This Month at the MHS

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.

In Death Lamented features rings, bracelets, brooches, and other pieces of mourning jewelry from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, ranging from early gold bands with death’s head iconography to jeweled brooches and intricately woven hairwork pieces of the Civil War era. These elegant and evocative objects are presented in the context of their history, use, and meaning, alongside related pieces of material culture.

Drawn from the collections of the MHS and Guest Curator Sarah Nehama as well as loans from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Historic New England in Boston, and the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, exhibition highlights include the Adams-Winthrop commemorative seal ring containing the braided hair of John Quincy Adams and a gold memorial ring for Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

A full-color companion book, In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry, available for sale at the MHS, features photographs and descriptions of all of the Nehama and MHS pieces, along with historical and stylistic backgrounds and essays pertaining to cultural practices around death and mourning in England and America.

View a selection of mourning jewelry at www.masshist.org/features/mourning-jewelry.

Christian G. Samito will speak about the impact of changes in voting rights, the expansion of industry, the defeat of Native American resistance on the Northwestern and Southern borders, and judicial cases of national significance coming out of the War of 1812 and the years directly following. This program is presented in partnership with the USS Constitution Museum as part of the War of 1812 Bicentennial Series. Dr. Samito earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and doctorate in U.S. history from Boston College. His most recent book is Becoming American Under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship during the Civil War Era. He presently teaches at the Boston University School of Law and practices law in Boston.

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

A century ago, historians of the “imperial school” were fascinated by the fact that every new English colony established during the Restoration period took the form of a proprietorship, that is that they were the personal property of one or a few great men enjoying neo-feudal privileges. This paper suggests that, despite its fusty fixation on constitutional forms, the imperial school was on to something. Proprietaries were not mere institutional devices but central to the kind of empire Charles II and his courtiers thought they were creating.

Historians of early America have turned to almanacs such as those written by Nathaniel Ames and son and Benjamin Franklin for any number of reasons, but these sources have rarely been studied for the main purpose for which they were written: namely, the interpretation and prediction of the weather. Studied as a culturally-constructed discourse, the weather offers historians a window into the religious, philosophical, and experiential worldviews of those who wrote and read about it. Coleman’s interest in almanacs is part of her larger cultural study of weather and the multiple ways it was interpreted and used as a rhetorical tool in eighteenth-century America.

Join us to discuss the process of writing biography with these panelists, who will share their perspectives based on their extensive publications in the fields of classical and popular music.

Tim Riley is an NPR critic and the author of Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music—The Definitive Life (2011). His other books include Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary (1999), Madonna: Illustrated (1992), and Fever: How Rock 'n' Roll Transformed Gender in America (2005).

Jan Swafford is a composer and author. He has written the biography Charles Ives: A Life with Music (1998), which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award, and Johannes Brahms: A Biography (1999). He is presently completing a biography of Beethoven.

Judith Tick is a leading authority on the history of women in music. She is the author, with Gail Levin, of Aaron Copland’s America: A Cultural Perspective (2000). She is also the author of the biography Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer’s Search for American Music (1997) and is currently working on a biography of Ella Fitzgerald. Her book Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion (2008) provides several of the selections for this session’s supplementary readings.

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 as we open our doors as part of the Fenway Alliance's Opening Our Doors, Boston's largest single day of free arts and cultural events. On this day, the institutions that make up the Fenway Alliance along with community partner organizations welcome neighbors near and far to enjoy an unparalleled array of free activities for everyone. Visit the MHS and view In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry. This exhibition features some of the best examples of mourning jewelry including rings, bracelets, brooches, and other pieces from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, ranging from early gold bands with death’s head iconography to jeweled brooches and intricately woven hairwork pieces of the Civil War era. Also on display is In the Arena: The Presidential Election of 1912 in Massachusetts, an exhibition of personal correspondence, photographs, and political memorabilia that illustrates how Woodrow Wilson eked out a victory in one of the most closely contested presidential elections in Bay State history. The Dowse Library, a preserved, 19th-century gentleman’s library, and the Portrait Gallery will be open throughout the day.

This seminar paper explores how camping embodies the ways in which Americans envisioned access to nature as linked to notions of civic belonging, public culture, and political voice. It is drawn from Young’s book in progress.

