This Week @ MHS

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The week ahead is a little bit lite on the number of public programs available. However, the MHS is pleased to announce that the newest exhibition is now open for viewing! The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825 is open to the public free of charge Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM – 4:00PM. 

Here are the other events taking place this week:

– Tuesday, 15 May, 6:00PM : In 1805 and 1806, former vice president Aaron Burr traveled through the trans-Appalachian West gathering support for a mysterious enterprise, for which he was arrested and tried for treason in 1807. The Burr Conspiracy was a cause célèbre of the early republic-with Burr cast as the chief villain of the Founding Fathers—even as the evidence against him was vague and conflicting. James E. Lewis, Jr. of Kalamzaoo College will explore how Americans made sense of the reports of Burr’s intentions and examine what the crisis revealed about the new nation’s uncertain future.

This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

– Thursday, 17 May, 6:30PM : We invite you to join us for a festive evening in support of the Center for the Teaching of History at the MHS featuring Harvard President Drew Faust in conversation with MHS President Catherine Allgor. The evening will begin with a cocktail reception. A seated dinner will follow. Feast, sip, and celebrate history at the eighth Cocktails with Clio! 

Tickets are $300 per person. Purchase tickets today!

– Saturday, 19 May, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led walk through our public rooms. The tour is free, open to the public, with no need for reservations. If you would like to bring a larger party (8 or more), please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

While you’re here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825.

Posted in This Week @MHS

Charles Cornish Pearson and the Great War, Part VI

By Susan Martin, Collection Services

This is the sixth post in a series about the wartime experience of Charles Cornish Pearson. Go back and read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V for the full story.

After the Battle of Château-Thierry on 18 July 1918, Sgt. Charles Cornish Pearson of the 101st Machine Gun Battalion, American Expeditionary Forces, was granted a 48-hour leave, so he went to Paris to see the sights. (These two days, 6-8 August, would be his only leave during the war.) Of course, he enjoyed the respite very much, calling Notre-Dame Cathedral “the most wonderful building I ever saw, but I haven’t spent all my time admiring buildings.” He sent postcards to his family back home, including one to his little niece from “Uncle Buster.”

Just a few days after rejoining his battalion, Charles was on the road again. According to Philip S. Wainwright’s history, the 101st moved several times between mid-August and mid-September, first southeast to the town of Étrochey, then northeast again to the Rupt Sector. There the battalion took part in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, which Charles described in an eight-page letter to his sister Jean, dated 15 September 1918. He began with his arrival at the front and what he saw as he came over a hill.

What a scene. Those guns had knocked those trenches some I can tell you, and the trenches were pretty well destroyed. Pill boxes, concrete dugouts & everything had been knocked to pieces in fine shape.

Charles spared Jean the grisly details—every letter had to pass the watchful eyes of censors, and the Censorship Bureau had forbidden any mention of casualties. But he did tell her about the grueling hikes to various positions, the sight of villages burning in the distance, and the capture of hundreds of German soldiers “who offered no resistance & seemed only too glad to be thru with the war.” The war was taking its toll on Charles, too, who wrote his Aunt Florence that same day, “It is great to be in all these drives but I tell you they are heart breakers and at times you wonder how you are going to keep going but still you manage it someway.” He longed for civilian life, but was proud of his service and the bravery and comradeship of his fellow soldiers.

A lot of Charles’ correspondence deals with items shipped back and forth between France and the U.S. His family sent care packages, and he sometimes requested specific items. For example, there’s this great insight into the life of a soldier:

Mighty glad to learn from Dads letter that you are sending a couple of books over. Any late popular & light fiction appeals to one over here. Of course one reads a great deal about the boys desiring the serious heavy stuff but far from it. They get too much of that in their days work. Any thing that will bring a smile is worth a thousand dollars I can tell you.

Meanwhile, Charles sent gifts home when he could, including a German helmet and gas mask for his nephew Bobby. “Suppose they are rather gruesome articles,” he admitted. He’d retrieved them himself from enemy lines after the German troops were driven off, weaving his way through the French trenches, across No Man’s Land, over barbed wire, and around shell holes—“havoc,” he called it, left by four years of fighting. He was impressed by the German trenches, though, some of which were 40 or 50 feet deep.

The spoils most prized by Allied soldiers were German pistols, belts, and belt buckles carved with the famous motto “Gott mit uns.” I don’t know if Charles ever found those, but he did send a second helmet to his brother Bill.

