By Dan Hinchen

March draws to a close, finally seeming to trade its lions for lambs. As April arrives we have a slew of programs at the Society this week. So, let us waste no time and get right to it.

Kicking things off on Tuesday, 1 April, stop by at noon for a special author talk with Larry Ruttman who will discuss his book American Jews & America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball. Ruttman’s talk will look at the four main subjects of his work: baseball, American Jewish life in the United States over the last century, American history, and the revealing personal lives of people involved with the game. This talk is free and open to the public.

And on Tuesday evening, beginning at 5:15PM, is the latest in the Early American History Seminar series. In this edition, Jeff Perry of Purdue University presents “From ‘Disturbers’ to Protectors of the Peace: Baptist Church Discipline and Legalities on the Trans-Appalachian Frontier.” In his paper, Perry considers how the instability engendered by the missionary movement and the rise of competing religious sects impacted individual churches’ visions of their own authority and their role in regulating their wider communities. In so doing, he speaks to the constantly changing nature of secular and religious authority in the United States. Comment provided by Stephen A. Marini, Wellesley College.  Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

At noon on Wednesday, 2 April, pack a lunch and come by for a Brown Bag talk. This time, long-term research fellow Chris Cameron, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, presents part of his research for “Liberal Religion and Slavery in America, 1775-1865.” His talk explores the disparate ways that liberal ministers engaged with the institution of slavery, whether as pro-slavery thinkers, colonizationists, or radical abolitionists. Cameron also examines the theological underpinnings of liberals’ views on slavery, as well as the differences between Unitarian, Universalist, and Transcendentalists’ engagement with the institution. This event is free and open to the public.

That evening, beginning at 5:30PM, is a film screening and discussion, part of “Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle,” a series made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. “Created Equal: Slavery by Another Name & The Freedom Riders” will feature clips from two films, one based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name, and the other based on Raymond Arsenault’s 2007 book Freedom Riders. Both films can be viewed in their entirety at createdequal.neh.gov. Joanne Pope Melish is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and a visiting scholar in American Studies at Brown University. She is the author of Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780-1860, and she will facilitate the discussion for the evening. Registration for the event is required at no cost. To Reserve: Click here to register online or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

The second seminar of the week will take place on Thursday, 3 April, and is part of the History of Women and Gender series. Beginning at 5:30PM, “‘Talents Committed to Your Care’: Reading and Writing Antislavery” explores the historically contingent identities and the material texts that men and women produced in and through their engagement with a remarkably rich transatlantic literary culture. In looking not only at the cultivation of individual identities but also at the establishment of collective ties, it will be measuring the degree to which gender played a foundational role. Mary Kelley, University of Michigan, will present the material while Elizabeth Maddock Dillon of Northeastern University will provide comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

Finally, on Saturday, 5 April, come by at 10:00AM for The History and Collections of the MHS, a 90-minute tour of the Society’s public rooms led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. 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.

Also, do not forget to visit the MHS to see the current exhibition, “Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus-Saint Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial.” This exhibit, organized by the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., is open to the public Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM, through 23 May.

By Dan Hinchen

As spring struggles to take hold we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that the potential storm does not interrupt any of the programs on tap this week.

First up, on Tuesday, 25 March, is “Boston’s Chinatowns and Recent Senior Migration,” the next edition of our Immigration and Urban History Seminar series. Presented by Nicole Newendorp of Harvard University, the discussion centers on the life ways and services available to low-income, primarily non-English speaking Chinese seniors who live in Boston’s downtown Chinatown and Quincy, a satellite Chinatown in the suburbs. In so doing, it re-focuses attention away from the traditional question of defining Chinatown through residential space to the problem of defining community more generally for a heterogeneous group of migrants with a rich diversity of life experiences. Wing-Kai To of Bridgewater State University will provide comment and the talk begins at 5:15PM. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

Then, on Thursday, 27 March, there is a special event for new Members and Fellows of the Society.”New Faces & New Acquisitions” begins at 5:30PM and is a unique opportunity for new Fellows and Members to learn more about and view a selection of the Society’s most recent acquisitions, including letters from a stunning collection of Adams and Cranch family correspondence and items from the Civil War archives of Capt. Luis F. Emilio of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. There will also be a reception and the chance to view the current exhibition, Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial. Registration is required at no cost. Please call 617-646-0560 or register online by clicking here. For more information about becoming a Member, click here.

