Opening Our Doors

MHS Event

Walking Tour Public Program
Saturday, October 9, 2021 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM UTC
At MHS / NOTE: time is shown in East Coast time.

The MHS will join its neighboring cultural institutions for a day of free history, art, music, and cultural happenings in the Fenway neighborhood. With over 20 different museums, venues, colleges, and organizations participating, there will be something for everyone. Join us for a walking tour of the Fenway neighborhood starting at 11:00 AM and again at 2:00 PM. Tour participants will meet at the MHS building at 1154 Boylston Street, Boston 02215.

In-person Only Event

Upcoming Events

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) *
Thursday, April 10, 2025 10:00 PM - 12:00 AM UTC
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) *
Friday, April 11, 2025 1:00 PM - 9:00 PM UTC
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
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 *
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM UTC
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.
SeminarAfrican American HistoryOnline Event
Black Intellect in the Wake of the American Revolution
Black Intellect in the Wake of the American Revolution
Online *
Thursday, April 17, 2025 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM UTC
This chapter from Aston Gonzalez's book manuscript examines black geniuses recognized in mathematics and the natural sciences in the decades after the American Revolution. Gonzalez analyzes how domestic and transatlantic print culture authored by African Americans and British abolitionists contributed to the conceptual development of “black genius.” Journalists, medical professionals, and antislavery activists turned a public spotlight onto three Black men – the mental calculator Thomas Fuller, doctor James Derham, and astronomer Benjamin Banneker – whose skills, they argued, directly contradicted widespread assertions that people of African descent possessed innately and unchangeably inferior intellectual faculties.
SeminarAfrican American HistoryOnline Event
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 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM UTC
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.
American Revolution 250In PersonPublic Program
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 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM UTC
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.
American Revolution 250In PersonPublic Program
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 *
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM UTC
This paper is an excerpt from a book project that examines the musical revue Pins and Needles—a production of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) which became the longest running Broadway show of the 1930s. Specifically, the paper examines how the unique feminist nature of the ILGWU and the emphasis on social justice shaped the cast of workers’ experiences during the rehearsals, as well as the content of the show, and how they navigated their unexpected stardom status to claim their place in American culture, celebrating working-class ideology of gender equality and solidarity. 
SeminarMalgeri Modern American Society and CultureOnline Event
The Book of the Body: The 19th-Century Flap Anatomy as Body/Text
The Book of the Body: The 19th-Century Flap Anatomy as Body/Text
Online *
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM UTC
This chapter analyzes the use of “flap anatomies”, or layered, printed illustrations of human anatomy, in three sites of medical training in the late 19th century: Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Université de Paris. In an era characterized by rampant anxiety concerning both physical and moral ‘degeneration’, the role of flap anatomies in disseminating anatomical knowledge and helping shape public opinion regarding the medical profession was especially crucial in matters related to human reproduction. How was the flap anatomy – with its nudity, references to sexuality, and exploration of the body’s interior – able to reconcile these competing tensions? 
SeminarHistory of Women, Gender and SexualityOnline Event
Around the World with John Quincy Adams
Around the World with John Quincy Adams
At MHS
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 10:00 PM - 12:00 AM UTC
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) went everywhere, and he left an incredible paper trail to show for it. Go around the world with the Adams Papers editors in one history-filled night at the MHS. Visit the moments and manuscripts that cemented JQA as a statesman, a president, an anti-slavery crusader, and a public servant in the family tradition. Join us for JQA’s guide to a world gone by.
Public ProgramIn Person
Creating Culture in America, AAPI Diaspora Lives
Creating Culture in America, AAPI Diaspora Lives
Hybrid *
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
Join us for a performance and panel considering cultural practices the Asian American and Pacific Islander diaspora have created in Massachusetts. Speakers will discuss what traditions their families brought to Massachusetts and how these intermingled with other cultures to form new rituals. They will also examine what has been lost and the challenges that prevented certain customs from continuing in new environments.
Public ProgramHybrid Event
Breaking Silences: Using Intimate Biography to Uncover the Lives of Thomas Wen Yi Liao and Mary Mon Toy
Breaking Silences: Using Intimate Biography to Uncover the Lives of Thomas Wen Yi Liao and Mary Mon Toy
Hybrid *
Thursday, May 15, 2025 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM UTC
This program’s guests—a first-time author and a veteran novelist—spent decades researching family histories shadowed by war, global politics, and anti-Asian racism. Kim Liao discovered a many-layered story suppressed both in her family and by the Taiwanese government featuring her grandfather, a leader of the Taiwanese independence movement after World War II. Marnie Mueller, born in a Japanese American concentration camp in 1942 and later befriended by Mary Mon Toy, a talented “showgirl” incarcerated in a different camp, became her friend’s executor. After Mon Toy’s death in 2009, a hidden life story emerged that begged to be told alongside Mueller’s own long-concealed history. Learn about “intimate biography” from two authors who are inventing the form.
SeminarNew England Biography SeriesHybrid Event
Annual Fiori Lecture: French Material Culture in the Revolutionary Atlantic
Annual Fiori Lecture: French Material Culture in the Revolutionary Atlantic
Hybrid *
Monday, May 19, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
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.
Public ProgramAnnual Fiori LectureHybrid EventAmerican Revolution 250
Member Week
Member Week
At MHS
Monday, June 2, 2025 4:00 AM - 4:00 AM UTC
...
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 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM UTC
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 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM UTC
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 *
Monday, June 16, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
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.
Public ProgramHybrid EventAmerican Revolution 250
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
Hybrid *
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
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. 
Public ProgramHybrid EventSpeakers Fund
Committeemen: Local Government and the Popular Politics of Revolution
Committeemen: Local Government and the Popular Politics of Revolution
Online *
Monday, July 14, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
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
The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution
The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution
Hybrid *
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Join us, as Zara Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright. From London to Boston, from Jamaica to Paris, from Bath to Philadelphia, these largely forgotten patriots boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence.
American Revolution 250Author TalkHybrid EventPublic Program
Curious and Complex Connections: Environmental History and the War of Independence
Curious and Complex Connections: Environmental History and the War of Independence
Hybrid *
Monday, October 20, 2025 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM UTC
Many of us give only a moment’s thought about the environment when considering the War of Independence: the slope of Breed’s Hill, the ice-choked Delaware River, and diseases such as smallpox. But what might we gain by connecting biology, ecology, and geology to the thinking and actions of soldiers and civilians? Rebels and British soldiers acquired and used energy in the form of food, fuel, and work animals, which shaped people’s lives, the course of the war, and the direction of environmental change. Join us as David Hsiung, in conversation with Joyce Chaplin, discusses the intricate and often surprising ways in which the natural environment and the war changed each other.
Hybrid EventAmerican Revolution 250Public Program
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