Event

Project-Based Learning in the Social Studies Classroom: An Introduction to National History Day in Massachusetts

Teacher Workshop Online Event
Thursday, February 27, 2025 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST

Online teacher workshop. $120, FREE for Boston Public School teachers, email psampson@masshist.org for the waiver. 

Locations, Dates & Times: 

1.      Virtual Sessions: Thursdays, February 27, March 13, March 20, March 27, and April 3, 6:00- 8:00 PM

2.      In-Person Session: Participants will choose one session to attend:

3.      All Assignments due EOD Friday, May 2, 2025

Register to attend online

Project- based learning (PBL) builds student engagement, fosters effective communication and collaboration, and allows students to wrestle with complex questions.  The National History Day (NHD) model guides students in grades 6–12 through a semester of historical research and inquiry, interpretation, and creative expression. Harnessing the effectiveness of student-centered, project-based learning, NHD asks students to conduct primary and secondary source research on a historical topic and present their work as a documentary film, website, performance, paper, or exhibit.

During this course participants will explore the NHD program from the inside out and learn to use the tools of NHD to build and scaffold all of the skills-based content standards for History and Social Science Content in MA, including:

Participants will also learn firsthand, from students and teachers, how participation in History Day promotes student engagement, builds confidence, and encourages autonomy. Finally, participants will develop a manageable and realistic instruction plan to bring the power of History Day and PBL to their students.

This workshop is offered for Grade 5-12 educators in Massachusetts. Participants can earn 67.5 PDPs or 3 graduate credits with Worcester State University (for an additional fee of $375).

This is a virtual course, with one required in-person day at one of our NHD MA Regional Competitions. It will be presented in English with English auto-generated captioning for virtual sessions, and ASL translation and live captioning are available upon request during registration (please place requests for captioning or translation by 2/13/24). 

For more information, questions, further accessibility requests, or if the course fee is a barrier, please contact us at psampson@masshist.org. 

By registering you are agreeing to abide by the MHS Visitor Code of Conduct. 

