|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
Library: Library Collections
|
  |
Numismatics & Historical Artifacts The Massachusetts Historical Society collections include numismatics (coins, medals, and paper currency) and other historical artifacts, most of which came as part of donations of personal and family papers. Since the Society is not able to display its artifacts as a museum would, researchers will need to contact the curator to schedule an appointment in order to see any of these pieces. A selection of the Society's works of art and some historical artifacts appear in Witness to America's Past: Two Centuries of Collecting by the Massachusetts Historical Society, an exhibition catalog published in 1991 by the MHS in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. You may find out about purchasing a copy of this book at the web page describing MHS published Catalogs. Numismatics 
The MHS numismatic collection consists of approximately 5,000
medals and tokens, 30 coins, 400 buttons and ribbons, and
3,000 examples of paper money. The strengths of the collection
are early colonial Massachusetts coinage, paper money circulating
in Massachusetts in the colonial period, paper money and fiscal
paper issued by the Continental Congress, obsolete bank notes
and scrip issued in Massachusetts, and medals and tokens related
to Massachusetts and to the Society's manuscript collections.
Most of the coins and medals in the collection are described
in Malcolm Storer's Numismatics of Massachusetts (Boston,
1923), published as volume 76 of the MHS Collections.
To find out about the availability of this volume, please
visit the web page describing the Society's series of published
Collections series. Historical Artifacts 
The 3,000 artifacts in the MHS collection range from those of
national historical importance (the pen with which Abraham
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863) to objects
of only local or antiquarian interest (a windowsill from a
Harvard detention house, signed by students confined there
for bad behavior between 1801 and 1818). Other highlights
include the swords of William Prescott and John Linzee from
the Battle of Bunker Hill, George Washington's epaulettes
and gorget, personal items belonging to Paul Revere, and a
life cast by Leonard Wells Volk of Abraham Lincoln's face
and hands. The full range of artifacts at the Society encompasses
examples of armor, canes, china, clocks and pocket watches,
firearms, furniture, jewelry, powder horns, political ephemera,
silver, and textiles. |
|
|
|
|
|
Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston Street (directions) Boston, MA 02215-3695 Tel: 617.536.1608 Fax: 617.859.0074 |
Terms and Conditions Online Privacy Policy Join MHS Contact Us Site Map |
|
|
© 2008 • Massachusetts Historical Society • All rights reserved Site maintained at MHS by webmaster@masshist.org |
||
Numismatics & Artifacts