By Elaine Grublin

Mark your calendar and plan to join us for an event this week.  More information about each event is available through our online calendar. 

Wednesday, 18 April at noon join us for a brown-bag lunch program and listen as Trenton Jones, The Johns Hopkins University, talks about his project “Prisoners of War and the Making of Revolutionary American Military Culture.”  After the presentation, be ready to join in the lively Q & A session. 

Friday, 20 April at noon, Fred Wallace, Framingham Town Historian, presents Framingham’s Civil War Hero, the Life of General George H. Gordon.

And on Saturday, 21 April, the 90-minute building tour, The History and Collections of the MHS, departs the front lobby promptly at 10:00 AM.

By Elaine Grublin

Looking for stimulting conversation? Plan to attend one of the two seminars offered this week. You will find additional details about each event, and our current exhibitions, on our online calendar.

Tuesday, 10 April at 5:15 PM the Environmental History Seminar continues with Brian J. Payne, Bridgewater State University, presenting “Controlling the Cost of Fish: Weir Fishermen and Price Control in the Sardine Herring Fishery, 1875-1903.” Josh Reid, University of Massachusetts, Boston, will provide the comment. 

Thursday, 12 April at 5:30 PM the History of Women and Gender Seminar concludes its spring series with Stephanie Jones-Rogers, Rutgers University, presenting her paper “‘She thought she could find a better market’: White Women and the Re-Gendering of the Antebellum Slave Market and Slave-Trading Community.” Walter Johnson, Harvard University, will give the comment.

For both seminars advance copies of the papers are available for a small subscription fee. Whether you are a subscriber, or simply plan on attending one of the events, we ask that you RSVP so that we know to expect you. 

On Saturday, 14 April at 10:00 AM our 90 minute tour, The History and Collections of the MHS, departs the front lobby.  All are welcome to attend.

Also, remember that our current exhibitions, A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885 and The First Seasons of the Federal Street Theatre, 1794-1798, are free and open to the public Monday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. 

Finally, make note that Friday, 13 April marks the opening of The Object of History: Colonial Treasures from the Massachusetts Historical Society.  This exhibition, on display at the Concord Museum 13 April through 17 June, is open to the public Monday through Saturday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.  Visit the Concord Museum’s website for directions and admission fee information. 

By Elaine Grublin

The April starts off busy, as we offer six free public programs this week. Mark you calendar and be sure to join us for one of the following:

Tuesday, 3 April at 5:15 PM, the Boston Early American History Seminar brings Len Travers, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, to the MHS to present his paper “The Court-Martial of Jonathan Barnes.” Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College, will give the comment. 

Wednesday, 4 April at 12:00 PM, join in the conversation at a brown-bag lunch program.  Joanne Melish, University of Kentucky, will present her finding on the topic “Making Black Communities: White Laborers, Black Neighborhoods, and the Evolution of Race and Class in the Post-Revolutionary North.” Then at 6:00 PM join in a second conversation, are our conversation series, Considering the Common Good: What We Give Up/What We Gain, offers its latest installment with Lewis Hyde, Kenyon College and Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, presenting “Common as Air: A Conversation with Lewis Hyde.” A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Friday, 6 April at 12.00 PM, Robert Turner, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia Law School presents The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy in a lunchtime program. And at 2:00 PM, the MHS’ Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey presents a gallery talk “Being Mrs. Adams” in conjunction with a viewing of our current exhibition A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885.

And Saturday, 7 April, our 90-minute tour “The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society” departs the front lobby at 10:00 AM. 

For additional details about all of these events please visit our online calendar. 

By Elaine Grublin

Tuesday, 6 March at 5:15 PM the Boston Early American History Seminar continues with Karin Wulf, College of William and Mary, presenting her paper “Ancestry as Social Practice in Eighteenth-Century New England: The Origins of Early Republic Genealogical Vogue.”  Laurel Ulrich, Harvard University, will give the comment.  Advance copies of the paper are available to all seminar subscribers. The seminars are free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required.  You can RSVP by email or phone at 617-646-0568.