Finally, on Saturday, 29 March, there will be no public tour. Instead, beginning at 12:00PM is a special public program: “Tell It With Pride.” Visitors are invited to enjoy an afternoon program of exhibition tours and special talks at the MHS related to the Tell It With Pride exhibition currently on display. The afternoon will feature a presentation from the men of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment Company A, time to view the exhibition and to converse with the men of the 54th Regiment, and two lectures. The first lecture, starting at 2:00PM, is from author Kathryn Greenthal and titled “Augusts Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial: Its Context and Its Creation.” The second lecture, starting at 3:00PM, is “Consecration and Monument: Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment,” presented by Henry Duffy, Curator of Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH. This program is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Public Garden. To Reserve: Click here to register online or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560. Please register if you plan to attend ANY part of this program (even if you can not join us for the entire afternoon).

By Dan Hinchen

The Ides of March have come and gone and life at the MHS continues. This week is a busy one with plenty of public programs to satisfy your craving for history. First up, on Monday, 17 March, beginning at noon is an author talk with Emily Lodge. While the biographies of the Lodge patriarchs have been well-documented, the stories of the influential Lodge women have never been authoritatively chronicled. From the earliest days of the American colonies, through the Gilded Age, and into the first years of the 21st century, The Lodge Women, Their Men, and Their Times traces the family’s remarkable history through its female figures. This event is free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, 19 March, join us for a Brown Bag lunch talk presented by Katie Moore of Boston University. “‘Dam all pumpkin states’: King Williams War in the North and Colonial Legitimacy” examines the collapse of the Dominion of New England in the spring of 1689, brought about when provisional authorities in Boston and New York seized power. How did Puritan divines and a German militia captain use war with the French to legitimate their authority to colonists, colonial leaders, and Native American allies? How did they justify strategy, finance, and diplomacy? Stop by at noon to learn more about this fascinating project. Brown Bag lunch talks are free and open to the public. [This event has been rescheduled from February 5 when it was postponed due to snow.]

Also on Wednesday is a special event for members of the Jeremy Belknap Giving Circle. “An Evening at the Bostonian Society” begins at 6:00PM and features Brian LeMay and Nat Sheidley discussing ongoing plans for the Society and leading a tour of the building, including the tower with its resident ghost, with a reception to follow. The Bostonian Society is located at 206 Washington Street in Boston. To register, please call 617-646-0543 or e-mail awolfe@masshist.org. For access to these special events, join an MHS Fund Giving Circle today!

Then, on Thursday, 20 March, is the next event in the New England Biography Seminar series. Stop by at 5:30Pm for “The Days of Their Lives: Using Diaries, Journals, and an ‘Almanack’ to Recover the Past.” Moderated by Susan Ware, General Editor of American National Biography, this program will feature a conversation with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard, who is using diaries (men’s and women’s) in her broader study of Mormon history; Louisa Thomas, an independent scholar and the author of “Conscience” (about her grandfather Norman Thomas), who is writing a biography of Louisa Catherine Adams; and Noelle Baker, Editorial Consultant to The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, who is preparing a digital edition of Mary Moody Emerson’s diary. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

And on Saturday, 22 March, come by at 10:00AM for The History and Collections of the MHS, a 90-minute tour of the Society’s public rooms led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. 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.

Also, do not forget to visit the MHS to see the current exhibition, “Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus-Saint Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial.” This exhibit, created in cooperation with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is open to the public Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM, through 23 May.

By Dan Hinchen

As the days lengthen and start to warm, consider stopping by the MHS this week for a one of our public programs or to peruse our exhibits. Currently on display is “Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial.” This exhibition, organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, celebrates Saint-Gaudens’ magisterial Shaw Memorial and seeks to make real the soldiers of the 54th represented anonymously in the work. It brings together vintage photographic portraits of members of the regiment and of the men and women who recruited, nursed, taught, and guided them. The exhibit is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10:00AM to 4:00PM.

On Tuesday, 11 March, join us for “The Galveston Spirit: How a Hurricane Remade American Politics.” In this Environmental History seminar, Summer Shafer of Harvard University address the political economy of the Galveston “Great Storm” of 1900, still considered the deadliest natural disaster to date. Those who failed to protect the island by taking preventative action utilized the post-disaster environment to take control of vital municipal functions. Imagery of triumph over the storm played a powerful role in progressive politics as the “Galveston Spirit” seized the American imagination and helped to remake urban politics nationwide. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. Program begins at 5:15PM.

