tell their story to a wide and diverse audience? Living history makes the past accessible, but like all popular history, it must balance accessibility with an accurate depiction of the human past. Theatrical techniques like dialogue, costuming, setting, and character development can bring a historical moment to life, but the story that’s told must be rooted in serious scholarship and careful research. How do ‘Living Historians’ meet this challenge? Join us for a lively panel discussion among historians who have grappled with these questions.

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African American History Seminar From Jobs and Freedom to Jobs and Opportunity: Andrew Young, Growth, and the Illusion of Job Creation Register registration required at no cost 23 April 2020.Thursday, 5:15PM - 7:30PM Danielle Wiggins, California Institution of Technology Comment: Brenna Greer, Wellesley College

This paper considers Atlanta mayor Andrew Young’s shifting ideas about job creation and economic opportunity to investigate how Democrats abandoned their 1970s goal of full employment in favor of policies that promoted private sector job creation via economic growth in the 1980s. By conflating growth with opportunity, Andrew Young sought to stake a middle path between development interests and anti-poverty coalitions, between white and black voters, and between civil rights liberalism and supply-side liberalism. However, economic growth and its promise of opportunity proved to be an inadequate solution for the range of issues its proponents intended it to address.

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Modern American Society and Culture Seminar The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley and the Birth of a Manhattan Mass Culture Register registration required at no cost 28 April 2020.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PM Samuel Ehrlich Backer, Johns Hopkins University Comment: Jeff Melnick, University of Massachusetts Boston

During late 19th century, the upstart firms of Tin Pan Alley developed a revolutionary approach to publishing, constructing a system able to sell sheet-music at a previously unimaginable rate. Relying heavily on New York’s importance to national performance networks to disseminate their songs, Tin Pan Alley was defined by the tension between publishers’ attempts to create universally accessible commodities, and the fast-moving, alcohol-drenched, urban environments in which their products were required to thrive.

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Public Program, Author Talk Registration closed until further notice: The Cabinet: George Washington & the Creation of an American Institution registration closed 29 April 2020.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:00PM Registration closed Lindsay M. Chervinsky

On November 26, 1791, George Washington convened his department secretaries—Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph—for the first cabinet meeting. Faced with diplomatic crises, domestic insurrections, and constitutional challenges, Washington decided he needed a group of advisors he could turn to. He modeled his new cabinet on the councils of war he had led as commander of the Continental Army. Lindsay M. Chervinsky reveals the far-reaching consequences of Washington’s choice to create what has become one of the most powerful bodies in the federal government: the presidential cabinet.

 

 

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