Wednesday, 7 March offers two programs.  At noon, in the Dowse Library, current Andrew W. Mellon fellow Nancy Siegel, Towson University, presents a brown-bag lunch focused on her research “Political Appetites: Revolution, Taste, and Culinary Activism in the Early Republic.”  Then at 6:00 PM, our conversation series, moderated by Steve Marini of Wellesley College, continues with Reclaiming the Commons. Brian Donohue, Brandeis University, will engage in a conversation with the audience in this second installment in our Considering the Common Good: What We Give Up/What We Gain series. The event is free and open to the public. You can pre-register for the event here or by calling 617-646-0560.

By Elaine Grublin

It is another program filled week at the MHS.  Be sure to view our online calendar for more information about the following events. 

On Tuesday, 28 February, join the Immigration and Urban History Seminar series for “The ‘Coddling Controversy’: Italian POWs on Boston’s World War II Homefront.”  Anne Marie Reardon, Brandeis University, will present and Stephen Puleo, author of The Boston Italians, will give the comment.  Advance copies of the seminar paper are available for a small subscription fee.

Wednesday, 29 February, celebrate “leap day” with two public programs at the MHS. At noon, current MHS-NEH long-term fellow Margot Minardi, Reed College, offers a brown-bag lunch program exploring her research “American Citizens of the World: The Politics of Peace Reform, 1815-1870.”  Then at 6:00 PM, former MHS-NEH long-term fellow Michael Hoberman, Fitchburg State University, will discuss his newest publication New Israel / New England: Jews and Puritans in Early America.  Copies of the book will be available for purchase and the author will sign books after the program.    

Thursday, 1 March, MHS members and fellows are invited to a special event: The Architecture of Edmund March Wheelwright and the Building of the Harvard Lampoon Castle.  We have reached capacity for this event. 

Friday, 2 March, do not miss Natalie Dykstra, author of Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life and guest curator of the Society’s exhibition on the photography of Clover Adams, as she presents a gallery talk.  The one-hour gallery talk begins promptly at 2:00 PM. 

And on Saturday, 3 March, all are welcome to enjoy our 90-minute building tour The History and Collections of the MHS.  The tour begins in the MHS lobby at 10:00 AM. 

By Elaine Grublin

It looks like it will be another busy week of programs at the MHS. There is something for everyone this week.

Tuesday, 7 February at 5:15 PM, John L. Bell, author of the Boston1775 blog, will present his paper “Marital Infidelity and Espionage in the Siege of Boston” as part of the Boston Early American History Seminar Series. Professor Bob Allison, Suffolk University, will give the comment. 

Thursday, 9 February a new exhibition, A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885, opens. The exhibition is free and open to the public 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday through Saturday, through 2 June.  

Also on Thursday, the History of Women and Gender Seminar continues with a presentation at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.  Ruth Feldstein, Rutgers University at Newark, will present her paper “Performing Civil Rights: Black Women Entertainers, the ‘Long’ Civil Rights Movement, and Second Wave Feminism.” Daphne Brooks, Princeton University, will give the comment.

And on Saturday, 11 February the Saturday tour “The History and Collections of the MHS” returns. This free 90-minute tour departs the MHS lobby promptly at 10:00 AM.

By Elaine Grublin

Our winter/spring event season is in full swing. Mark you calendar and plan to attend at least one event this week.

Tuesday, 31 January, at 5:15 PM, the Boston Immigration and Urban History Seminar Series makes it 2012 debut with “Orphan Evacuation or Big Business?: The Institutionalization of Korean Adoption,” presented by Arissa Oh of Boston College. Susan Zeiger, Primary Source, will provide the comment. Seminars are free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required. 

Wednesday, 1 February, at 12:00 PM, W.B.H. Dowse Fellow Robyn McMillin, University of Oklahoma, will present a 1-hour brown bag lunch program on her research “Science in the American Style, 1690-1820: Texts, Objects, and Ideas in Popular Practice.” 