Picked yours up near a dead Hun. Didn’t quite feel like taking the one he had on although someone ahead of me had evidently cut his belt off for a souvenir. I am not quite so keen after souvenirs as that. Dont mind the sight of the dead but not very keen for handling them.

As always, Charles was humble about his letters. He wrote to Bill on 6 October 1918:

Am afraid my letters prove rather uninteresting reading as a rule. I don’t write an awful lot about this war stuff practically impossible to describe it in the proper way. It is a good deal made up of sensations and some of them aren’t especially pleasant.

Stay tuned for the seventh and final chapter of Charles Cornish Pearson’s story.

Posted in From Our Collections

Barbara Hillard Smith’s Diary, April 1918

By Lindsay Bina, Intern and Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services

Today we return to the 1918 diary of Newton teenager Barbara Hillard Smith. You may read our introduction to the diary, and Barbara’s previous entries, here:

 

January | February | March | April

May | June | July | August

September | October | November | December

 

As regular readers of the Beehive know, we are following Barbara throughout 1918 with monthly blog posts that present Barbara’s daily life — going to school, seeing friends, playing basketball, and caring for family members — in the words she wrote a century ago. Here is Barbara’s May, day by day.

 

* * *

WED. 1                       MAY

School. Took care of sonny.

THUR. 2

School. Took care of sonny

FRI. 3

School. Took care of sonny.

SAT. 4

Cleaned. Swimming. Pegs

SUN. 5

Church. Sunday School. Studied

MON. 6

School. Took care of sonny

TUES. 7

School. Took care of sonny. Swimming. Waited on table at church

WED. 8

School. Took care of sonny. Cousin Bert here

THUR. 9

School. Went to Arleen Pratt’s

FRI. 10

School. Took care of sony

SAT. 11

Swimming. Pegs.

SUN. 12

School. Sunday School. Studied

MON. 13

School. In Town. Sick?

TUES. 14

School. Baby’s. K.O.K.A. with Spud

WED. 15

School. Baby’s. Search Light Club Play

THUR. 16

School. Took care of Sonny

FRI. 17

School: Bill Wellman cheering practice. Went to get Wigwam and cut trees for float

SAT. 18

Dentist. Red Cross Parade. Mother starts for Portland

SUN. 19

Sunday School. Peg here. Service in evening

MON. 20

School. Mrs. Reeds. Kitten’s Came

TUES. 21

School. Mrs. Reed’s

WED. 22

School. Cheer Practice. Preliminary Baseball Game

THUR. 23

School. Mrs Hurt knee. Bob Hayes Up to the house

FRI. 24

School. Field Day. Red Cross Function at Seminary

SAT. 25

Mrs Reed’s. Dance at Nash’s

SUN. 26

Sunday School. Studied

MON. 27

School. Mrs. Reed’s

TUES. 28

School. Mrs. Reed’s

WED. 29

School. Mrs. Reed’s

THUR. 30                    MEMORIAL DAY

Swimming. Tennis

FRI. 31

Baby’s. In Town

* * *

If you are interested in viewing the diary in person in our library or have other questions about the collection, please visit the library or contact a member of the library staff for further assistance.

 

 *Please note that the diary transcription is a rough-and-ready version, not an authoritative transcript. Researchers wishing to use the diary in the course of their own work should verify the version found here with the manuscript original. The catalog record for the Barbara Hillard Smith collection may be found here.

 

 

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged

This Week @ MHS

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The program schedule this week culminates with the opening of our newest public exhibition! Before we get to that, though, here is the full list of programs in the week ahead:

– Monday, 7 May, 6:00PM : Starting the week is a conversation with Ann Hulbert of The Atlantic and Megan Marshall of Emerson University. They will discuss Hulbert’s new book, Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives & Lessons of American Child Prodigies, which examines the lives of children whose rare accomplishments have raised hopes about untapped human potential and questions about how best to nurture it. The conversation will draw on a range of examples that span a century—from two precocious Harvard boys in 1909 to literary girls in the 1920s to music virtuosos today. Hulbert and Marshall will explore the changing role of parents and teachers, as well as of psychologists, a curious press and, above all, the feelings of the prodigies themselves, who push back against adults more as the decades proceed.

This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

– Wednesday, 9 May, 12:00PM : Pack your lunch and come in for a Brown Bag talk with Lindsay Keiter of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. While historians have analized the rise of companionship and romance in marriage, they have overlooked a critical continuity: marriage continued to serve vital financial functions. Keiter’s talk, “For Love and Money: Marriage in Early America,” briefly sketches the economic importance of marriage and families’ strategies for managing wealth across generations.

