By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us on Wednesday, 13 January at 12 noon for a brown-bag lunch with research fellow Rachel Shelden. Rachel will speak on her current project, “Washington Brotherhood: Friendship and Politics in the Civil War Era.”
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us on Wednesday, 6 January at 12 noon for a brown-bag lunch with MHS Digital Projects Coordinator Nancy Heywood and Web Developer Bill Beck, “From Sealing Wax to a Website: The MHS Presents Jefferson’s Manuscript of Notes on the State of Virginia.” More info here.
This Week @MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us Wednesday, 16 December at noon, when research fellow Karen Woods Weierman will give a brown-bag lunch talk on her current research project, “The Case of the Slave-Child, Med: The Geography of Freedom in Antebellum Boston.”
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
On Tuesday, 9 December, the Boston Environmental History Seminar series continues with a 5:15 p.m. talk by Allen M. Gontz of UMASS-Boston, “Linking Anthropogenic Landscapes and Natural Processes to the Cultural and Environmental Vulnerability of Southern Rainsford Island, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.” Peter Rosen of Northeastern University will give the comment. Please read the Seminars @ MHS blog post for more information on attending seminars, including how to make reservations and receive the papers in advance.
On Wednesday, 10 December, research fellow Whitney Martinko will give a brown-bag lunch talk on her current research project, “Progress through Preservation: History on the American Landscape in an Age of Improvement, 1790-1860.” The talk will begin at 12 noon.
On Thursday, 11 December, current long-term research fellow Crystal Feimster will speak on “How Are the Daughters of Eve Punished? Rape and the American Civil War.” This seminar, part of the Boston Seminar on the History of Women and Gender, will be held at the Schlesinger Library, Harvard. Please read the Seminars @ MHS blog post for more information on attending seminars, including how to make reservations and receive the papers in advance.
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! Now, back to business. We have two brown-bag lunches and a seminar this week at the Historical Society. First, the lunch events:
On Wednesday, 2 December, Dean Grodzins will give a brown-bag lunch talk, “A Civil War in Boston: Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Theodore Parker, and the Fugitive Slave Crisis, 1850-1855.”
On Friday, 4 December, Library Assistant Heather Merrill and Tod Forman will speak on “Legacies in Stone: Some Statues of Boston.”
The brown-bag lunches will begin at 12 noon.
And for the seminar: on Thursday, 3 December, as part of the Boston Early American History seminar series, Elaine Forman Crane of Fordham University will present a talk, “Cold Comfort: Rape and Race in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island.” Gerald F. Leonard of Boston University Law School will deliver a comment. Please read the Seminars @ MHS blog post for more information on attending seminars, including how to make reservations and receive the papers in advance. The seminar will begin at 5:15 p.m.
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
On Tuesday, 17 November, join us for a lecture by William M. Bulger on his new book, James Michael Curley: A Short Biography with Personal Reminiscences (Commonwealth Editions, 2009). Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m., with the talk at 6 p.m. There will be an opportunity to purchase copies of James Michael Curley and have books signed after the talk. More info here.
On Thursday, 19 November, the Boston Immigration and Urban History Seminar series begins its season with a 5:15 p.m. talk by Sandy Zipp of Brown University, “Culture and Authority in the Superblock World: East Harlem Plaza and the Conflict Over Public Space.” Jeff Melnick of Babson College will give the comment. Please read the Seminars @ MHS blog post for more information on attending seminars, including how to make reservations and receive the papers in advance.
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
A reminder that tonight, 9 November, we’ll host the official book launch for Woody Holton’s Abigail Adams. Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m., with a talk to follow at 6 p.m. There will be an opportunity to purchase copies of Abigail Adams and have books signed after the talk. More info here.
On Tuesday, 10 November, the Boston Environmental History Seminar series continues with a 5:15 p.m. talk by Strother Roberts of Northwestern University, “Pines, Profits and Popular Politics: The Timber and Lumber Trade of the Colonial Connecticut River Valley.” Harvey Green of Northeastern University will give the comment. Please read the Seminars @ MHS blog post for more information on attending seminars, including how to make reservations and receive the papers in advance.
Also, please note that the MHS will be CLOSED on Wednesday, 11 November, in observance of the Veterans Day holiday.
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Another busy week around here!
Join us on Wednesday, 4 November for two events: at 12 noon Tracy Potter and Sarah Desmond will discuss their current and ongoing MHS research project, “The Letters of the Presidents: A Survey of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.” Tracy and Sarah are scouring the MHS’ holdings to create a complete guide to presidential manuscripts in our collections. [Note: This is a changed event from the regular schedule; Karen Woods Weierman’s brown-bag lunch talk has been postponed].
Also on Wednesday, as part of our “Creating the Past” Conversation series, novelist William Martin will speak on “Creating the Past Through Historical Fiction.” Martin is the author of several historical novels, including Harvard Yard, Cape Cod, Back Bay, and The Lost Constitution. The conversation will be moderated by Steve Marini. Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m., and the event will begin at 6 p.m. More info here.
On Thursday, 5 November, as part of the Boston Early American History seminar series, former long-term MHS fellow Michael Hoberman will present a talk, “‘His Solemn Profession of his Faith in the Messiah Already Come’: Judah Monis and the Limits of Puritan Hebraism.” William Pencak of Penn State will deliver a comment. Please read the Seminars @ MHS blog post for more information on attending seminars, including how to make reservations and receive the papers in advance. The seminar will begin at 5:15 p.m.
And on Saturday, 7 November, as part of the John Brown and New England series of public events, David Reynolds will speak on “Warriors for Freedom: John Brown and Henry David Thoreau.” Reynolds will “describe how the Transcendentalists were the boldest and most publicly visible proponents of John Brown in the immediate aftermath of Harpers Ferry. Virtually everyone in the North, including radical abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, initially reacted negatively to Brown’s attack on Virginia. Henry David Thoreau stood alone in coming out immediately and eloquently on Brown’s behalf and planted the seed for the mass veneration of John Brown that grew steadily in the months before and after John Brown’s execution on December 2, 1859. Focusing on three newly discovered letters housed at the American Antiquarian Society and written by Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, Dr. Reynolds will argue that if it had not been for the positive reception and promotion of John Brown by Thoreau and other Transcendentalists, Brown may very well have passed into obscurity as a solitary, crazed anarchist.” This event will begin at 2 p.m.
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
A busy week at 1154 Boylston Street!
Join us Tuesday, 27 October for a lecture by Bruce Ronda, “The Kaleidoscope of History: John Brown after Fifteen Decades.” This event is part of John Brown and New England, a series of public programs commemorating the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m., and the talk will begin at 6 p.m. More info here.
On Wednesday, 28 October, we’ll have a brown-bag lunch talk at 12 noon with MHS short-term research fellow Carol Bundy; she’ll speak on “McClellan’s Visit to Boston, January 28-February 8, 1863.”
On Friday, 30 October, another brown-bag lunch talk (also at 12 noon): Electa Kane Tritsch will discuss her book Medfield’s Dwight-Derby House: A Story of Love and Persistence. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. More info here.
And for MHS Members and Fellows, don’t forget the special exhibition opening event at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 29 October: Librarian Peter Drummey will speak on the new exhibit “Atlantic Harvest: Ellery Sedgwick & The Atlantic Monthly, 1909-1938.” Registration is required for this event; more info here.
This Week @ MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us tonight, Monday 19 October, at 6 p.m., for a talk and booksigning by Gordon S. Wood, the Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. His books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Radicalism of the American Revolution, the Bancroft Prize-winning The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, and The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History.
Wood’s talk tonight will be on his new book, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, just published by Oxford University Press. Professor Wood will sign copies of his book following the talk. Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.
And join us on Wednesday, 21 October, at noon, for a brown-bag lunch with Caroline Frank, current MHS short-term research fellow. She’ll discuss her current project, “Native American Enslavement in Southern New England, 1630-1730.”