MHS News

MHS Council of Overseers

In June 2009, the MHS Board of Trustees voted to establish a new Council of Overseers to provide the expertise, thoughtful guidance, and support to advise on the future of the MHS during this unprecedented era of change for the humanities. Elected by the Board of Trustees for four-year terms, the first class of Overseers consists of 21 individuals, although the number will eventually grow to 40. The new group met for the first time on 6 April 2010. The meeting was a great success, consisting of introductions, an orientation and tour, a discussion of the challenges that the Society faces, a presentation by longtime MHS Trustee and eminent historian Bernard Bailyn on the significance of the Society and its collections, and a dinner with the MHS officers and managers. They will convene again in October to meet the challenges ahead.

Benjamin C. Adams
Ben Adams is a healthcare investment banker who has worked with a wide range of transactions for both profit and nonprofit healthcare service providers. He is active in historical preservation and currently serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Adams Memorial Foundation in Washington, DC, president of the Adams Memorial Society, and as a member of the Board of Supervisors of the Adams Temple and School Fund.

Frederick D. Ballou
Fred Ballou is a private trustee at Loring, Wolcott and Coolidge.  While he will maintain an office at the firm he is actively stepping down from his trusteeships. Mr. Ballou is a governor of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, a trustee of the Gaston Lachaise Foundation, and a member of the board of both the New England Quarterly and the Paul Revere Memorial Association.  A voracious reader, he has a great interest in American history—the colonial period in particular.

Robert Baron
Robert Baron has been a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 1984 and was the organizer of the conference on the libraries of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson held in Boston and Charlottesville in June 2009. He is the author or editor of 25 books, including Pioneers and Plodders: The American Entrepreneurial Spirit, Hudson: The Story of a River, 20th Century America: 100 Influential People, Heaven and Nature Sing: Land, Wilderness and Writers, What Was It Like Orville: Observations on the Early Space Program, and Digital Logic and Computer Operations. Mr. Baron was program manager for the Mariner II (Venus) and the Mariner IV (Mars) onboard space computers, the founder of Prime Computer—which became one of the Fortune 500 largest American companies—the founder of Fulcrum Publishing, and the founder of 3rd, an educational program for older Americans.

Anne Brooke
Anne Brooke is a former participant in the fields of decorative arts and historic preservation in New England, where she worked on the restoration of the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts.  She was the chairman of the Board of the Concord Museum and raised the money necessary to modernize the museum with a sizeable new building addition.  Ms. Brooke is an honorary overseer of the Museum of Fine Arts, a visitor to the Harvard Art Museums, and an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  She is the former vice president of the Mass Audubon Society and trustee of the Friends of the Public Gardens.

Levin H. Campbell, Jr.
Lee Campbell, a fellow of the MHS, is a middle-school history and English teacher who has also split time with school administration.  Earlier in his career he worked in museum education at the USS Constitution Museum and Mystic Seaport.  For many years Mr. Campbell worked at Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center in Boston as the assistant head of a school program for middle-school-age inner city youth. He is a trustee of the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, as well as treasurer of the Freelance Players and Urban Improv, a violence prevention program based in Boston.

Edward Cooke
Edward Cooke, Jr., the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University, has published extensively on both historical and contemporary material culture.  Among his books are Making Furniture in Pre-industrial America: The Social Economy of Newtown and Woodbury Connecticut and Upholstery in America and Europe from the Seventeenth Century to World War I.  He has also historicized and explicated more recent forms of modern craft as a co-curator and author of several different exhibitions including Inspiring Reform: Boston’s Arts and Crafts Movement,  Wood Turning in North America since 1930, The Maker’s Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990, and Inspired by China: Contemporary Furniture Makers Explore Chinese Traditions.

Francis Coolidge
Francis Coolidge is a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP. He currently serves on boards at Charity of Edward Hopkins, Coloy Memorial, Ellison Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health, Hermes Foundation, International Cancer Foundation, Partners Healthcare Systems, and the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society. He was a former board member of the American Cancer Society and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Deborah Gates
Deborah Gates was a commercial banker in the international division of Bank of Boston before leaving as an assistant vice president to raise a family. She joined the Board of Governors of Gore Place, a federal house museum in Waltham, in 1998, and has been president of the board since 2003.

Peter J. Gomes
The Reverend Peter John Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Harvard University, has served in the Memorial Church since 1970.  A member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of the Faculty of Divinity of Harvard University, he is widely regarded as one of America’s most distinguished preachers and fulfills preaching and lecturing engagements throughout America and the United Kingdom. Dr. Gomes holds many honors including Harvard University’s Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award and the Phillips Brooks House Association Outstanding Supporter Award as well as the Roosevelt Institute Freedom of Religion Award.  He is an honorary fellow of Emmanuel College, The University of Cambridge, England, where the Gomes Lectureship is established in his name.

Bayard Henry
Bayard Henry, a self-employed venture capitalist, has served on the boards of a number of local institutions, including the Boston Athenaeum, Trinity Church Foundation, and New England Forestry Foundation.