Then, on Wednesday, 12 March, join us at 5:30PM for a public program, “Created Equal: The Abolitionists & Slavery by Another Name.” During this screening clips of the two films will be shown, and both films can be viewed in their entirety at createdequal.neh.gov. The Abolitionists brings to life the struggles of the men and women who led the battle to end slavery. Slavery by Another Name is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Blackmon and tells the stories of men, charged with crimes and often guilty of nothing, who were bought, sold, abused, and subjected to deadly working conditions. Discussion of these films will be facilitated by Joanne Pope Melish, Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and visiting scholar in American Studies at Brown University. She is the author of Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780-1860. Registration is required at no cost. To reserve, call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560, or click here to register online. Program begins at 5:30PM.

Finally, on Saturday, 15 March, drop by the Society at 10:00AM for The History and Collections of the MHS, a 90-minute tour of the Society’s public rooms led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. 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.

By Dan Hinchen

It is time again for the roundup of events taking place at the Society in the week ahead. In addition to seminars, brown bags, and tours, be sure to come in anytime Monday – Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM, to see our current exhibition, “Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial.” The exhibit is free and open to the public and is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

On Tuesday, 4 March, Seth Rockman of Brown University brings us the next Early American History seminar. “Negro Cloth: Mastering the Market for Slave Clothing in Antebellum America” ties together the effort of a Northern firm to break into the business of making textiles for slaves; the politics of the slave plantation; and the national debate over tariffs. Rockman’s project brings together the studies of material culture, the history of capitalism, and comparative slavery, emphasizing the design history of plantation textiles and the circuits of social knowledge that linked plantation to factory. David Quigley of Boston College will provide comment. The seminar begins at 5:15PM and is free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

Wednesday, 5 March, marks the anniversary of the Boston Massacre but the Brown Bag lunch talk of the day focuses on events that occurred 95 years later. Come by at noon as long-term research fellow Michael Vorenberg, Brown University, presents “The Appomattox Effect: Searching for the End of War in the American Civil War and Beyond.” Americans tend to mark the surrender at Appomattox as the end of the Civil War, but the last battle came more than a month later, the last surrender a month after that, and the official “cessation of hostilities” more than a year later. A similar Appomattox effect shapes the way Americans think of other wars, making people assume, even when well-known facts indicate otherwise, that wars have discrete, identifiable endpoints. This lunch discussion raises some of the issues associated with identifying the end of any U.S. war in light of the search for an end of the Civil War. This talk is free and open to the public.

On Thursday, 6 March, the Society hosts a special event titled “A Traveled First Lady: An Evening with Louisa Catherine Adams.” In this program, editors Margaret Hogan and C. James Taylor selected excerpts from diaries and memoirs of Adams’s most revealing comments on life at European courts, the difficulty of being an outsider, Abigail Adams’s Quincy, and the importance of society and etiquette in early Washington D.C. She is best remembered as one the capital’s most accomplished hostesses as hundreds of guests regularly attended her Tuesday evenings of conversation, music, dancing, and refreshments. Join the editors for a social evening with Louisa. There will be conversation and refreshments—but no dancing! Margaret A. Hogan is an independent editorial consultant and the former Managing Editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. C. James Taylor is Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers. A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM and the discussion begins at 6:00PM. To Reserve: There is a $10 fee (no charge for Fellows and Members). Click here to register online or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

And last but not least, come by on Saturday, 8 March, for The History and Collections of the MHS, a 90-minute tour of the Society’s public rooms led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. 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.

By Dan Hinchen

This week begins with a rare Sunday event. On 23 February, visit the Lawrence Library in Pepperell, Mass., for an author talk with Gary Shattuck, retired federal prosecutor. This talk is called Crossed Swords: Job Shattuck’s Blood at the Courthouse Door and is presented in collaboration with Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area. The talk begins at 2:00PM and registration is required at no cost. To register, call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560 or click here to register online.

