Edith Gelles, Stanford University

There will be a pre-talk reception at 5:30.

Edith Gelles, a senior scholar with the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, is an award-winning historian and author of Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage and Portia: The World of Abigail Adams. Gelles will discuss her current research on Abigail’s thoughts and experiences with slavery and race.

There is a $10 per person fee (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). To register, visit the MHS calendar.

Edith Gelles, Stanford University

Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren are the two most famous women of Revolutionary America. We know them from their exquisite early portraits, the one in pastel by the limnist Benjamin Blyth and the other by the incomparable John Singleton Copley. We know them, too, from their surviving writings that create portraits in prose. Each type of portraiture, however, has something unique to suggest about the identity of the two women. Paintings show color, expression, context that are vivid and lasting. Words capture action and reaction, change as well as continuity. Each has a different impact, but together they are complementary, and provide a fuller story of two fascinating Founding Mothers.

Edith Gelles is a senior scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. Her research has focused on women in colonial America and especially on Abigail Adams. Most recently, Dr. Gelles edited the Library of America edition of Abigail Adams: Letters, which includes the full range of Adams's correspondence and more than 100 letters published for the first time. Dr. Gelles has also written two biographies of Adams: Portia: World of Abigail Adams,which won the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award, and Abigail Adams: A Writing Life. Her double biography, Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage, was a finalist for the George Washington Prize. She is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and has appeared in several documentaries.

This program is co-sponsored by the Abigail Adams Birthplace and the Hingham Historical Society. Doors will open at 6:30; the program begins at 7:00. Ms. Gelles's talk will be followed by a book signing and wine and cheese reception. Books will be available for sale.

Tickets are $35 each, or $60 for two. Space is very limited, and pre-purchasing tickets is recommended, online at www.abigailadamsbirthplace.org or by calling 781-749-7721 ext. 101.

Location: Ames Chapel, 12 South St. Hingham, Mass.

“The Earth is putting on a new Suit,” Abigail Adams wrote, savoring the arrival of spring amid the tumult of national politics in 1800. Tending her kitchen garden and nurturing the new republic with equal care, Abigail delighted in learning about the natural landscape and sharing that knowledge with her family and friends.

This is the second of four rotating exhibits on display at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2019. Nature & Nurture will be on display from April 29 through June 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Institution: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215

Fee: Free

Never “an uninterested Spectator” when it came to the American political landscape, Abigail Adams leveraged a wide network of correspondents to discuss her vision of the emerging nation.

This is the third of four rotating exhibits on display at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2019. Independence & Ideals will be on display from July 1 through September 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Institution: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215

Fee: Free

Follow the words and history of four generations of Adamses. John, Abigail, and their descendants were prolific writers. The trove of documents they left behind intimately describe their lives, public service, and Boston from the eve of the Revolution to the turn of the twentieth century.

$15 (general admission) / $5 (BBF members)

More information and purchase tickets at Boston By Foot.

Please join us for open hours. Visits are by guided tour only between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m., with tours given on the hour and half hour. The 2019 tour season at the Birthplace will highlight selections from Abigail Adams's letters. Last tour at 3:30 p.m.

$5 adults, $1 children

Institution: Abigail Adams Historical Society

Location: 180 Norton St., N. Weymouth, Mass.

Join an Adams Papers editor for an in-depth look at the display.

Institution: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215

Fee: Free

Please join us for open hours. Visits are by guided tour only between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m., with tours given on the hour and half hour. The 2019 tour season at the Birthplace will highlight selections from Abigail Adams's letters. Last tour at 3:30 p.m.

$5 adults, $1 children

Institution: Abigail Adams Historical Society

Location: 180 Norton St., N. Weymouth, Mass.

Please join us for open hours and a cider-pressing demonstration. An important seasonal activity in colonial times, cider pressing produced one of the most popular beverages consumed by people of all ages through the early nineteenth century.

Visits are by guided tour only between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m., with tours given on the hour and half hour. The 2019 tour season will highlight selections from Abigail Adams's letters. Last tour at 3:30 p.m.

$5 adults, $1 children

Institution: Abigail Adams Historical Society

Location: 180 Norton St., N. Weymouth, Mass.

Join an Adams Papers editor for an in-depth look at the display.

Institution: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215

Fee: Free

Never “an uninterested Spectator” when it came to the American political landscape, Abigail Adams leveraged a wide network of correspondents to discuss her vision of the emerging nation.

This is the third of four rotating exhibits on display at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2019. Independence & Ideals will be on display from July 1 through September 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Institution: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215

Fee: Free

Please join us for open hours. Visits are by guided tour only between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m., with tours given on the hour and half hour. The 2019 tour season at the Birthplace will highlight selections from Abigail Adams's letters. Last tour at 3:30 p.m.

$5 adults, $1 children

Institution: Abigail Adams Historical Society

Location: 180 Norton St., N. Weymouth, Mass.

Join us at the Thomas Crane Public Library as members of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail bring to life some of the most important and influential women in Abigail Adams’s life, including her mother, Elizabeth Quincy Smith, her elder sister, Mary Smith Cranch, her daughter, Abigail Adams Smith, her daughter-in-law Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, and her friend Mercy Otis Warren. The women will pay tribute to Abigail and express what it meant to them to have her as a daughter, mother, sister, and friend.

Institution: Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, Thomas Crane Public Library

Location: Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington St., Quincy, MA 02169

Follow the words and history of four generations of Adamses. John, Abigail, and their descendants were prolific writers. The trove of documents they left behind intimately describe their lives, public service, and Boston from the eve of the Revolution to the turn of the twentieth century.

$15 (general admission) / $5 (BBF members)

More information and purchase tickets at Boston By Foot.