Amalie M. Kass
Amalie Kass became familiar with the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society while doing research for her biography of Dr. Walter Channing, Midwifery and Medicine in Boston, and joined as a member in 1991. In 1995 she was elected a Fellow. She began her service on the Board of Trustees as a member-at-large in 1996, was vice chair in 2000-2001, and chair from 2002 to 2009.  She remains on the Board and is presently a member of the Governance and Development Committees, as well as chair of the Council of Overseers. She presently holds an appointment as Lecturer on the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  In addition to the Channing book, she has published another biography, Perfecting the World: Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, 1798-1866 (coauthored with her late husband, Dr. Edward H. Kass), as well as numerous essays and journal articles.

Catherine Lastavica
Catherine C. Lastavica is a retired physician who specialized in infectious disease and public health.  She was a member of the Department of Tropical Public Health at Harvard. In recent years, Ms. Lastavica has been interested in land conservation and has served as a trustee with the Trustees of Reservations.

Emily Lewis
Emily Lewis, a Fellow at the MHS, has served on the organization’s Collections Committee. Ms. Lewis inherited three weekly newspapers on the coast of Maine from her late husband, Richard Saltonstall, Jr. She ran the award-winning papers for a decade before selling them in 1991. Since then, Ms. Lewis has taken classes in landscape design and photography through the Radcliffe Seminars as well as the Maine Media Workshops.

George Lewis
George Lewis, a partner at Saltonstall & Company, was previously a partner of both Thorndike, Doran, Paine & Lewis and Wellington Management Company. He serves on the board of the Peabody Museum and Wentworth Institute and is a trustee of Middlesex School. Mr. Lewis is a member of The Boston Security Analysts Society, Inc., and is on the Board of Governors of the Bay Club.

Nathaniel Philbrick
Nat Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, Sea of Glory, and Mayflower, has used the collections at the MHS for his research.  His most recent book, The Last Stand, is an account of the Battle of Little Bighorn. He has begun work on a book about the early years of the American Revolution in Boston, climaxing with the Battle of Bunker Hill. He is the founding director of the Egan Maritime Institute on Nantucket.

George Putnam
George Putnam is a retired investment company executive and trustee, and until the year 2000 he was chairman of both Putnam Investments and the Putnam Mutual Funds. Mr. Putnam is a trustee or honorary trustee of a number of institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, WGBH Educational Foundation, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He has served on the boards of several colleges—including Wellesley and Harvard—and was a professional corporate director, serving on the boards of General Mills, Houghton Mifflin, Freeport McMoran, and Mallinckrodt among others.

Byron Rushing
Byron Rushing serves the Ninth Suffolk district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Elected in 1982, he serves as the Second Assistant Majority Leader. His priorities are human and civil rights and liberties; local human, economic, and housing development; environmental justice; and health care. Mr. Rushing is an elected deputy to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. He is a founding member of the Episcopal Urban Caucus, and he serves on the boards of the Episcopal Women's Caucus and the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice.

Polly Saltonstall
Polly Saltonstall has 20 years of experience writing, editing and managing newspapers. A freelance writer, she has been published in the New York Times, the Bangor Daily News, and Cooking Light magazine, among other publications. She received honorable mention for coverage of substance abuse issues from the Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Awards as well as several New England Press Association awards. Ms. Saltonstall is president of the board of the Penobscot Marine Museum.

Stephen Swensrud
In a finance career with an emphasis on venture capital and investment management, Steve Swensrud has been a director or trustee of numerous operating companies and investment funds. He is currently a principal of Fernwood Advisors, Inc. Mr. Swensrud has been active as a trustee and/or officer of many academic and medical institutions including the Park School, the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute.

John Thorndike
John Thorndike, a retired vice president and trust officer at Fiduciary Trust Company, was employed in the investment management field for over 40 years. He served as a trustee of Provident Institution for Savings, was both a member and president of The Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority, and was the director of numerous Eaton Vance Mutual Funds. Mr. Thorndike has served on the boards of many nonprofits including Mass Audubon Society, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New England Historical Genealogical Society, and Robert Breck Brigham Hospital. He has also been a very active participant on many Town of Dover committees and has served as the town moderator.

W. Nicholas Thorndike
W. Nicholas Thorndike was a founder of Thorndike, Doran, Paine, & Lewis, which later merged with Wellington Management Co. He was chairman and managing partner of Wellington Management from 1966 to1988.  He has been active as a corporate director and trustee since 1988 and has served as chairman of the board of Massachusetts General Hospital.

John Winthrop
John Winthrop is a trustee, asset manager, and tree farmer in South Carolina.  On Wall Street he was an employee and director of Wood, Struthers & Winthrop, and also the acquiring firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Mr. Winthrop has served on the Visiting Committee of History at Harvard and writes occasional articles on history and other subjects for various publications.  He has also served as a director of several for-profit and numerous not-for-profit organizations.  He is currently chairman of Ivanhoe Plantation, Inc. in Allendale, South Carolina and founder and president of John Winthrop & Co.