On Tuesday, 25 February, join us at the Society for a new Immigration and Urban History Seminar. In this edition, Catherine Gudis of University of California – Riverside presents Curating the City: The Framing of Los Angeles. This talk looks at the ways in which Los Angeles has been framed, first in the discourse around architecture, planning, and preservation in the post-World War II period, and then through artistic practices from the late 1960s to the present that engage diverse publics in re-contextualizing urban space and acknowledging the power dynamics that have structured its development. Comment provided by Carlo Rotella, Boston College. Seminar begins at 5:15PM. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to received advance copies of the seminar papers.

And on Wednesday, 26 February, the Society hosts a special musical performance, Handel & Haydn Society: Bringing Music to Life for 200 Years. Since 1815, the Handel and Haydn Society has shared the inspirational and transformational power of Baroque and Classical music with people throughout Boston and the country. Join H&H for an instrumental and vocal chamber performance that will share the history of the institution, considered America’s oldest continuously performing arts organization. The performance begins at  6:00PM with a pre-performance reception at 5:30PM. To reserve: There is a $30 fee ($20 fee for Fellows and Members). Click here to register online or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

Thursday, 27 February, visit the Boston Public Library for an author talk co-sponsored by the MHS and the BPL, George Washington: Gentleman Warrior. Award-winning independent historian and journalist Dr. Stephen Brumwell’s new book focuses on George Washington, examining his long and checquered military career, tracing his evolution as a soldier, and his changing attitude to the waging of war. This event is free and open to the public.

Finally, on Saturday, 29 February, stop by the Society for a free tour. The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute tour of the Society’s public rooms, led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. 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.

By Dan Hinchen

The MHS is closed on Monday, 17 February, in observance of President’s Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 18 February

On Wednesday, 19 February, come by at noon for a Brown Bag lunch talk.This week, independent scholar Mary Fuhrer discusses her research project “Consumed by Poverty: The Experience of Tuberculosis in the Boston Almshouse, 1800-1850.” Tuberculosis caused up to a third of all deaths in antebellum New England. Attempting to make sense of this devastation, sufferers—and society—created “illness narratives” to interpret their experience and provide meaning, consolation, or blame. This study examines poor consumptives in the Boston Almshouse, seeking to “open out” their lives and better understand how they—and others—made sense of their affliction. This talk is free and open to the public.

Please be aware that on Thursday, 20 February, the library of the MHS will close at 3:00PM as we prepare for that evenings special event. Tell It With Pride Preview Reception is a special event specifically for MHS Fellows and Members. The preview is a sneak-peek at our upcoming exhibit Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial. This exhibit, organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., brings together photographs of members of the regiment and of the men and women who recruited, nursed, taught, and guided them. Reception begins at 6:00PM. Registration is required at no cost for MHS Fellows and Members, click here to RSVP.  Please note that the 5:30PM pre-reception talk is sold out.

The Tell It With Pride exhibition opens to the public on Friday, 21 February. Throughout the run of the exhibition special programs are planned in cooperation with the Museum of African American History, the Boston African American National Historic Site, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment Company A, and the Friends of the Public Garden. Please check our events calendar for full listings. This exhibition is available Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM – 4:00PM and will remain open until 23 May 2014.

And on Saturday, 22 February, we resume our weekly tours of the MHS. The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute tour of the Society’s public rooms, led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. 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.

Finally, please also be aware that the MHS will sponsor an author talk taking place on Sunday, 23 February, at the Lawrence Library in Pepperell, Mass., and presented in collaboration with Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area. This talk is given by Gary Shattuck, a retired federal prosecutor who enjoys researching and writing about new-found discoveries lying deep within little-used legal documents. Crossed Swords: Job Shattuck’s Blood at the Courthouse Door examines the many changes forced on Massachusetts society by the Revolution, including the relationships and expectations of those living in the countryside. Shocking new evidence found in court records allows us to reassess the role and reputation of Capt. Job Shattuck. Capt. Shattuck was an early leader of protestors who began taking over courthouses in the summer of 1786 when officials failed to address the petitions for relief from taxes and judgements rendered against farmers by debt-enforcing courts, and he paid dearly for his effort. This event is free and open to the public, though registration is required at no cost. To register, please call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560 or click here to register online. The talk begins at 2:00PM

By Dan Hinchen

On Tuesday, 11 February, join us at 5:15PM for an Environmental History seminar as Brian McCammack of Williams College presents “‘A tacit proclamation of achievement by the Race’: Landscapes Built With African American Civilian Conservation Corps Labor in the Rural Midwest.” This paper seeks to show not only how the young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps changed rural landscapes, but how those landscapes often changed them as well. McCammack explores the understudied implications of tens of thousands of young African American men in unexpected places during the Depression years: the forests and fields of the rural North. Neil Maher, NJIT –Rutgers University Newark Federated History Department, provides the comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required.

The next day, Wednesday, 12 February, come by at 5:30PM for Created Equal: The Loving Story, a special film screening and discussion. Mildred and Richard Loving knew it was technically illegal for them to live as a married couple in Virginia because she was of African American and Native American descent and he was white. The Loving Story, nominated for an Emmy in 2013, brings to life the Lovings’ marriage and the legal battle that followed. Discussion will be facilitated by Joanne Pope Melish, University of Kentucky. Registration is required at no cost for this event. To Reserve: Click here to register online or call  the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

And on Thursday, 13 February, is the next installment of the History of Women and Gender seminar series. Gloria Whiting of Harvard University and commenter Barbara Krauthamer of UMass-Amherst present “‘How can the wife submit?’ African Families Negotiate Gender and Slavery in New England.” This paper discusses various ways in which the everyday realities of slavery shaped gender relations in Afro-New England families. While the structure of slave families in the region was unusually matriarchal, these families nonetheless exhibited a number of patriarchal tendencies. Enslaved African families in New England therefore complicate the assumption of much scholarship that the structure of slave families defined their normative values. This seminar is free and open to the public; RSVP required. Talk begins at 5:30PM. Please note that this seminar is held at the Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Please note that the Society is closed on Monday, 17 February, in observance of President’s Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 18 February.

By Dan Hinchen

With a new month comes a long period with a lot of public programming here at the Society. Keep your eyes on our events calendar this week and in the weeks to come to see what we have on tap. Kicking things off this week on Tuesday, 4 February, is the next installment of our Early American History Seminar series. “Law and the American Revolution” is a panel discussion that considers the state of the field of scholarship on the American Revolution as it relates to legal history. This scholarship is poised to accelerate and move in innovative directions as the 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act approaches. Alan Rogers of Boston College moderates the discussion among Sarah Bilder, Boston College Law School; T.H. Breen, University of Vermont and Huntington Library; Bruce Mann of Harvard Law School; and Kent Newmeyer, University of Connecticut. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to received advance copies of the seminar papers. Discussion begins at 5:15PM

On Wednesday, 5 February, stop by at 12:00PM for “‘Dam all pumpkin states’: King Williams War in the North and Colonial Legitimacy.” In this Brown Bag talk, Kate Moore of Boston University shares information about her project to find out how Puritan divines and a German militia captain used war with the French to legitimate their authority to colonists, colonial leaders, and Native American allies. The project also seeks to explain how they justified strategy, finance, and diplomacy during this late-17th century colonial conflict. Brown Bag talks are free and open to the public.

Finally, on Thursday, 6 February, join us again at noon for “Boston’s Mayor James Michael Curley: The Quintessential Politician & Public Works Patron.” In honor of the 100th anniversary of the first election as Mayor of Boston of perhaps the most prolific politician in Massachusetts history, this talk will highlight the building of public works in Boston during Curley’s time in office. This talk is presented by Lawrence Overlan who has been researching, teaching, speaking, and writing about James Michael Curley for over a decade. This public program is free and open to the public.

By Dan Hinchen

Welcome back to the Beehive for this week’s events update. We have one more quiet week here at the Society in January before the onslaught of activity in February. Join us on Tuesday, 28 January, for “Making a Workforce, Unmaking a Working class: The Development of ‘Human Capital’ in Houston, 1900-1980.” In this Immigration and Urban History Seminar, Bryant Etheridge of Harvard University discusses the emergence of access to quality, job-relevant education and training as a central economic issue among 1960s civil rights activists in Houston. Etheridge’s paper takes issue with a central aspect of the Long Civil Rights Movement historiography, which typically labels education desegregation and reform issues of social equality. In fact, African Americans and Mexican Americans fought for them because they believed them to be vital and urgent economic issues. John R. Harris, Boston University, provides comment for the seminar which begins at 5:15PM. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to received advance copies of the seminar papers.