This talk is free and open to the public.

– Thursday, 10 May, 6:00PM : MHS Fellows and Members are invited to attend the Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825 Preview and Reception. 

Registration required at no cost.

– Friday, 11 May, 10:00AM : All are welcome to view our new exhibition, Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825. Virtually forgotten for 200 years, Isaac Vose and his brilliant furniture are revealed in a new exhibition and accompanying volume. Beginning with a modest pair of collection boxes he made for his local Boston church in 1788, Vose went on to build a substantial business empire and to make furniture for the most prominent Boston families. The exhibition and catalog restore Vose from relative obscurity to his rightful position as one of Boston’s most important craftsmen. Opening at the MHS on May 11, the exhibition will be on view through September 14.

The complementary book, Rather Elegant Than Showy (May 2018), by Robert Mussey and Clark Pearce, will be available for sale at the MHS.

– Saturday, 12 May, 10:00AM : With the opening of our new exhibition we also see the return of our free Saturday building tours. The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Tour is a 90-minute docent-led walk through our public rooms. The tour is free, open to the public, with no need for reservations. If you would like to bring a larger party (8 or more), please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Posted in This Week @MHS

MHS and Massachusetts History Day

By Amanda Fellmeth, Intern and Kate Melchior, Education

As the State Affiliates for Massachusetts History Day, Mass Historical and the Center for the Teaching of History are excited to celebrate the incredible work of young historians across the state.  From over 5,000 students competing at the school level to the 63 students advancing to the 2018 National History Day Competition outside Washington D.C. this June, a fabulous group of young people across the state have actively engaged in the research and re-telling of a broad range of historical topics.  

National History Day is a year-long, primary source-based research project for students in grades 6-12 that encourages exploration of local, state, national, and world history.  The competition takes place in two divisions (Junior (Grades 6-8) and Senior (Grades 9-12). The students present their research within the format of five different categories: Research Paper, Exhibit, Performance, Documentary, or Website, and can choose to participate individually or as part of a group.  This year’s theme is “Conflict and Compromise”, and students worked with educators, archivists, librarians, and historians all over the state to research their chosen subjects in this theme.  The diverse array of student topics this year included:

  • – “Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Vilifying Women During the Conflict in Salem”
  • – “The Flapper Story: A History of Lesbian Development, Modern Feminism and Gender Roles in the 1920s”
  • – “A Cloying Compromise: The Story of the Hawaiian Annexation”
  • – “Murky Past, Clean Future: The Clean Air Act of 1970”

 

Mass History Day will also be celebrating student work in a celebration of the life of Frederick Douglass next month! In honor of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial, MHS and Mass History Day teamed up with Mass Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Primary Source to offer special student awards, school scholarships, and teacher stipends for works that illuminate the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass. Students will present their projects and have the chance to speak with noted Douglass scholars David Blight of Yale University, Lois Brown of Wesleyan University, and John Stauffer of Harvard University at the Mass History Day Frederick Douglass Bicentennial on 2 June. For more information on the program and how to attend, visit the Mass Humanities website.

Massachusetts History Day is one of the rare programs that helps students refine critical thinking and research skills used in all subject areas. This competition gives students an opportunity to dive deep and truly engage with primary resources, an experience that not only helps to build their appreciation for history and the importance of research societies and libraries, but gives them valuable practice in higher education-type research. The format of the projects and the flexibility in research topics also allows students to play to their own strengths and interests. These types of activities also help students bring their education outside the classroom and engage with students, historians, and enthusiasts from all over the nation. Mass Historical and Mass History Day are proud of our 2018 participants and excited to watch the next generation of historians in action!

 

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A Choise Garden of Rarest Flowers: John Parkinson’s “Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris”

By Shelby Wolfe, Reader Services

Somewhere amid April snow showers, I took my desire to see long-awaited signs of spring into my own hands and dug into a number of volumes here at the MHS regarding all things flora. I spent some time in A Little Book of Perennials (1927) by Alfred C. Hottes, consulted the floral clock in the appendix of Christopher Dresser’s Art of Decorative Design (1862) in anticipation of near-future blooms, and found the not-so-secret language of flowers outlined in a miniature Burnett’s Floral Handbook and Ladies’ Calendar for 1866 intriguing and rather amusing (if someone sends you laurestinus flowers, they may be trying to convey the sentiment “I die if neglected”; lettuce expresses cold-heartedness, a yellow carnation disdain).