Members of the MHS Fund Giving Circles are invited to enjoy an evening of cocktails and "show and tell" of rarely seen treasures with Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey. Registration is required; contact Katy Capó at 617-646-0518 or kcapo@masshist.org.

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.

Joseph Warren gave his 1775 Boston Massacre oration dressed in a toga. Why did none of his contemporaries remark upon this as strange behavior? And what does it tell us about pre-Revolutionary Boston?

This program has been POSTPONED. It will be reannounced in spring 2013.

One of the most significant urban developments of the 1950s and 60s, the Prudential Center anchors the Boston skyline with its tall gray tower. It is also a beacon of a mid-century moment when insurance companies like Prudential deployed buildings in cities to symbolize and advertise their intangible product: financial security. The Prudential’s story also exemplifies the transition from the nineteenth century metropolis to the post-industrial city organized around highways and easy parking. In his new book, Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape, Yale architectural historian Elihu Rubin tells the full story of "The Pru," placing it in its political, economic, and architectural contexts and providing new insights into urban renewal in postwar America. Elihu Rubin is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Yale. He received a doctorate in architecture and a master’s in city planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

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

This essay focuses on a sex scandal surrounding the only known instance in the early U.S. of a clergyman accused of making same-sex sexual advances. The scandal points to the contested meanings of Christian manliness and the gendered construction of male networks of gossip, sex talk, and sex reform, and addresses the crucial historical question of how to distinguish among intimacy, love, spirituality, and sexual desire.

Mr. Severy will describe and illustrate the history and beauty of this Dorchester cemetery, founded in the 1660s. Mr. Severy is photographer, secretary, and historian of the Dorchester Historical Society and has done extensive research on the occupants of Cedar Grove. Copies of his latest cemetery guide will be given to all attendees.

From 22 to 29 October, join fellow travelers on a voyage aboard the American-flagged Yorktown to some of America’s loveliest waterways and most important historic sites along the shores of the Chesapeake and the rivers that feed into it. Stops include Annapolis, Md.; St. Michaels, Md.; Richmond, Va.; and Mt. Vernon in Alexandria, Va. Guest lecturer Peter Drummey, the Stephen T. Riley Librarian at the MHS, will share his knowledge of the history of the Chesapeake region through onboard lectures and discussions.

For more information call 617-536-1608 or e-mail membership@masshist.org. For program and pricing details, please view the brochure.

A historian of Dutch New York, Ms. Wolfe will discuss the turbulent and intrepid 1650s life of Elizabeth Winthrop Feake Hallett in America. Her first husband drowned, her second went insane, and the Puritans wanted her dead for marrying her third. Hear how John Wnthrop, Jr., saved his cousin's life by enforcing Stuyvesant's Dutch rule over this English woman within Southwestern Connecticut.

Wolfe's documented history, Insubordinate Spirit: A True Story of Life and Loss in Earliest America 1610-1665, draws deeply from across all volumes of the Society's Winthrop Papers, including John Winthrop, Sr.'s Journal. This event officially launches this new publication.

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

This project is dedicated to documenting and preserving the tile vaulted works of the Guastavino Company. In lieu of reading a paper, participants will tour the exhibition “Palaces for the People” with the presenter, and a discussion will follow.

Members of the MHS Fund Belknap through Adams Circles are invited to tour the Parkman House on Beacon Hill. Built in the early 19th century by Cornelius Coolidge, the house was later given to the city by renowned historian Francis Parkman. Enjoy a unique opportunity to see this significant building and visit some of the MHS treasures that are housed there. A reception will follow the tour. Registration is required; contact Katy Capó at 617-646-0518 or kcapo@masshist.org.

Due to predictions of severe weather in the Boston area the MHS library and exhibition galleries will be closed on Monday, 29 October 2012.  Please check website to see status of library and galleries for Tuesday, 30 October on Monday evening.  

Though ideas of nationalism were directed to a much larger environment, and influenced by broader cultural currents, they were cultivated at the local level. As part of a dissertation that examines the local productions of nationalism, this project engages how parochial religious communities, especially patriotic sermons, influenced Americans' ideas of their country.