This Month at the MHS

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, this exhibition features the pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the document. Visitors can learn how the MHS acquired this extraordinary pen as well as view paintings, broadsides, engravings, and manuscripts that tell the story of how Boston celebrated Emancipation.

View documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to Joshua F. Speed explaining his evolving views on slavery as well as the casts of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in the spring of 1860.

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.

Discussion will focus on two seminar papers: “African American and Indian Church Affiliation: Reevaluating Race and Religion in the North, 1730-1776,” by Richard Boles of George Washington University, and  “A World of Deference and Dependence: Slavery and Unfreedom in Eighteenth-century Boston,” by Jared Hardesty of Boston College. Boles’s paper explores black and Indian participation in each major Protestant denomination, suggesting the need to reevaluate aspects of the religious history of the colonial North in regard to how blacks and Indians influenced theology and church practices. Hardesty’s essay aims to raise serious questions about the nature of freedom in the American Colonies by engaging the literature concerning liberty in early America and challenging the popular slave/free dichotomy that dominates the historiography.

This seminar paper argues that demography is central to the ways in which enslaved African women both emerge from and are made invisible by the mechanisms of the slave trade. Demography is evidence, but it is also a critical problem of early modern ideology—as is what the gathering of demographic evidence meant to those who were collecting it and being collected.

Join us at this two-day workshop as we explore eighteenth-century letters from the collections of the Revere House and the Massachusetts Historical Society! Teachers will learn more about the importance of letters as a communication tool in the eighteenth century, as well as their importance as historical sources today. Participants can also try their hand at writing letters using eighteenth-century technology and conventions and transcribing letters written by members of the Revere and Adams families.

Participants can earn 12 PDPs by attending both days of the course and writing one lesson plan, or One Graduate Credit (equal to 22.5 PDPs) from Framingham State (credit pending) by paying an additional fee of $75 and completing a more extensive project.

Registration Fee: $80. Includes course readings, morning snacks and one lunch. To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your check (payable to the Revere House) to:19 North Sq., Boston, MA 02113 by 31 January 2013.

Workshop Schedule

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2013
9:00 – 4:30 Paul Revere House 19 North Square, Boston, MA 02113

Morning Sessions:
Letter-writing in the 18th century: Who wrote letters and why?

Reading Between the Lines: What do surviving Revere letters tell us about the family? Small groups work together to note information gleaned from original and transcribed Revere family letters. A short tour of the Revere House is included to see a few Revere written items on display. Staff reveal the recent discovery of a missing Revere letter, how it came to light and how it has since been conserved.

Afternoon Sessions:
Composition Workshop: Write your own 18th c. style letter by following patterns & styles noted in examples shared in the morning sessions and required reading.

Penmanship: Quill Pen Writing Workshop: Copy out your own letter with a quill pen and ink. Proper 18th c. writing style & quill pen sharpening method will be taught by R. P. Hale, calligrapher and printer extraordinaire.

SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2013
9:00 – 4:30 Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215

Morning Sessions
Making Sense of Manuscripts: Learn more about the challenges & rewards of working with eighteenth-century documents such as the Adams Family Papers.

Collections Tour: View examples of letters in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s extensive collections.

Afternoon Sessions:
Your turn: Try your hand at transcribing eighteenthcentury letters from the Society’s collections. After working in small groups, participants can share their own challenges and successes.

A Life in Letters: What does the correspondence between Abigail Adams and her husband and sisters tell us about life in the late eighteenth century? Participants will examine a series of letters in order to create a sketch of Adams family life at the time of the American Revolution.

For Further Information: Contact the Education Department: 617-646-0557 or education@masshist.org.

In March 1861, when Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural, neither he nor many in the audience envisioned that four years later, at his Second, the eradication of slavery would be imminent. What events led to the Emancipation Proclamation? And what would follow as Lincoln led the nation toward his “king’s cure for all the evils,” the Thirteenth Amendment? On the eve of Lincoln’s birthday, William Martin will explore Lincoln’s passage from the careful Constitutional lawyer of the First Inaugural to the almost messianic figure of the Second. An MHS Fellow,  Mr. Martin has written novels that appear on the New York Times bestsellers list, as well as scripts for television and film.

Reservations requested. Please click on the RSVP link above, or contact the education department at 617-646-0560 / education@masshist.org.

By examining towns of Plymouth County, particularly Pembroke and Middleboro, this project shows how political, economic, and at times military power flowed from effective control of the waterways. The shift in what might be called “water regimes” was a crucial location of what Charles Sellers has called the Market Revolution.

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.

Rescheduled from October 30. This seminar paper will focus on the ideological elements in the conflict that emerged over wage and price regulation, as wartime debates created a conceptual gap between calls for economic equality and liberty. It is part of a larger study of the evolution of notions of equality in America.

MHS Fellows and Members are invited to a special preview reception of "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land." The evening will begin with remarks by Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey.

The exhibition will display many important manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts from the Society's collections related to the Abolitionist movement in Boston. Visitors can view items such as the imposing table for The Liberator that has not been on display in the Society's building for many years.

Librarian Peter Drummey will discuss materials in the new exhibition that illustrate the life and career of William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Liberator, and a central figure in the antislavery movement in Boston.

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 essay will explore Broadway as the central location for many of Jaffe’s case studies of cultural entrepreneurs as well as the subject and site of new ways of seeing in the city. His research includes Currier & Ives lithographs, John Rogers sculptures, E. & H. T. Anthony Stereographs, and Harper's illustrations.