Upcoming Events

Social Reform and Identity Formation in the 17th Century - A Panel Discussion
Social Reform and Identity Formation in the 17th Century - A Panel Discussion
Hybrid / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
This panel investigates forms of social control in 17th century New England. Arthur George Kamya’s paper examines the regulation of distilled liquor in 17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony, exploring how authorities navigated competing moral, economic, and security imperatives. Initially targeting a cross-section of colonists, liquor laws evolved to focus on servants, Native Americans, and eventually African Americans. The colony's approach shifted from moral censure to pragmatic revenue generation, with officials using fines and licenses to fund government operations. Kamya’s study illuminates how alcohol regulation became a tool of social control, state-building, and the construction of racial hierarchies in colonial New England, offering insights into the complex interplay between commerce, governance, and identity formation in early America. As discussed in Alice King’s work, Connecticut adopted a notable strategy towards certain Indigenous populations during the initial decades of settlement, attempting to control and exploit Native communities by turning them into colonial tributaries who would provide essential supplies, wampum, and military aid. King’s paper considers the evolution of tributary politics at the end of the seventeenth century after the Dominion of New England and Glorious Revolution had destabilized colonial authority and left colonists vulnerable to attack by French and Native forces, including the Wabanaki Confederacy during King William’s War, 1689-1697, when Connecticut leaders sought to raise soldiers for New England’s defense from these historic tributary communities.
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“The Permanent Prize for Nerve”: Examining Women's Postwar Battles with the US Veteran's Bureau
“The Permanent Prize for Nerve”: Examining Women's Postwar Battles with the US Veteran's Bureau
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Thursday, April 3, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
This paper considers the postwar experiences of disabled or chronically ill veterans of the First World War through an examination of pension files kept by the US Bureau of War Risk Insurance and the Veteran's Bureau. While this work will demonstrate how gendered notions of service, suffering, and recovery influenced the treatment available to both men and women, it will specifically focus on the treatment of women veterans, caretakers, and widows as documented in these files. The pension and insurance system tended to obscure the physical and emotional labor performed by women in the war and postwar period. At the same time, individual investigations frequently made spectacles of women whose behavior transgressed imagined prewar gender norms, or whose testimony disrupted dominant narratives of victory and resilience. These stories challenge familiar historical narratives of war and recovery, while drawing connections to our own postwar present.
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1775: A Society on the Brink of War and Revolution - Day 1
1775: A Society on the Brink of War and Revolution - Day 1
In Person (not at MHS) / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Thursday, April 10, 2025 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST
The Concord Museum, the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society will hold a conference on 10-11 April 2025 on the theme “1775”. The conference will be convened at the Concord Museum and marks the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. There will be opportunities for attendees to visit historic sites and view objects and collections significant to the Revolution.
Hybrid EventAmerican Revolution 250
1775: A Society on the Brink of War and Revolution - Day 2
1775: A Society on the Brink of War and Revolution - Day 2
In Person (not at MHS) / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Friday, April 11, 2025 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST
The Concord Museum, the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society will hold a conference on 10-11 April 2025 on the theme “1775”. The conference will be convened at the Concord Museum and marks the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. There will be opportunities for attendees to visit historic sites and view objects and collections significant to the Revolution.
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Raising Bail, Critiquing the State: SNCC, the Civil Rights Movement and Cash Bail
Raising Bail, Critiquing the State: SNCC, the Civil Rights Movement and Cash Bail
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
This paper re-examines the relationship between civil rights activists and the system of cash bail in the 1960s. Historians have largely considered cash bail as a legal hassle, an obstacle that naturally arose as a consequence of civil disobedience. Aside from the “jail, no bail” practice of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), little attention has been paid to the questions of how activists critiqued and organized around bail. Yet, as this paper shows, SNCC innovated a range of strategies and understood bail as a very specific mechanism of racialized state repression.
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Black Intellect in the Wake of the American Revolution
Black Intellect in the Wake of the American Revolution
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Thursday, April 17, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
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Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battles of Lexington and Concord
Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battles of Lexington and Concord
At MHS
Saturday, April 19, 2025 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EST
Join Reference Librarian Lauren Gray for a gallery talk on the exhibition "1775: Rebels, Rights & Revolution," which charts major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution. Lauren will delve into the impact of the Battles of Lexington and Concord using related exhibition items. Visitors are invited to explore the rest of the exhibition and ask questions.
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Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battles of Lexington and Concord
Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battles of Lexington and Concord
At MHS
Saturday, April 19, 2025 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST
Join Reference Librarian Lauren Gray for a gallery talk on the exhibition "1775: Rebels, Rights & Revolution," which charts major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution. Lauren will delve into the impact of the Battles of Lexington and Concord using related exhibition items. Visitors are invited to explore the rest of the exhibition and ask questions.
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Left on Broadway: Pins and Needles and the Cultural Work of Labor Unions
Left on Broadway: Pins and Needles and the Cultural Work of Labor Unions
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
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The Book of the Body: The 19th-Century Flap Anatomy as Body/Text
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
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Around the World with John Quincy Adams
Around the World with John Quincy Adams
At MHS
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Public ProgramIn Person
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Creating Culture in America, AAPI Diaspora Lives
Hybrid / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST
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Breaking Silences: Using Intimate Biography to Uncover the Lives of Thomas Wen Yi Liao and Mary Mon Toy
Hybrid / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Thursday, May 15, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EST
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Hybrid / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Monday, May 19, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST
Lafayette’s tour of the United States in 1824-5 resulted in the production of objects—ceramics, textiles, prints, among others—all emblazoned with his name and visage.  But like Lafayette himself, French impact on material culture dates to the American Revolution.  Join us as Ashli White examines the influence of various French things on political movements throughout the revolutionary Atlantic world and considers how diverse populations turned to these items as part of their attempts to realize liberty and equality.
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Member Week
Member Week
At MHS
Monday, June 2, 2025 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM EST
...
Member Week
Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battle of Bunker Hill
Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battle of Bunker Hill
At MHS
Friday, June 13, 2025 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EST
Join Chief Historian, Peter Drummey, for a gallery talk on the exhibition, 1775: Rebels, Rights & Revolution, which charts major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution. Peter will discuss the impact of the Battle of Bunker Hill using related exhibition items. Visitors are invited to explore the rest of the exhibition and ask questions. 
American Revolution 250Public ProgramIn Person
Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battle of Bunker Hill
Gallery Talk: Rebels, Rights & Revolution: Battle of Bunker Hill
At MHS
Friday, June 13, 2025 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST
Join Chief Historian, Peter Drummey, for a gallery talk on the exhibition, 1775: Rebels, Rights & Revolution, which charts major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution. Peter will discuss the impact of the Battle of Bunker Hill using related exhibition items. Visitors are invited to explore the rest of the exhibition and ask questions. 
American Revolution 250Public ProgramIn Person
Revolutionary Kinship: Sustaining Family Through Wartime Divisions
Revolutionary Kinship: Sustaining Family Through Wartime Divisions
Hybrid / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Monday, June 16, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST
The American Revolution had a profound impact on families, with some ideas and experiences dramatically altered and some surprisingly durable. Conflicting beliefs about the future of the nation caused familial rifts, and many lost friends and loved ones to battle and plunder. Enslaved people simultaneously broadened ideas about family in response to the violence of slavery and evaluated whether independence would keep their kin safer from future violence. Gender roles were both everchanging in the circumstances of war as women ran businesses, handled material needs of war, and faced new childcare situations, but also remained constant in many ways. As a result of change and continuity, families included stepfamilies and single parents, relationships across plantations, and transcended biological connections. In this program, panelists will consider how the American Revolution both disrupted family arrangements and brought new formations of kinship while retaining many of the same structures.
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We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
Hybrid / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST
In her book We Refuse, historian Kellie Carter Jackson examines the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.  Force—from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt—has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. In conversation with Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, Carter Jackson will discuss force alongside other vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away. 
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Committeemen: Local Government and the Popular Politics of Revolution
Committeemen: Local Government and the Popular Politics of Revolution
Online / NOTE: times are shown in EST
Monday, July 14, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EST
Over the spring and summer of 1775, revolutionary committees in small towns and rural communities took charge of the revolutionary movement.  In the chaos that followed the battles of Lexington and Concord, thousands of farmers, lawyers, ministers, shopkeepers, and artisans all over British North America reluctantly took up the reins of power in their communities. Exercising emergency civil powers, they established a rudimentary form of revolutionary government in place of the ousted colonial regimes. Local committeemen organized and equipped vast new revolutionary armies, collected taxes, drove out perceived enemies, and maintained what semblance they could of legal procedure. By the end of 1775, the local committees had succeeded in establishing a fragile but effective revolutionary authority that supplanted imperial government in all but a few isolated pockets of the thirteen now-former colonies.
American Revolution 250Online EventPublic Program
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