Object of the Month

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April 2020

“Summer flowers … sprung from the earth in such haste and abundance as to tell of infinite treasures beneath”: the Brook Farm watercolors of Marianne Dwight

Watercolor on paper, November 1845

February 2020

“Malicious accusations, often intirely false and always overcharged”: an Unpopular Account of the Boston Massacre

Pamphlet, 1770

December 2019

“I never, never wish to be away from that Christmas party”: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Bowditch Family Christmas Revels

Manuscript and ribbons, 1886

October 2019

Opalescent: The Story of Opal Whiteley

Photograph, circa 1919

September 2019

"Happy childhood's golden hours": Marian Hooper's 1850 Sampler

Cotton on linen, 1850

August 2019

"A big baby always having to be fed and never growing up": Lucy Stone and the Woman's Journal

Engraving, 1916

June 2019

"A Blushing Debutante": Nathan Appleton's Gender Crossing

Photograph, 1862

May 2019

“Women Who Need to Earn Their Own Living”: A Female Journalist Considers the New Woman at Work

Typescript, circa 1910s

April 2019

From Loyalist son to American consul: Benjamin Joy of Boston

Furniture, 18th century

March 2019

John Leverett's Buff Coat

Coat, circa 1640

February 2019

"Flower paintings … so natural the bees might light on them": a unique volume of Emily Dickinson's Poems illustrated by Ellen Robbins

Book, 1891

January 2019

"All the time we have been here, I have been unable to get any clear statement of our ends in this conference": Charles Moorfield Storey at the Paris Peace Conference

Manuscript, 14 December 1918

October 2018

Hamilton, Memory, and Irony: Aaron Burr and Wendell Phillips Encounter Alexander Hamilton

Sculpture, 1794

October 2018

"I have heard Some of the Democratic rejoicing": Abigail Adams's Last Letter to John

Manuscript, 21 February 1801

September 2018

The Hurricane of '38

Photograph, September 1938

August 2018

Protecting American Interests: the Steamer Queen on the Pearl River, 1855

Watercolor on paper, [1855]

July 2018

Lantern Slide Depicting Adams Square, Boston

Lantern slide, 1900

June 2018

Baseball's Barnstorming Bloomer Girls: Women and the National Pastime

Photograph, circa 1890s-1910s

May 2018

The Guest of the Nation Returns to Boston: A Keepsake from the Marquis de Lafayette's Farewell Visits in 1824 and 1825

Kidskin

April 2018

Thaddeus Hyatt: Forgotten Abolitionist and Prisoner of Conscience

Photograph, 1860

March 2018

“Very like old fashioned March”: the Great Blizzard of 1888

Photograph, March 1888

February 2018

"They belonging to themselves": Minda Campbell Redeems Her Family from Slavery

Manuscript, 28 August 1860

December 2017

News of the Halifax Explosion Reaches Boston

Manuscript, 6-7 December 1917

November 2017

A New England Thanksgiving in the California Gold Country, 1850

Manuscript, 1948

October 2017

"I don't think you could beat our mode of travel for seeing a great deal of country": Auto-Camping in the West

Manuscript, 4 July 1919

September 2017

"There is no public or private man in Massachusetts for whom I should sooner vote than for you."

Manuscript, 2 November 1886

August 2017

The Fairy Sisters: Smallest Persons in the World

Poster, circa 1873

July 2017

Cy Young and other baseball players at the Huntington Avenue Grounds

Glass plate negative, circa 1908-1911

June 2017

Under Seven Flags: A Drawing of the Confederate Ironclad Ram Stonewall

Manuscript, 1863-1864

May 2017

When the Circus came to Boston in 1889: in Honor of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Final Tour

Painting, 1889

April 2017

President of the Massachusetts Historical Society in a Fistfight: War Declared

Manuscript, 4 April 1917

March 2017

"Shall we submit to have our citizens shot down by a set of vagabond Irishmen!": Changing Perceptions of the Irish in Massachusetts

Broadside, 1854

February 2017

"A living and very robust reminder of the nearness of the great year of 1848": Mr. Thuolt and his Boston Riding School

Carte de visite, [1862]

January 2017

The Balloon Post: Susan Hale celebrates the birth of airmail and raises money for war relief in 1871 Boston

Periodical, 11 April 1871

December 2016

Rebeccah of Brook Farm

Doll, 1841

November 2016

The Deadlocked Presidential Election of 1800

Manuscript, 26 January 1801

October 2016

Ether Day, 16 October 1846: the Conquest of Pain

Manuscript, 16 October 1846

September 2016

The Other Side of the Hill

Speech, [1952]

August 2016

A Curiosity of Early Printing and Science from the Library of Laura Norcross Marrs

Mezzotint, 1752

July 2016

A Cool Day for a Declaration

Manuscript, July 1776

June 2016

Adventure: A Portrait of Robert Haswell, Mariner

Pastel on paper, circa 1800

May 2016

Glorious News of the End of the Stamp Act

Broadside, 1766

April 2016

“You know the balance of trade was always against me”: Thomas Jefferson and Abigail Adams Go Shopping

Manuscript, 9 August 1786

March 2016

The Biblical View of the Great Question of Woman’s Suffrage

Manuscript, 10 April [1868]

February 2016

The Sage of Monticello Edits a Letter to His Granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 27 August 1825

Manuscript (draft), 27 August 1825

January 2016

"I shall be satisfied if I can but carry the hod and mortar for men of learning." Thomas Wallcut records the first meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 24 January 1791

Minutes, 1791

December 2015

Farewell to The Liberator: the last issue of William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper is printed twice on 29 December 1865

Newspaper, 29 December 1865

November 2015

The Mount Kenya book club: Theodore Roosevelt discusses politics and literature while on safari in East Africa in 1909.

Manuscript, 10 September 1909

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