Press Releases
Anonymous $3 Million Grant Awarded to the Massachusetts Historical Society
Landmark gift will honor the four-decade tenure and lasting legacy of Peter Drummey by endowing the Chief Historian position.
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) has announced the establishment of the Peter Drummey Chief Historian position funded by the generosity of an anonymous $3,000,000 grant. This landmark gift will provide financial stability in perpetuity helping the MHS to fulfill its mission, enhance outreach, and provide access to historical scholarship. This leadership gift also comes with a challenge component that will help MHS attract additional support for its programs and exhibitions. Read more.
Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize Announced
Bruce Dorsey recognized for Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) announced the 2024 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize will be presented to Bruce Dorsey for his book Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation, published in 2023 by Oxford University Press. The Gomes Prize is given to the best nonfiction work on the history of Massachusetts published during the preceding year. Dorsey will receive the award at an event in 2025. Read more.
Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize Awarded
Andrew M. Wehrman recognized for The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) has awarded the 2023 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize to Andrew M. Wehrman for his book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution, published in 2022 by Johns Hopkins University Press. The Gomes Prize is given to the best nonfiction work on the history of Massachusetts published during the preceding year. Wehrman will receive the award at an event in 2024. Read more.
MHS Announces Doris Kearns Goodwin as Featured Speaker for 2024 Making History Gala
Renowned Presidential Historian and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author to Headline Prestigious Event on June 6, 2024
The Massachusetts Historical Society is thrilled to announce Doris Kearns Goodwin as the featured speaker for the 2024 Making History Gala. The highly anticipated event will occur on Thursday, June 6, 2024, at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston. The evening will commence with a cocktail reception at 5:30 pm, followed by the dinner program at 6:30 pm. Individual and corporate sponsorships are now available for purchase. For more information on the gala, to sponsor the event, please visit www.masshist.org/gala. Read more.
Massachusetts Historical Society to Host Public Program Celebrating 50 Years of the Caribbean American Carnival in Boston
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is pleased to announce the Caribbean Americans & Politics: Celebrating 50 Years of the Caribbean American Carnival in Boston event on Thursday, August 24, 2023, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. The public program will be held in a hybrid format, allowing attendees to participate either in person or virtually via Zoom. To attend, please register at www.masshist.org/events.
The event will feature a panel discussion with distinguished guests, including Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, City Councilor Brian Worrell, Former Senator Linda Dorcena Forry, Former Representative Byron Rushing, and will be moderated by Dr. Robert Bellinger. This esteemed panel will delve into the history of the Caribbean American Carnival Association of Boston (CACAB) and its significant impact on the city's cultural landscape and local economy. Read more.
Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize Awarded to Abram Van Engen
Abram Van Engen recognized for City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) has awarded the 2021 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize to Abram Van Engen for his book City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism, published in 2020 by Yale University Press. The Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize is given to the best nonfiction work on the history of Massachusetts published during the preceding year. Read more.
Massachusetts Forms Commission to Promote the Commemoration of the American Revolution
The Commonwealth joins seventeen other states in forming a commission to promote the commemoration of the American Revolution.
An appropriations bill (H 4000), signed by Gov. Charlie Baker on 16 July 2021, creates the Massachusetts Commission on the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution. The Massachusetts commission’s 35 members— leaders in the historical, cultural, tourism, and political sectors—will partner with other states and with the federal America 250 Commission to commemorate, celebrate, and investigate the will and determination of the people 250 years ago who risked their “lives, liberty, and property” for the cause of American Independence. This exploration aims to include as many views as possible of the people of the Commonwealth from over the last 250 years. The Commission will engage with the Commonwealth and its people in an inspection of the causes that drove the people of 18th-century Massachusetts to revolution; the ideals they upheld in the formation of new governments; and the resulting outcomes of their actions over the last 250 years. Read more.
Belmont, Mass. Educator Named National History Day Teacher of the Year
Ms. Suzanne Zmijewski Lim of Chenery Middle School in Belmont Receives National Award
The Massachusetts Historical Society is pleased to announce that Ms. Suzanne Zmijewski Lim, an eighth grade teacher at Winthrop L. Chenery Middle School in Belmont, Massachusetts, won the Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award for the junior division (grades 6-8) of the 2021 National History Day Contest. The award is sponsored by Patricia Behring in recognition of the pivotal role teachers play in the lives of students. As the winner of this award, Mrs. Lim will receive $10,000. Read more.
2021-2022 Research Fellows Announced
Each year the MHS grants a number of research fellowships to scholars from around the country. The fellowship program brings a wide variety of researchers working on a full range of topics. Read more.
Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize Awarded to Kerri K. Greenidge
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) has awarded the 2020 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize to Kerri K. Greenidge for her book Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, published in 2019 by Liveright. The Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize is given to the best nonfiction work on the history of Massachusetts published during the preceding year. Greenidge will receive the award at an online event on Tuesday, February 9, 2021. Read more.
Standing Up, Stepping Forward, & Speaking Out: The Political Courage to Take a Principled Stand with John Dean and William Weld on 9 September 2020
Presented by the Massachusetts Historical Society, this virtual conversation will discuss those who go against the grain to stand up against political corruption and white collar crimes.
Watergate was a sea change in American politics. But even as a presidential scandal gripped the nation, there were remarkable displays of political courage as Republicans and Democrats found ways to work together for the good of the nation. On Wednesday, September 9, 2020, at 5:30 PM, the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) will host a conversation between John Dean and William Weld, for whom Watergate was a transformational moment. Read more.
Monuments: Snapshots of an Ever-Changing Story
Americans have begun to reexamine the monuments that make up our civic landscape. While these discussions are not new, the recent protests over this country’s longstanding racial injustice have given them a new urgency and scope. Ultimately, each decision about the fate of a local monument will be decided by the people in that community, and we believe that the current dialogue is both valuable and timely. Indeed, as the nation’s first historical society, we applaud the increased interest in and conversations about historical artifacts, people, events, and monuments. Read more.
National History Day in Massachusetts Enables Students to Engage in Black History Topics
Mayor Marty Walsh, when asked whether he would consider requiring Boston schools to teach Black history (“Ask the Mayor,” Boston Public Radio, 6/26/2020), made it clear that while educators make curriculum decisions, he believes that Massachusetts students need a “full understanding” of American history, which must include the “contributions [of] the Black community” and the “biases [they] faced.” Unfortunately, Mayor Walsh conceded, there is only so much time in the day for teachers to spend on history and social studies. Read more.
A Message from the MHS President, 8 June 2020
The Massachusetts Historical Society has taken time to reflect on and examine the events of the past week even as we grieved and raged. We are heartbroken at the brutal killing of George Floyd and share the outrage of those who took to our streets in protest. George Floyd is the latest in a long line of persons of color who have suffered torture, rape, and death since the beginnings of the United States of America. Read more.
MHS Housing as History Program Series Wins 2020 AASLH Award of Excellence
The MHS proudly announces that it is the recipient of an American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Award of Excellence for the Housing as History Program Series it produced in the fall of 2019. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 75th year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. Read more.
MHS Awards 63 Fellowships for the 2020-2021 Academic Year
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is pleased to announce the full list of research fellows for the 2020-2021 year. Offering more assistance than ever before to scholars who wish to use the MHS library and archival collections, the MHS received more than 200 applications and ultimately granted 63 individual grants. Since the start of the fellowship program in the 1984-1985 academic year, the MHS has awarded more than 900 fellowships. These research projects have resulted in more than 470 publications, including more than 160 books. Read more.
