By Elaine Grublin

Join us today, Monday, 8 August at noon for an interesting brown bag lunch.  Listen and participate in the discussion as NERFC fellow Hannah Farber, of University of California, Berkeley, presents her research project “American Marine Insurers in the Napoleonic Era: Commerce, the Nation, and the Oceans.”

On Saturday, 13 August, travel to George’s Island to hear Christian Samito, of Boston College and Boston University School of Law present a lecture on “Citizenship Through Civil War Service.”  This event is part of the Boston Harbor Islands Civil War History Series and is co-sponsered by the MHS. The lecture starts a 2:00 PM on Georges Island, part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. For directions to the Island, please visit http://bostonharborislands.org/.

And remember that our exhibition areas is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  Our current exhibition, History Drawn with Light: Early Photographs from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society has been drawing excellent reviews from visitors. 

By Elaine Grublin

This week we continue to offer our exhibition History Drawn with Light: Early Photographs from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society daily (except Sundays) 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  And anyone interested in 20th century environmental history should plan to be at the MHS at noon on Wednesday, 3 August, when research fellow Jared Taber of University of Kansas presents his work on his project “Reorganizing the Riverine Landscape: The Environmental History of Industrial Decline in the 20th Century” as part of our brown bag lunch series. 

For educators still hoping to earn a few PDPs this summer, there are still a few spots available in next week’s workshop Ratification! The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788.  This two-day workshop (August 9 and 11) featuring author/historian Pauline Maier is presented by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and is open to all educators in Massachusetts and Maine. The registration fee is $50.00 and includes a signed copy of Pauline Maier’s book, Ratification, 12 PDPs, and a kit full of classroom resources that you can use with your own students for Constitution Day and beyond.  Contact Kathleen Barker for more information or to register. 

By Elaine Grublin

Looking for something to do while on vacation this week?  Plan on visiting the MHS to attend one of the following events:

In partnership with The Forbes House Museum in Milton, the MHS is offering a three day workshop on July 12, 13, & 14.  The workshop, Three days, Three Viewpoints: The Worlds of Thomas Hutchinson, offers participants the opportunity to delve deep into the life of Thomas Hutchinson, the last civilian colonial governor of Massachusetts.  The workshop takes place at both the MHS and the Forbes House Mueseum on alternating days.  Learn more here.  The workshop is open to the public but registration and payment of the registration fee are required.  K-12 educators can earn 18 PDPs by attending the special classroom session from 2:30 to 3:30 each day. 

For those with less than three days to spare, on Wednesday, July 13, current research fellow Sean Patrick Adams, University of Florida, will present his research at a brown-bag lunch program.  Sean’s project Home Fires Burning: Keeping Warm in the Industrial North explores the shifts in home heating from the rise of coal in the 1810s and 1820s, through the rise of steam and gas heating systems in the 1870s and 1880s. 

On Saturday, July 16 our ninety-minute building tour, The History and Collections of the MHS, departs the front lobby at 10:00 AM. 

And did you know that due to popular demand our exhibition History Drawn with Light: Early Photographs from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society will remain open through September 17.  Gather the family together and stop by the MHS to check out the exhibition.  The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. 

By Elaine Grublin

Writing to his wife Abigail on 3 July 1776 John Adams noted:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.  It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Many would argue that Adams had it right, and we — celebrating on the 4th — have it wrong.  The Second Continental Congress actually voted to declare our independence from Britain on July 2nd, making Saturday the anniversary of our true Independence Day. 

If you are in Boston on Saturday and are looking for something special to do, plan on stopping by the MHS to see John Adams’ letter and a number of other special documents relating to America’s independence on display in our exhibition hall.

In addition to Adams’ letter visitors to the MHS can view a manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence in the hand of Thomas Jefferson and a twentieth-century facsimile of John Dunlap’s printing — the first printing — of the Declaration of Independence by the Lakeside Press.  The original broadside was completed by Dunlap, the official printer for the Congress, in the early morning of 5 July 1776, after which it was immediately disseminated throughout the colonies.

The exhibition halls will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday and are free and open to the public.  Call the MHS at 617-536-1608 if you have questions about planning your visit.

If you cannot visit the MHS in person on Saturday, be sure to explore the online display of many of your Indepedence Day related holdings. 

By Elaine Grublin

We have a busy week coming up.  Whether you are in the neighborhood at lunchtime or after work, there is something for everyone at the MHS this week.  All events are free and open to the public. 

Monday, 13 June, at noon current Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati fellow David Preston, The Citadel, will present his research “Braddock’s Veterans: Paths of Loyalty in the British Empire, 1755-1775.”

On Tuesday, 14 June, also at noon, historian and author Julie Winch, University of Massachusetts-Boston, will be at the MHS to talk about her newest book, The Clamorgans: One Family’s History of Race in America.  Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.  

On Thursday, 16 June — the eve of the anniversary of the Batlle of Bunker HIll — at 6:00 PM, historian and author Paul Lockhart offers a program centered on his latest book The Whites of Their Eyes: Bunker Hill, the First American Army, and the Emergence of George Washington.  This event is co-sponsored by Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site.  Light refreshments will served at 5:30 PM.  RSVP’s are encouraged for this event.

And on Saturday, 18 June, join us at 10:00 AM for our weekly building tour.  Spend 90 minutes with an MHS docent learning about the HIstory and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 

By Elaine Grublin

This week the MHS offers two engaging brown-bag lunch programs.  Brown-bag lunches are free and open to the public.  Typically there is a twenty to twenty-five minute presentation, followed by an open discussion of the topic at hand.  You bring your lunch, the MHS provides beverages.

On Wednesday, 8 June, at noon current Ruth R & Alyson R. Miller Fellow Nora Doyle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presents her research “‘A Higher Place in the Scale of Being’: The Maternal Body in America, 1750-1850.” 

On Friday, 10 June, also at noon New England Regional Fellowship Consortium fellow Carrie Hyde, Rutgers University, presents her research “Alienable Rights.”

Also, the current exhibition History Drawn with Light has been extended through 30 June.  If you have not had a chance to visit, or if you would like to visit again, be sure to make time in June to come to the MHS. 

Finally, the Saturday building tour The History and Collections of the MHS returns this week.  Join one of our docents for a 90 minute tour starting from the front lobby at 10:00 AM on 11 June.   

By Elaine Grublin

With the Memorial Day holiday this coming weekend, the MHS will be closed on Saturday, 28 May and Monday, 30 May.  As a result of the Saturday closure, there will be no building tour this coming weekend.  The tour will return on Saturday, 4 June.  And do not forget that time is running out for our current exhibition, History Drawn with Light.  The exhibition closes on 4 June, and with the holiday closures there are only nine days left to come in and view it.  So plan on stopping in this week. 

Also, an event that is on the horizon, although not happening this week, is a one day conference Off the Record: Telling Lives of People Hidden in Plain Sight.  The conference, co-sponsered by the MHS along with Mass Humanities, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Program in Public History, and the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston, takes place on Monday, June 6 at the Hogan Campus Center, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. Participants must register for the conference and pay a registration fee of $65.00. 

By Elaine Grublin

This week plan to spend your lunch hour at the MHS. On both Tuesday and Wednesday we offer one-hour lunch time programs.  Both programs are free and open to the public. You bring the lunch, we provide the beverages. 

Tuesday, 17 May at 12:00 PM join us for the final installment of the What Does Massachusetts Have to do With…. mini-course.  Kate Viens and Conrad E. Wright from the MHS Research Department will share their insights on What does Massachusetts have to do with … Columbus Day?.

Wednesday, 18 May at 12:00 PM current African American Studies Fellow Richard Boles of George Washington University presents his research Africans and Indians in Massachusetts Churches, 1730-1850 at a brown-bag lunch program.

On Saturday, 21 May the weekly building tour The History and Collections of the MHS departs the lobby at 10:00 AM.

By Elaine Grublin

This week we offer two public programs and a tour of the MHS building.  Enjoy a walk in the Back Bay and stop by 1154 Boylston Street for:

Wednesday, 4 May MHS research fellow (and guest blogger) Laura Prieto of Simmons College will present her research, New Women in an American Empire, 1898-1910, at a brown-bag lunch program.  The one hour program begins promptly at 12:00 PM.  You bring your lunch, we provide the drinks. 

Thursday, 5 May at 5:15 PM Owen Stanwood of Boston College presents his paper “Murder in Hadley: Crime and Community on the New England Frontier” as part of the Boston Early American History Seminar series.  Richard D. Brown of University of Connecticut will give the comment.  Advance copies of the seminar paper can be obtained, for a small subscription fee, through the MHS website.  The program is free and open to the public.

Saturday, 7 May the weekly building tour The History and Collections of the MHS will depart the lobby at 10:00 AM for a ninety minute tour of the building.  

By Elaine Grublin

This week we have two evening events: a special event for MHS members and fellows and a seminar. Plus the exhibition hall and portrait gallery are open daily.  

On Tuesday, 26 April at 5:30 PM there is a special Behind-the-Scenes Tour for MHS members and fellows.  The event does require an advance RSVP and space is limited.  Call 617-646-0554 with questions or to reserve your space.  This unique opportunity to glimpse the inner workings of a manuscript repository, and other special events scheduled throughout the year, is just one of the benefits of being an MHS member.  Visit our membership page for additional information.

On Thursday, 28 April at 5:15 PM you can join us for the next installment of the Boston Immigration and Urban History Seminar series.  This week Timothy B. Neary of Salve Regina University will present his paper “A Catholic ‘League of Nations’: Redefining Ethnic and Civic Identity in New Deal Chicago.”  The comment will be provided by Howard P. Chudacoff of Brown University.  Advance copies of the paper — and other papers in this series — are available through the MHS website for a small subscription fee. 

And do not forget that our current exibition History Drawn with Light: Early Photographs from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society is open Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM.  The exhibition runs through 3 June.  With May approaching quickly, June will be here before you know it! Do not miss your chance to view the exhibition. 

Finally please note that there will not a building tour on Saturday, 30 April.  The tour will return on Saturday, 7 May.