Thursday, 2 February, at 6:00 PM, Ann Lucas Birle, International Center for Jefferson Studies, to discuss the recently published Thomas Jefferson’s Granddaughter in Queen Victoria’s England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839. This program, which will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 PM, is also free and open to the public. To ensure that we have a seat for you, please register for the event.  

Visit our online calendar for more details about the programs listed above. And please note that there is no building tour scheduled for Saturday, 4 February. Tours will resume on Saturday, 11 February at 10:00 AM.

By Elaine Grublin

For those of you that like to attend MHS events, have you seen the new online events calendar?  If not, click here to view it.  The new calendar brings together all of our events in a easy to ready — easy to transfer to your own pocket planner — format.  Ongoing events, like exhibitions are listed on the left-hand side of the page.  And all event titles are linked to fuller descriptions of events with information about how to RSVP.  Enjoy!

Looking at this week, please note that the Boston Environmental History Seminar schedule for Tuesday evening, 10 January, has bee n postponed.  The new date for  “Moving Heaven and [Fish, Whales, and Shells]” is Tuesday, 24 January. Nate Deshmukh Towery, MIT Comment will present and Matthew McKenzie, University of Connecticut – Avery Point will give the comment.

On Wednesday, 11 January at noon, Millington Bergeson-Lockwood of George Mason University will present African American Politics and the Boundaries of Citizenship in Post-Civil War Boston. This presentation explores the range of African American political activism in Boston and how challenges for civil rights and political inclusion are entwined with transformations in the United States political party system and changes in the power of the national state. It seeks to uncover new avenues for exploring black and white political alliances and further expanding the political history of African American men and women.

And on Saturday, 14 January, our building tour, The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, departs our lobby at 10:00 AM.

Also note that the MHS will be closed on Monday, 16 January, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

By Elaine Grublin

Looking for some intellectual engagement as a reprieve from the holiday madness? Look no further than the MHS this week.

On Tuesday, 13 December at 5:15 PM the final installment of 2011 for the Boston Environmental History Seminar brings Harvard University’s Daniel Barber to the MHS to present his research Phase-Change: Maria Telkes after the Dover Sun House. Catherine Zipf, Salve Regina University, will provide the comment.

On Wednesday, 14 December at 11:00 AM come visit for a 1-hour gallery talk focused on our exhibition The Purchase by Blood. If you cannot make the gallery talk, remember that all MHS gallery spaces are free and open to the public Monday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  

And on Saturday, 17 December the 90-minute tour The History and Collections of the MHS departs the front lobby at 10:00 AM.


Also note that the MHS library will be closing at 3:45 PM on Thursday, 15 December. 

By Elaine Grublin

There is always interesting research happening in the MHS library. This week, take a bit of time out from your holiday shopping to come learn about some of that research at one of our many programs.  

On Tuesday, 6 December at 5:15 PM the final Boston Early American History Seminar of 2011 brings Abby Chandler, UMass Lowell, and Ruth Wallis Herndon, Bowling Green State University, to the MHS for a Panel Discussion on Colonial Family Law. Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut, will deliver the comment.

Then on Wednesday, 7 December at noon MHS short-term research fellow Megan Prins, University of Arizona, presents her research, Winters in America, 1880-1930 at a brown-bag lunch program.

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. Finally, on Thursday, 8 December at 5:30 PM the Boston Seminar on the History of Women and Gender wraps up 2011 with a final program at 1154 Boylston Street. as Jennifer Morgan, New York University, discusses Quotidian Erasures: Gender and the Logic of the Early Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. The comment will be delivered by Linda Heywood, Boston University. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED.  CHECK OUR WEB CALENDAR IN THE NEAR FUTURE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Beyond research based programs, on Wednesday, 7 December the MHS offers a special event exclusively for MHS members and fellows.  Starting at 6:00 PM the MHS Fellows and Members Holiday Party offers a chance to share good cheer with other members and MHS staff while enjoying the current exhibition. Click here to register for this event.

And on Saturday, 10 December our 90-minute building tour The History and Collections of the MHS departs the front lobby promptly at 10.00 AM.