I slowed down when I started paging through John Parkinson’s 1656 volume on horticulture, descriptively titled Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, or, A choise Garden of all sorts of Rarest Flowers, with their Nature, place of Birth, time of flowring, Names, and Vertues to each Plant, useful in Physick, or admired for Beauty. To which is annext a Kitchin-Garden furnished with all manner of Herbs, Roots, and Fruits, for Meat or Sawce used with us. With the Art of planting an Orchard of all sorts of fruit-bearing Trees and Shrubs, shewing the nature of Grafting, Inoculating, and pruning of them. Together with the right ordering, planting, and preserving of them, with their select vertues : All unmentioned in former Herbals. Parkinson, who held the distinctions of Apothecary of London and the King’s Herbalist, preludes this work with a dedication to the queen. Our 1659 copy of Paradisi in Sole is a later edition of the original, first printed in 1629, making this a dedication to Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I of England. Parkinson writes, “Accept, I beseech your Majesty, this Speaking Garden, that may inform you in all the particulars of your store, as well as wants, when you cannot see any of them fresh upon the ground.” As I had yet to see any signs of spring fresh upon the ground and was indeed in want of them, I decided to give this Speaking Garden a try. 

I wasn’t disappointed – Parkinson’s collection of horticultural advice, wisdom, and instruction includes a number of beautiful woodcut illustrations. An early section, “The ordering of the Garden of pleasure,” includes intricate designs as suggestions for attractive garden layouts.

 

“The ordering of the Garden of pleasure.”

 


 “The Garden of pleasant Flowers,” showing various specimen of Peony.

 

Some illustrations near the beginning of the book bear signs of a previous owner, having been partially colored. Other sections of the text have been underlined or annotated. Evidently one reader wanted to remember when planting Tulipas, “if you set them deep, they will be the safer from frosts if your ground be cold, which will also cause them to be a little later before they be in flower …” as it has been called out with a manicule.

 

 

In addition to the main text with its beautiful illustrations, Paradisi in Sole includes helpful appendices to help navigate a volume brimming with knowledge, insight, and sometimes seemingly strange advice. My favorite was “A Table of the Virtues and Properties of the HEARBS contained in this BOOK,” which provides a concise guide to locating remedies for standard ailments and even one’s most obscure complaint.

 

 

How could I not turn to pages 364, 436, 502, 506, 513, or 533 to see what I should do “For cold and moyst Brains”? Apparently Tabacco [sic], the Tree of life, Garden Mustard, Cabbages and Coleworts, Leeks, or Licorice would do the trick and clear the lungs of phlegm. What are Parkinson’s nineteen suggestions for a “Cordiall to comfort the heart”? Among them he includes Saffron, Monkeshood, Marigolds, Roses, and Strawberries. Plenty more “virtues” had me flipping back and forth, from index to referenced page, out of sheer curiosity and bewilderment. If you would like to do the same, visit the library to work with this volume and others that pique your interest.

As I finish this blog post and prepare to reshelve Paradisi in Sole, I see a bed of daffodils and tulips through a window in the reading room. 

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged

The Bygone Celebrations of May Day in Boston

By Rakashi Chand, Reader Services

Today is the 1st of May, a day once celebrated with merriment, song, dance and baskets. The celebration of May Day originated in pre-Christian Europe as a festival to celebrate the coming of Spring and the first planting. The boisterous celebrations of May Day suffered a bit with the onset of Christianity, but what emerged was a more innocent and beautiful festival. It was this festival, brought over from Europe, which reached its peak in nineteenth century America. Bostonians celebrated May Day with concerts, dances, and by making May Day Baskets.

May Day exhibition of the Sabbath School connected with the Universalist Society of Methuen, Mass…

 

The May Day holiday was perhaps the loveliest of all celebrations. Adorned in flowers and beautiful colors, this was a day to truly celebrate beauty, friendship and happiness, as well as the coming of spring and all the wonderful sights, smells, tastes and feelings that accompany the warmer months. The holiday was as sweet and as beautiful as the season it heralded. May Day baskets were often homemade baskets that would be filled with freshly picked flowers, sweets, and sometimes even small gifts, to be left on the doors of friends, neighbors and possibly even a romantic interest. The May baskets were secretly hung on the door of friends and loved ones on May 1st.