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Image: ©2010 Laura Wulf

 

MHS Joins Current Scholarship Program at JSTOR

The MHS has signed on to join the Current Scholarship Program (CSP), a new digital initiative of JSTOR.  A leader in the digitization of scholarly journals since 1995, JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that provides online access to back issues of over 1,200 scholarly journals to students and faculty at over 6,000 educational institutions around the world.  With CSP, which will launch in 2011, JSTOR is making its first foray as a partner to publishers in the digital publishing of new scholarly content.  The MHS is now among 14 presses that have decided to participate, including major presses such as University of California Press, the University of Chicago Press, and the University of Illinois Press.

The MHS began its relationship with JSTOR several years ago, when arrangements were made to include back issues of the Massachusetts Historical Review on the JSTOR platform. By joining CSP, the MHS will also publish each new issue of the MHR through JSTOR, where it will be made available alongside hundreds of other history journals and promoted to a much larger audience than it currently reaches. 

The Society will also continue to print the journal for our Members and Fellows.  When CSP launches, however, Members and Fellows will also have the option of accessing the digital journal as a benefit of membership.  We look forward to making this available and to seeing our articles becoming a resource for an ever larger group of students and researchers.

For more information about the Current Scholarship Program, see http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/programs/currentScholarship.jsp University of Chicago Press, and the University of Illinois Press.

MHS Makes Winning Bid for Abigail Adams Letter in Recent Sotheby’s Auction

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is delighted to announce its recent acquisition of a letter written by Abigail Adams from Quincy, MA on October 18, 1800, to Dr. Benjamin Rush, responding to criticisms against her husband during the presidential campaign. The letter was auctioned at Sotheby’s on April 14 as part of the James S. Copley Library, a collection of letters and documents from the Revolutionary period signed by such notable figures as John and Abigail Adams, Samuel Adams, Ethan Allen, John Hancock, and George Washington. The acquisition was made possible by a gift to the MHS from an anonymous donor.

The MHS chose this particular letter not only because it will complement and enhance the Society’s Adams Family Papers collection but also because it demonstrates Abigail Adams's engagement in early American politics. This is the first contested presidential campaign in the history of the United States and Abigail Adams demonstrates both her involvement in her husband’s career and her keen grasp of the issues at hand. She writes, "If there can be any measures calculated to excite a wish in the breasts of our Countrymen for a permanent executive Majestrate, it must arise from the corruption of morals introduced by frequent Elections, from the indecent calumny which sports with the purest Characters; and strives to level them with the meanest; which filches from the most meritorious, that which is dearer than life their good name—that previous ointment which they have stored up to embalm their memory."

“The Adams Papers editors at the MHS have been aware of the Abigail Adams letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush for more than fifty years and are thrilled to have it as part of our collection. The document was offered at auction as early as 1943, when the suggested price was a mere $45,” commented Jim Taylor, Adams Papers Editor-in-Chief. “It is an excellent example of the first lady’s interest in and knowledge of early national politics. The MHS owns Abigail’s draft of the letter. The document recently obtained by the MHS is the final version that she sent, and is significantly different than the draft,” he explains. “This letter, when compared to the draft, demonstrates the great care that she took in expressing her ideas.”

New Website Uncovers Passages Written by Jefferson That Have Been Hidden for Centuries

The manuscript of Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson’s only full-length book is now available online at www.masshist.org/thomasjeffersonpapers/notes. Created by the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS), the website enables visitors to see and interact with passages that were previously hidden from view due to the methods used by Jefferson for inserting changes onto handwritten pages. The website provides evidence of not only Thomas Jefferson's meticulous approach to writing but also an ingenious way to view passages that have been obscured for centuries.

Using recent advances in technology—including faster computer processors, faster bandwidth speeds, and the ever-increasing capabilities of web browsers—the website developed by the MHS allows the reader to interact with color digital images of Jefferson's complex manuscript; read each manuscript piece in sequence or jump to specific pages or numbered queries—the topical chapters that Jefferson used to organize his published work; or remove the attachments and see the original passages written by Jefferson.

Work on this website began years ago when the MHS made conservation work on the manuscript of Notes on the State of Virginia a priority. It was in dire need of conservation treatment because the manuscript had been tightly bound in a modern leather cover. Wear-and-tear was beginning to take a toll on the paper, and there was considerable risk of tearing and decay along the edges of sheets. MHS applied for and received funding from Save America’s Treasures, a federal program, to conserve the manuscript and digitize selections of it.

Once conservation work was complete, each full and partial page—both front and back—were scanned. After experimenting with the digital images, the MHS realized that its existing web delivery system—designed to present a predictable sequence of manuscript pages—wasn't adequate to display Jefferson's complicated manuscript. However, recent changes in technology enabled the MHS to develop a website that fully conveys the elaborate nature of Jefferson’s revision process and allows users to “flip up” or “remove” the attachments—just as someone handling the paper manuscript would.

The online manuscript of Notes on the State of Virginia is part one of a larger effort planned by the MHS to present a scholarly electronic edition with annotations conveying how the manuscript relates to various significant published editions.

 

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Image: Detail of Table of Contents page from Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia