Events

This project assesses American relics—publicly significant mortal remains and related artifacts—that have emerged and persisted since the colonial period.  American Relics will analyze the evolving meanings and deployments of American mementos mori and other potent objects.  Its interpretive narrative focuses attention on exemplary relics—whether ordinary or extraordinary—placing them in a broader context, using their histories to analyze the means through which Americans have used them to express and authorize their public words by making those words (literally) concrete.

This history of rail trails highlights the increasingly fractious relationship among urban constituencies and sheds light on the meaning of recreational trails as spaces of potential conflict between groups of walkers, landowners, policymakers, and residents.

In an intimate and relaxed walk through the exhibition In Death Lamented, co-curators Anne Bentley and Sarah Nehama will discuss their favorite pieces, and Ms. Nehama will relay some of the adventures she encountered while building her private collection.

Gene Dattel, author of Cotton and Race in the Making of America, will bring the relationship of cotton and race out of the regional shadows into the forefront of American history. The powerful dynamic of cotton, the first truly global business, produced catastrophic racial consequences and performed a critical nation-building economic impact. Dattel casts light upon today’s economic and racial issues and financial policies. He explains why the antebellum North provides the key to the tragedy of African American history from Reconstruction to the present.

Gene Dattel grew up in the cotton country of the Mississippi Delta and studied history at Yale and law at Vanderbilt. He then embarked on a twenty-year career in financial capital markets. Mr Dattel is now a New York/Connecticut-based financial historian who lectures widely. Additional information may be obtained at genedattel.com.

Reservations requested. To RSVP call 617-646-0560 or click on the ticket icon above.

Due to circumstances beyond his control, Niall Ferguson will no longer be able to moderate the talk.

Despite her role as an influential first Lady, Dolley Madison left no autobiographical record of her experiences as a woman or as a socio-political figure. In The Queen of America, acclaimed author Catherine Allgor along with other Madison historians offer the annotated memoir of Dolley from her niece, Mary Cutts. Revealing much about public women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Allgor also offers an example of the ways in which historians can recover the lives of these "vanishing ladies."

Granting considerable insight into the figures of both Madison and her ambitious niece, whose memoir touches upon nineteenth-century femininity and historical relevancy as well as Dolley’s own life and times, The Queen of America assesses, contextualizes, and comments upon the two drafts of Cutts’s biography. Including a newly annotated transcription, the book evaluates the adequacy, accuracy, and general utility of Cutts’s memoir as a historical and biographical source.

As noted by Cokie Roberts in the book’s foreword, in the midst of a “detective story” of this historical puzzle, Allgor acts as both guide and investigator into the information that was provided—and withheld—by Cutts.

Catherine Allgor, Professor of History and Presidential Chair at the University of California, Riverside, is the author of A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation and Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government.

This seminar paper chronicles the rise, fall, and re-emergence of immigrant voting. It examines the arguments for and against noncitizen voting—as well as proponents and opponents—and its impact on policy and American political development.

From sidewalks to streetcars, public space was a significant battleground in the post-Civil War urban south. With a focus on Richmond and New Orleans, this talk recaptures the vibrant movements for citizenship without regard to race or status, as well as the anxieties over sexual histories of racial uncertainty that fueled their political opposition.

One hundred years ago, the presidential election of 1912 saw the emergence of the strongest third-party candidate in American history when former president Theodore Roosevelt returned to the political arena as the standard bearer of the Progressive "Bull Moose" Party and Eugene Debs made the best showing ever for a Socialist Party candidate. Between 4 September and 27 November, the Society will display personal correspondence, photographs, and political memorabilia to show how Woodrow Wilson eked out a victory in one of the most closely contested presidential elections in Massachusetts history.

The Confederacy in history, myth, and memory continues to be a topic that fascinates a global audience. Why? How has the memory developed from the eras of the War, the Lost Cause, Civil Rights, and today? Waite Rawls, President and CEO of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, will address these and related questions as he demonstrates how this history is relevant in the 21st century, especially its complications and nuances.

Mr. Rawls spent 30 years as an investment banker in New York and Chicago before returning to his native Virginia 8 years ago. He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and has a JD and MBA from the University of Virginia.

Reservations requested. To RSVP call 617-646-0560 or click on the ticket icon above.

Join us for our first historical happy hour! Associate Members are invited to gather after the talk by Waite Rawls to enjoy a cocktail and continue the discussion. Immediately following the talk, we will walk to The Hawthorne in Kenmore Square for a Southern cocktail and some delightful discourse.