In 1850, a Massachusetts man named Thomas Power composed an ode (below) to an unknown woman who presented him with a May Day basket.

To the Unknown Lady: who sent to the Writer, on May morning, a bouquet, exceedingly beautiful, and very fragrant


…Lady, so beautiful the gift you send,

It might to others beauteous objects lend

A wealth of loveliness, and still be seen

The favorite talisman of May’s fair queen;

Blended so gracefully, its tints compare

With show of Iris painted on the air.

 

What welcome perfume! –Ever shall it be

Thus fresh is grateful memory to me:

Each coming May-day shall new fragrance bring,

And Time decree one bright, unending Spring.

 

150 years ago the city was rife with concerts and dances to celebrate May Day. Children jubilantly danced around May Poles as their rite of Spring, and schools held assemblies and choral concerts. Adults and children alike enjoyed the festivities, songs, and dances that accompanied the festivals.

One such event was sponsored by the Warren Street Chapel in 1860. The festivities that took place at the Boston Music Hall included poems, songs like Dr. Parson’s “A Song for the Children. May Day,” and the very fashionable tableaux, “The Living Pictures,” which had swept over Europe and then became vogue in America. The entire thing wrapped up with a “Social Assembly, Fourteen Dances, at Eight O’Clock, P.M.”

May Day, 1860: Boston Music Hall

 

Another celebration held in 1858 featured songs specially arranged for the day and to be sung at specific times; “Fancy Dances” held at set times throughout the day; “Games, Graces, &c.” to occupy revelers during lulls in the music and dancing; and in the evening, a “Grand Promenade Concert” performed by the Germania Reed, Brass, Militrary Band and Full Orchestra.” In addition, visitors could purchase bouquets and potted flowers to take home (with delivery to any part of the city an option).

Programme for May-Day…

 

So, consider rekindling some of these bygone May Day traditions and festivities. Prepare a basket, sing a song, and dance a dance, and celebrate the season with these words:

Oh! Mild be the wind! And clear be the sky!

                As we wake another May-morning.

Before the sun rises, abroad we fly,

                Dull sleep and our drowsy beds scorning,

To dance! Then, my dear ones, and away!

                Bright splendor the hills are adorning.

The face of all nature looks gay,

                ‘Tis a beautiful, joy-breathing morning!

Hark! hark! forward! tantara! tantara!

 

Have a lovely May Day!

 

 

Sources

– Encyclopaedia Britannica online, “May Day: European seasonal holiday.” Accessed 30 April 2018 at https://www.britannica.com/topic/May-Day-European-seasonal-holiday.

– Weeks, Linton, “A Forgotten Tradition: May Basket Day.” NPR History Department, 30 April 2015. Accessed 30 April 2018 at https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/04/30/402817821/a-forgotten-tradition-may-basket-day.

– “The May-Day Festival: Symposium,” Francis W. Parker School Year Book, Vol. 2, The Morning Exercise As A Socializing Influence (June 1913), p. 150-157. Accessed 30 April 2018 at http://www.jstor.org/stable/41102642

 

 

 

 

Posted in From Our Collections

This Week @ MHS

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Are you looking for some history-themed events to help pass your week as we head into May? Well then, you’re in luck! Here are some programs coming in the week ahead here at the MHS:

– Tuesday, 1 May, 5:15PM : First up this week is a seminar from the Early American History series. Join us as Matthew Kruer of the University of Chicago presents “The Time of Anarachy: the Susquehannock Scattering and the Crisis of English Colonialism, 1675-1685,” which is part of a larger book project. This paper argues that the seemingly distinct conflicts across the English colonies in the 1670s were actually connected by the political initiatives of the scattered Susquehannock Indians. The dispersion of the Susquehannocks caused instability in surrounding Native American and colonial societies, drawing them into a spiral of violence interrupted only by Susquehannock success, which brought stability to the northeast and shattered the southeast. Linford Fisher of Brown University is on-hand to provide comment.

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

– Wednesday, 2 May, 12:00PM : The Brown Bag talk this week centers on some 20th century topics. David Shorten of Boston University presents “Neutrality and Anti-Imperialism: A New Synthesis for the 1920s.” After the war, a movement comprised of scholars, journalists, peace activists, and “anti-monopolist” US Senators worked together to articulate a new conception of US neutrality. Unlike the more widely discussed international war outlawry movement, this national movement focused narrowly on one radical conclusion: that protection of capitalist interests had motivated World War I, and thus, that the US government must permanently disavow the right to protect those interests in order to prevent war’s future recurrence.

