This Month at the MHS

In 1790, the Rev. Jeremy Belknap proposed a "Plan for an Antiquarian Society" that would actively collect materials for a "complete history" of the new nation. A year later, Belknap's plan became the "Historical Society"--now the Massachusetts Historical Society--the oldest historical organization in the Western Hemisphere. The ten original members donated books, pamphlets, newspapers, maps and atlases, almanacs, printed sermons, manuscripts, and examples of early Massachusetts coinage from their personal collections. From September 2011 through March 2012, view a selection of the Society's earliest acquisitions in the new Treasures Gallery. The exhibition is free and open to the public, Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The MHS exhibition complements "Making History: Antiquaries in Britain," an exhibition celebrating the tercentenary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, now on display at the McMullen Museum at Boston College until December 11, 2011.

This program explores the changing patterns of American maritime commerce in the Early Republic from the perspective of merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, who were some of the first Americans to trade in the Baltic, India, and China. Lewis’s work investigates the geographic breadth of Salem’s commerce, the process of forming new trading relationships with merchants on the other side of the globe, and how this participation in global commerce affected Salem’s local political debates over the project of constructing a federal union that would make the oceans stable, safe, and profitable for American ships.

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.

African American men and women in post-Civil War Boston were a significant voice in urban and national politics. They gave shape to new understandings of freedom and citizenship as they constructed political strategies for civil and political rights based upon community vigilance supported by state enforcement. They participated in debates over Reconstruction, voted in local and national elections, shifted between the Republican and Democratic Parties, challenged racial discrimination, mounted anti-lynching campaigns, and formed political coalitions with Irish-Americans. Success on the local level in Boston encouraged African Americans in the struggle for black uplift nationally.

This presentation explores the range of African American political activism in Boston and how challenges for civil rights and political inclusion are inextricably entwined with the transformations in the United States political party system and changes in the power of the national state. It seeks to uncover new avenues for exploring black and white political alliances and further expanding the political history of African American men and women.

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 diary and autobiographical writings of Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, the British-born wife of John Quincy Adams, will be published in two volumes this year as part of the Adams Papers Diary series. To the prodigious records left by the Adamses, Louisa adds highly personal works that give a fresh perspective on the family and particularly on John Quincy, who emerges from her pages as a gallant and generous husband as often as he confirms his image as the ambitious and duty-bound Adams scion. Louisa offers opinions on the great events of her time, in so many of which her husband played a central role, but what makes her writings most valuable are her descriptions of life in the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Europe and America, the parlors of friends, and the family home, wherever that might be.

We will consider the nature and purpose of Louisa’s writings, the challenges encountered in transforming her manuscripts into a documentary edition, and the rewards her works provide for historians and an interested public alike.

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.

Since the English colonization of North America in 1620, the resources of New England’s coastal waters have supported the economic and cultural systems of what is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This paper investigates the early history of state control of these offshore resources, drawing on colonial-era sources on fishing and whaling. It looks at the efforts of colonial authorities to oversee New England waters and describes the development over time of the colonies’ efforts to maintain the region’s fish, shellfish, and cetacean populations, both for the subsistence use of individual citizens as well as for export to Caribbean and European markets. It argues that the modes of oversight developed during the colonial era came to serve as the basis for fish, mollusk, and cetacean management efforts in future centuries, as well as for structuring current debates about how new uses of marine resources, such as capturing offshore winds for the generation of electricity, should be regulated by the state.

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.

Korean adoption, which Oh argues has been crucial to the development of intercountry adoption, began in the 1950s in the aftermath of the Korean War. Moved by the plight of mixed-race "GI babies" and "full-blooded" Korean children alike, American adoptive parents embraced these children as their own, and American GIs, missionaries and adoption brokers supported the establishment and growth of Korean adoption. A number of important convergences in the early 1960s facilitated the systematization of Korean adoption: amateur adoption brokers and professional social workers came to agreement on the procedures and philosophies governing intercountry adoption; complementary U.S. immigration law and Korean emigration policy oiled the increasingly efficient machinery of the developing Korean adoption industry; and poor Korean families relinquished their children to Americans who faced a shortage of desirable (that is to say, white) children domestically. Korean adoption had first arisen in response to a perceived need to evacuate mixed-race Korean children. But long after it had "solved" the GI-baby problem, the practice persisted such that South Korea was annually sending thousands of children abroad by the 1970s and continues to be a top 5 sending country today.