Evening Lecture

The Confederacy in History, Myth, & Memory

Waite Rawls, Museum of the Confederacy

The Confederacy in history, myth, and memory continues to be a topic that fascinates a global audience. Why? How has the memory developed from the eras of the War, the Lost Cause, and Civil Rights? Mr. Rawls will address these and related questions as he demonstrates how this history is relevant in the 21st century, especially its complications and nuances.

Reception at 5:30 PM / Lecture at 6:00 PM

The third annual Cocktails with Clio will take place on 30 November 2012, from 6 to 9 PM. Named for the muse of history, this festive evening celebrates American history and the 221-year-old mission of the Society. Following an elegant cocktail buffet at the Society’s building, guests will proceed to the nearby Harvard Club for dessert and a conversation with cultural critic, Harvard scholar, host of PBS series Finding Your Roots, and MHS Overseer Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  As the evening progresses, Professor Gates will discuss his approach to writing and teaching history, his interest in tracing our nation’s roots through individual stories, and how he has used MHS collections in his research.

Tickets cost $200 per person. All net proceeds from the event will support the Society's outreach efforts.

The MHS is pleased to offer the following event sponsorships:

$5,000 - Clio’s Circle
•    Thank you in the event invitation and program book.
•    Complimentary valet parking for three vehicles.
•    Six tickets to the event.
•    Six reserved seats at the front of the hall for the speaking program.
•    Six tickets to the V.I.P. champagne pre-reception with special guest Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

$2,500 - Patrons of the Muse
•    Thank you in the event invitation and program book.
•    Complimentary valet parking for two vehicles.
•    Four tickets to the event.
•    Four reserved seats at the front of the hall for the speaking program.

$1,000 - Friends of the Muse    
•    Thank you in the event invitation and program book.
•    Complimentary valet parking for one vehicle.
•    Two tickets to the event.
•    Two reserved seats at the front of the hall for the speaking program.

For more information about becoming a sponsor, please contact Carol Knauff at cknauff@masshist.org or 617-646-0554.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Free and open to the public.

Dr. Hershberg, author of Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam, explores one of the war's last lingering mysteries: the secret Polish-Italian peace initiative, codenamed "Marigold.” His analysis draws on the papers of Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who served as the US ambassador in Saigon, as well as newly-available communist sources. Dr. Hershberg is Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University, and former director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project.

Reservations requested. To RSVP call 617-646-0560 or click on the ticket icon above.

The seminar paper describes how the Spanish created a new network of information that consisted of mobile and trusted informers. It is part of a project that examines the acquisition and transmission of information in the pre-postal, pre-printing press colonial South.

Today public marriage-based entitlements, such as Social Security benefits for spouses, are considered part and parcel of marriage itself. This was not always the case. “Entitling Marriage” charts the development of centralized marriage-based entitlements from the late 18th century into the early 20th century. The emergence and proliferation of such entitlements profoundly shaped the legal definition of marriage, as well as Americans’ shared understanding of their rights and roles as husbands, wives, and citizens.

This seminar paper is part of a book-length project. It follows four women in particular, Geraldine Roberts, Mary McClendon, Geraldine Miller, and Dorothy Bolden, to examine how and why they launched local campaigns for the rights of domestic workers.

In 1971, George Cheever Shattuck made a gift to the Society that included half a dozen mourning jewels from his family's history. Join MHS Curator of Art Anne E. Bentley for an inside view of the jewelry and the stories.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Free and open to the public.

This seminar paper explores how the commodity production activities of early settlers impacted the land- and waterscapes of New England’s longest river. It is the capstone chapter to a book project on the environmental history of the colonial Connecticut Valley.

Celebrate the season with the Trustees and staff of the MHS for a special year-end reception
to thank our Fellows and Members for their continuing support.

Registration is required.

Students of a new Boston University course "Making History" discuss the MHS exhibit on King Philip's War they have researched and compiled. The semester-long project on the bloody conflict between English colonists and Native Americans includes work on letters and diaries, sermons, early printed books, and objects from the war.

James H. Johnson, who teaches "Making History," is Associate Professor of History at Boston University. He is the recipient of the University's highest teaching award and the author of two prize-winning books, Listening in Paris: A Cultural History and Venice Incognito: Masks in the Serene Republic.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Free and open to the public.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Free and open to the public.

The MHS exhibition galleries will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The MHS exhibition galleries will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The MHS exhibition galleries will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The MHS exhibition galleries will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.