Brown Bag lunch talks are open to the public, free of charge.

– Wednesday, 2 May, 6:00PM : The final event in the This Land is Your Land Series is “The Future of Our Land.” The Boston metropolitan area is in the enviable spot of having more people who want to live and work here than there is space for. Real estate regularly sells for prices that would have seemed inconceivable twenty five years ago. This situation puts more funds in municipal coffers, but what will this increased demand and density do to plans to preserve open space? How will climate change impact our priorities for preserving open space and how might it limit our options? Join us for this panel discussion with Kathy Abbott, Boston Harbor Now; Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space for the City of Boston; Madhu C. Dutta-Koehler, City Planning and Urban Affairs, Boston University.

This program is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

Please note that the library is CLOSED on Saturday, 5 May, to make room for a special teacher workshop. See below for details.

– Saturday, 5 May, 9:00AM : Known as the “master of the art of narrative history,” David McCullough is the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. In a special teacher workshop, “History and the American Spirit,” he will join us to discuss his perspective on history, education, and American legacy. This workshop is FULL and registration has closed. Please contact Kate Melchior at kmelchior@masshist.org or 617-646-0588 with any questions.

Posted in This Week @MHS

Announcing 2018-2019 Research Fellowships

By Alexis Buckley, Research

Each year the MHS grants a number of research fellowships to scholars from around the country. Our four fellowship programs bring a wide variety of researchers to the MHS. See the list of incoming 2018-2019 fellows and their project titles below. You can learn more about each fellow’s research at their MHS brown bag lunch talk—keep an eye on the calendar to find out when they’ll present!

This year we offered 23 short-term fellowships to scholars whose research brings them to the MHS, including a new fellowship for a project on American religious history, the C. Conrad and Elizabeth H. Wright Fellowship. (See page 8 of our last newsletter for details!)

We talked about our collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities in our last blog post. This collaboration allows us to offer long-term fellowships, where the researchers spend 4-12 months as part of the MHS community. We also partner with the Boston Athenaeum to offer a Loring fellowship for a researcher studying the Civil War, its causes and consequences. The Athenaeum’s Civil War collections are anchored by its holdings of Confederate states imprints, the largest in the nation. The Society’s manuscript holdings on the Civil War include diaries, photographs, correspondence from the battlefield and the home front, papers of political leaders, and materials on black regiments raised in Massachusetts.

The MHS is also proud to be a founding member of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, a collaboration of over two dozen major cultural institutions across New England. Each year, the Consortium offers fellowships to researchers whose projects bring them to NERFC member archives. This year, 11 of the 2018-2019 NERFC fellows will be researching at the MHS.

We are looking forward to welcoming all our 2018-2019 research fellows, and learning more about their work on 20th-century reform movements, 17th-century mercantilism, and all points in between!

*****

Suzanne and Caleb Loring Fellows on the Civil War, Its Origins, and Consequences

Jean Franzino

Beloit College

Dis-Union: Disability Cultures and the American Civil War

 

MHS Short-term Fellowships

African-American Studies Fellow

Crystal Webster

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: Nineteenth Century Black Children’s Cultural and Political Resistance

 

Andrew Oliver Fellow

Ann Daly

Brown University

Hard Money: The Making of a Specie Currency, 1828-1860

 

Andrew W. Mellon Fellows

Nicholas Ames

University of Notre Dame

Communities of Difference in 19th Century Irish-America

 

Caroline Culp

Stanford University

The Memory of Copley: Afterlives of the American Portrait, 1774-1920

 

Timothy Fosbury

University of California, Los Angeles

Persistent Archives and the Early Americas, 1600-1830

 

Madeline Kearin

Brown University

Sensory Experiences of Daily Life at New England Hospitals for the Insane

 

Andrew Kettler

University of Toronto

Odor and Power in the Americas

 

Molly Laas

University Medical Center Göttingen

Moral Measurements: Wilbur Olin Atwater and the Making of the American Diet

 

Kirsten Macfarlane

Cambridge University

The Reception of European Biblical Scholarship in Early North America

 

Adam Mestyan

Duke University

American Travelers in the Middle East, 1830s-1930s

 

Molly Reed

Cornell University

Ecology of Utopia: Environmental Discourse and Practice in Antebellum Communal Settlements

 

Benjamin F. Stevens Fellow

Dexter Gabriel

University of Connecticut

A West Indian Jubilee in America: Mapping August First in New England

 

C. Conrad & Elizabeth H. Wright Fellow

Jennifer Rose

Claremont Graduate University

The World Becomes Round: Early Encounters between Bombay Parsis & Yankee Merchants, 1771-1861

 

Louis Leonard Tucker Alumni Fellows

Nicole Breault

University of Connecticut

The Night Watch of Early Boston, 1662-1776

 

Matthew Fernandez

Columbia University

Images Abroad: Henry Adams and the Picturing of Modernism

 

Xiangyun Xu

Pennsylvania State University

The American Debate over the China Relief Expedition of 1900

 

Malcolm and Mildred Freiberg Fellow

Diego Pirillo

University of California, Berkeley

Renaissance Books in Early America: John Winthrop Jr. and Italian Occultism

 

Marc Friedlaender Fellow

Nicole Williams

Yale University

The Shade of Private Life: The Right to Privacy and the Press in American Art, 1875-1900

 

Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Fellow

Roberto Flores de Apodaca

University of South Carolina

“Alas my Backsliding Hart!”: Religious Worldview and Culture of New England Continentals 1775-1783

 

Ruth R. & Alyson R. Miller Fellows

Shealeen Meaney

Russell Sage College

Boston meets Brahmin: Massachusetts Women in Gandhi’s India

 

Christopher Stampone

Southern Methodist University

“[A]s if she were born to empire”: Isabella, the Bildungsroman, and the Establishment of a New American Society Identity in Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s The Linwoods

 

W. B. H. Dowse Fellows

Taylor Kirsch

University of California, Santa Cruz

Indigenous Land Ownership in the Praying Towns of the New England Borderlands: Indigenous Lives Lands and Legacies of Seventeenth Century Massachusetts

 

Ian Saxine

Alfred University

The End of War: Indians, Empires, and Identity in the American Northeast, 1713-1727

 

MHS-NEH Long-term Fellowships

Mara Caden

Yale University

Mint Conditions: The Politics and Geography of Money in Britain and Its Empire, 1650-1760

 

Brent Sirota

North Carolina State University

Things Set Apart: An Alternative History of the Separation of Church and State

 

New England Regional Fellowship Consortium Fellows

Doris Brossard

Rutgers University

The “‘right’ to indulge in the act of sexual intercourse”: Unmarried People, Sex, and the Laws on Contraception in Massachusetts (1960- 1972)

 

Daniel Burge

University of Alabama

A Struggle Against Fate: The Opponents of Manifest Destiny and the Collapse of the Continental Dream, 1846-1871

 

Christina Casey

Cornell University

Lady Governors of the British Empire

 

Donna Drucker

Technische Universität Darmstadt

The Study of Human Sex Problems: A History of American Sexual Science, 1895–1945

 

Susan Eberhard

University of California, Berkeley

American Silver, Chinese Silverwares, and the Global Circulation of Value

 

David Faflik

University of Rhode Island

Passing Transcendental: Harvard, Heresy, and the Modern American Origins of Unbelief

 

Alexey Krichtal (MHS)

Johns Hopkins University

Liverpool, Slavery, and the Atlantic Cotton Frontier, c. 1763-1833

 

Katherine McIntyre (MHS)

Columbia University

Maroon Ecologies: Albery Allson Whitman and the Place of Poetry

 

Gwenn Miller (MHS)

College of the Holy Cross

“You Will Bring Opium to Canton”: John Perkins Cushing and Boston’s Early China Trade

 

Joshua Morrison (MHS)

University of Virginia

Cut from the Same Cloth: Salem, Zanzibar, and American-Omani Trade (1820-1870)

 

Peter Olsen-Harbich (MHS)

College of William and Mary

A Meaningful Subjection: Coercive Inequality and Indigenous Political Economy in the Colonial American Northeast

 

Camille Owens (MHS)

Yale University

Blackness and the Human Child: Race, Prodigy, and the Logic of American Childhood

 

Traci Parker

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Workers, Consumers, and Civil Rights

 

Fabricio Prado

College of William and Mary

Inter-American Connections: North-South American Networks in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions

 

Kimberly Probolus

George Washington University

Separate and Unequal: The Rise of Special-Selection Programs in Boston, 1950–2000

 

Wendy Roberts

State University of New York, Albany

Itinerant Politics: Settler Colonialism and the Evangelical Long Poem

 

