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2 August 2007
“The Adams Family and Biography”
Forty teachers participating in a Teaching American History grant managed by The Education Collaborative (TEC) visited the MHS for a session on the Adams family. The workshop was part of a week-long course, “In the Footsteps of Freedom: An In-Depth Study of Revolutionary Boston,” which took participants to several local historic sites. While at the MHS, the group discussed Adams family correspondence from the time of the Revolution, including letters describing the Battle of Bunker Hill, the siege of Boston, the British evacuation, and the era’s smallpox epidemic. Participants learned more about the Society’s collection of Adams family correspondence, including resources available on line, and MHS Education Staff shared strategies for integrating Adams family primary sources into the classroom.
12 July 2007
“The French and Indian War”
On 12 July the MHS welcomed a group of elementary school teachers participating in a colloquium organized by The Education Collaborative (TEC). Participants had the opportunity to view original documents, maps, medals, and other artifacts from the time of the French and Indian War, as well as materials that document changes in British imperial policies after the war. Together with MHS staff and program leaders, the group shared strategies for teaching this topic, and using primary sources from the Society’s collections in an elementary classroom.
11 and 14 June 2007
“Colonial and Revolutionary Boston”
Thirty teachers participating in a Teaching American History (TAH) grant from Pueblo, Colorado visited the MHS as part of a two-week study tour. On 11 June, William F. Fowler, Jr., Professor of History at Northeastern University entertained the group with a brief history of the French and Indian War. MHS staff followed with a demonstration of eighteenth-century documents, including diaries, letters, broadsides, and newspaper. On 14 June, Professor Pauline Maier, MIT, discussed how she became interested in the project that led to her work on the Declaration of Independence, American Scripture. Later that day, MHS Education Staff led participants in an activity that required them to compare and contrast local “declarations” prepared by several towns in Massachusetts at the request of the Massachusetts General Court in May 1776.
Past Events
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29 May 2007
“MHS Treasures”
A group of students and teachers from the Brookstone School in Columbus, Georgia, visited the MHS as part of a whirlwind tour of Eastern Massachusetts. After a brief tour of the Society, students examined documents and artifacts MHS collections. Documents on display included a first printing of the Declaration of Independence, as well as John Adams' and Thomas Jefferson's manuscript copies of the document, Paul Revere's account of his famous “midnight ride” of 19 April 1775, a first edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and a letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Cabot Lodge written during the Spanish American War.
17 May 2007
“Massachusetts 54th Regiment”
A group of students from the North County Junior High School in Derby, Vermont, visited the Society to view artifacts and documents related to the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, the first military unit comprised of Black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. Students viewed photographs of soldiers, letters from Robert Gould Shaw (commander of the regiment), and recruitment posters.
9 May 2007
“Colonial and Revolutionary Boston”
Twenty teachers participating in a Teaching American History (TAH) grant from Loudon County School District in Tennessee visited the MHS for a tour and show-and-tell of our early American treasures. The workshop began with an introductory lecture by Alan Rogers, Professor of History at Boston College, who discussed the history of Boston from its founding in 1630 through the Revolution. Participants then viewed original documents including diary entries describing the Stamp Act riots of 1765, a journal kept by an Andover minuteman during his march to Lexington on 19 April 1775, and Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre.
2 February 2007
“Politics as Usual: Martin Lomasney, the Goo-Goos & Municipal Elections in Boston 1900–1920”
Beth Calderone, 2006 Swensrud Teacher Fellow, brought the junior class of the Boston Collegiate Charter School to the MHS for an introduction to archival research. As part of her fellowship project, Beth organized a field trip experience that required students to delve into the records of the Good Government Association. During their visit, students examined early twentieth-century voting guides produced by the GGA to tease out the organization’s definition of a “good” candidate for public office. They also evaluated the voting records of various public officials, and compared them to the Association’s views on the “correct” way to vote on each issue.
28 November 2006 and 13 December 2006
“Tea and Terror in Boston, 1764–1776”
Using primary-source materials from the Society’s collections, participants investigated the importance of the tea trade in the colonial era, Britain’s controversial imperial policies, and different forms of colonial protest, including boycotts, riots, and the tea parties of 1773-1774. Special guest William M. Fowler, Jr., Professor of History at Northeastern University, provided participants with an introduction to life and politics in pre-revolutionary Boston. The workshop concluded with a discussion of public memory and the Tea Party and the ways in which the event has been forgotten, remembered, and repurposed over time.
18 November 2006
“An Introduction to the MHS”
from the Jonas Clarke Middle School (Lexington, Mass.)
Peter Drummey, MHS Librarian, led this group of eighth-grade students in a show and tell of documents and artifacts from the Society’s collections related to the era of the American Revolution. Students viewed letters written by John and Abigail Adams, eighteenth-century newspapers, and depositions collected as evidence after the Boston Massacre. Students also had the opportunity to discuss what they had learned in class about Paul Revere and his (in)famous engraving, “The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street.”
3 October 2006
“Early Boston Theater”
Graduate students from Tufts University’s
Theater Department viewed eighteenth-century anti-theatre legislation and pamphlets, early American playbills, and letters and diaries describing theater performances. Students also received an introduction to the library and a tour of the MHS.
7 September 2006
“The Boston Tea Party”
from the Rye Country Day School (Rye, New York)
The MHS hosted a group of eleventh-grade students for an afternoon program on the Boston Tea Party. Students were given a brief introduction to the topic and then asked “to be historians” by answering questions and discussing a specific newspaper article, broadside, engraving, letter or personal account that pertained to the Tea Party and/or the events that followed. After discussing their document and answering questions in small groups, students had the opportunity to share their findings with the larger group.
Archive of Past Events
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