This Week @ MHS

If you are in the neighborhood at lunch time on Wednesday, 1 August, plan to attend our brown-bag lunch.Research fellow Justin Clark, University of Southern California, will present "Training the Eyes: Romantic Vision and Class Formation in Boston, 1830-1870." Clark will describe his work examining why, in the spectacular world of the nineteenth-century city, Boston’s Transcendentalists, clairvoyants, blind autobiographers, naturalists, artists, photographers, and numerous others became invested in seeing more than meets the eye, leaving time for discussion with audience members.

Before or after lunch -- or anytime between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM, Monday through Saturday -- take some time to explore our latest exhibition, Mr. Madison's War: The Controversial War of 1812, showcasing a number of letters, broadsides, artifacts, and images from the Society's rich collections including a midshipman's log of the USS Constitution describing the ship's first great victory, letters written by John Quincy Adams to his mother while serving as the American minister to Russia, and a brass cannon captured from the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

And on Saturday, 4 August, do not miss "The History and Collections of the MHS," our regular building tour. The 90-minute tour departs our front lobby promptly at 10:00 AM.

This Week @ MHS

We are offering a couple of lunch time programs this week. Bring your lunch and join us in the Dowse Library for on of the following.

Monday, 23 July at noon listen as Andrew W. Mellon research fellow Benjamin Wright, Rice University, shares his insights into "Conversion and Antislavery, 1750-1830." Wright's project examines how ideologies of conversion directed the tactics of early antislavery reformers and how changes in these ideologies transformed antislavery into abolitionism.

Wednesday, 25 July at noon Malcolm and Mildred Freiberg research fellow Katherine Grandjean, Wellesley College, discusses her research into the relationship between the wars plaguing New England’s northern frontier and the rise of the press at the turn of the eighteenth century with "Terror ubique tremor: Communicating Terror in Early New England, 1677-1713."

And on Saturday, 28 July do not miss "The History and Collections of the MHS," our regular building tour. The 90-minute tour departs our front lobby promptly at 10:00.

This Week @ MHS

The weather man is predicting a lovely week, so plan to escape a bit on your lunch break and head to the MHS for one of our lunchtime programs.  Be sure to check the online calendar for additional details about the events.

Monday, 9 July at noon Moira Gillis, University of Oxford, will present a brown-bag lunch program, The Emergence of the American Corporation: The New England Example. Gillis will discuss her research into the legal and historical parameters of the corporation as it developed in New England.

Wednesday, 11 July at noon Allison Lange, Brandies University, wil present a brown-bag lunch program, Pictures and Progress: The Politics of Images in the Woman Suffrage Movement, in which she explores the visual culture of the suffrage movement.

Saturday, 14 July at 10:00 AM join our 90-minute building tour "The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society."

Celebrating Independence on July 2nd!

Yesterday we shared an Independence Day message from John Quincy Adams on the Beehive. In keeping in the spirit of preparing to celebrate our nation's birthday, today we share some of John Adams' words on the subject.  In a letter dated 3 July 1776 future president John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: 

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Adams was correct about everything but the date!  His description of people using "Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations" to mark this "most memorable day" is spot on for most American communities today. On Monday, 2 July visit the MHS to hear Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey explain why John Adams believed 2 July 1776 would be the most memorable day in the history of America. We will offer two gallery talks, at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, for interested visitors to learn the story.

If you cannot make it to a gallery talk, you can still plan to visit the MHS to view the exhibition The Most Memorable Day in the History of America: July 2, 1776. The exhibition, features letters exchanged between John and Abigail Adams, manuscript copies of early drafts of the Declaration of Independence in both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson's own handwriting, and the Society's own first printing of the Declaration, also known as the Dunlap broadside. The exhibition is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, from 2 July through 31 August.  

Alex Ashlock of WBUR spoke with Peter Drummey about the exhibition over the weekend. Read more in his write-up Should We Be Celebrating July 2nd?