Josh Schwartz

Columbia University

Pictures: Charles Dana Gibson, John Sloan, and the Making of Modern Americans

 

C. Ian Stevenson (MHS)

Boston University

“Army Tales Told While the Pot Boiled”: The Civil War Vacation in Architecture and Landscape, 1880-1910

 

Hannah Tucker (MHS)

University of Virginia

Masters of the Market: Mercantile Ship Captaincy in the Colonial British Atlantic, 1607-1774

 

Thomas Whitaker (MHS)

Harvard University

The Missionary Republic: The Rise of Evangelical Missions in the United States, 1789-1819

 

Rhaisa Williams

Washington University in St. Louis

Shuffling, Shouting, and Wearing Down: Rethinking the Techniques of Protest in Welfare Rights Organizations

 

Nathaniel Windon (MHS)

Pennsylvania State University

Gilded Old Age: Inheritance and American Literature, 1877-1918

 

Kari Winter

State University of New York, Buffalo

Fourteenth: Vermont’s Struggle For and Against Democracy, 1775-1875

 

Colonial Society of Massachusetts Fellowship

Andrew Rutledge (MHS)

University of Michigan

“We have no need of Virginia Trade”: New England Tobacco in the Atlantic World

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Barbara Hillard Smith’s Diary, April 1918

By Lindsay Bina, Intern and Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services

Today we return to the 1918 diary of Newton teenager Barbara Hillard Smith. You may read our introduction to the diary, and Barbara’s January, February, and March entries, here:

January | February | March | April

May | June | July | August

September | October | November | December

 

As regular readers of the Beehive know, we are following Barbara throughout 1918 with monthly blog posts that present Barbara’s daily life — going to school, seeing friends, playing basketball, and caring for family members — in the words she wrote a century ago. Here is Barbara’s April, day by day.

 

* * *

MON. 1                       APRIL

School. Mrs. Reeds. Muriel’s. Mrs. Reeds.

TUES. 2

Mother went to New York. Muriel’s. Mrs. Reed.

WED. 3

Mrs. Reed’s. Dance at Spud’s. Night at Pegs.

THUR. 4

Mrs. Reed’s all day. Red Cross Rally. Muriel Over Night. Hurt Knee

FRI. 5

Liberty Loan parade. In Town. Addressed cards for Dr. Godfrey

SAT. 6

Mother came home

SUN. 7

Sunday School. Studied.

MON. 8

School. Mrs. Reed’s

TUES. 9

School.

WED. 10

School. Rehearsed for Dancing.

THUR. 11

School. Knee hurt so came home at end of third. Mrs. Reeds

FRI. 12

School. Rehearsal for Camp Fire. Snow. Practice Kitchen for dinner

SAT. 13

Mrs. Reeds. Camp Reunion. “Pete” for week-end

SUN. 14

Church. Sunday School. Lasell Vespers

[Editor’s Note: Private college in Newton, est 1851, at this point would have been Lasell Seminary for Young Women]

MON. 15

School. In town. To lawyer. Awful Cold.

TUES. 16

Mrs. Reeds. Mrs. Bigelow here.

WED. 17

School. Rehearsal for dancing. Mrs. Reed’s

THUR. 18

School. Mrs. Reed’s. Surgical Dressings. Pegs over night

FRI. 19

Worked on Costume. Rehearsal for pageant. Missed Cousin Bert

SAT. 20

Mrs Redmond’s girls here. (Awful) ([fony]) Pageant Feast behind the scenes.

SUN. 21

Sick? Sunday School.

MON. 22

School. Rehearsed dance. Tennis.

TUES. 23

School. Took care of sonny.

WED. 24

School. Rehearsed for meet

THUR. 25

School. Took care of sonny.

FRI. 26

School. Gym. Meet. Tennis

SAT. 27

Washed my hair. Took care of sonny. Swimming

SUN. 28

Sunday School. Everyone Blue. Wendell showed me about the bugle

MON. 29

Headache? In town. Got material for skirt + dress

TUES. 30

School. Took care of the baby. Clark Reed wounded.

* * *

If you are interested in viewing the diary in person in our library or have other questions about the collection, please visit the library or contact a member of the library staff for further assistance.

 

 *Please note that the diary transcription is a rough-and-ready version, not an authoritative transcript. Researchers wishing to use the diary in the course of their own work should verify the version found here with the manuscript original. The catalog record for the Barbara Hillard Smith collection may be found here.

 

 

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