Public Program The Peculiar Institution: Abigail Adams and Slavery 26 June 2019.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PM Registration for this program is now closed. Edith Gelles, Stanford University

Edith Gelles, a senior scholar with the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, is an award-winning historian and author of Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage and Portia: The World of Abigail Adams. Gelles will discuss her current research on Abigail’s thoughts and experiences with slavery and race.

 

 

 

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Public Program Can She Do It? Gallery Talk 29 June 2019.Saturday, 2:00PM - 3:00PM Allison Lange, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Join guest curator, Allison Lange, Wentworth Institute of Technology professor, for a guided tour and highlights from our current exhibition.

 

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Public Program Isaac Allerton: Mayflower, Magistrate, and Merchant Register registration required 2 July 2019.Tuesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PM There will be a pre-talk reception at 5:30. David Furlow and Lisa Pennington There is a $10 per person fee (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders).

Isaac Allerton, a tailor born in 1586, went from Suffolk to London, Leiden to America. Through the Mayflower Compact, his service as Plymouth’s first Assistant to the Governor, and the Remonstrance of the Eight Men of Manhattan, Allerton wove representative government, popular elections, law, and commerce into the fabric of American society. David Furlow, editor of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society Journal, and Lisa Pennington, a descendant, tell Allerton’s story.

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Public Program The Legacy of the China Trade in Massachusetts: Art, Artifacts and Manuscripts in Local Collections Register registration required 9 July 2019.Tuesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PM There will be a pre-talk reception at 5:30. Layla Bermeo, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Karina Corrigan, Peabody Essex Museum, and moderator Peter Drummey There is a $10 per person fee (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders).

Paintings, documents, decorative arts, and objects can weave together a more complete story of early America’s relationship with China in the 18th and 19th centuries. The intersections found in prominent collecting institutions in Massachusetts will be the subject of this discussion, which will feature highlights from the holdings of the MHS, MFA, and Peabody Essex Museum, and will describe the journey of these important objects and manuscripts from private hands to public collections.

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Special Event Transcribe-a-thon Register registration required at no cost 13 July 2019.Saturday, 10:00AM - 3:00PM Registration is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Gwen Fries at gfries@masshist.org or 617-646-0556.

Help the MHS celebrate John Quincy Adams’s birthday by joining our annual transcribe-a-thon. Immerse yourself in JQA’s diary and help the Adams Papers Editorial Project make more of his 15,000-page diary available online. Lunch and light refreshments will be provided.

 

 

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Public Program Boston Historical Reception Register registration required at no cost 18 July 2019.Thursday, 6:00PM - 7:30PM There will be a reception at 5:30. Anita Walker, Mass Cultural Council

There is no “Boston Historical Society,” but the metro area does have a wealth of history organizations. Boston and surrounding towns are steeped in local history and the inhabitants are proud of their local identity. The MHS is pleased to hold the fifth annual reception for history buffs and representatives of local organizations to mingle, share recent accomplishments, and talk about the great projects on which they are working.

 

 

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Public Program The Legacy of the China Trade in Massachusetts: The Emergence of a Global Boston Register registration required 22 July 2019.Monday, 6:00PM - 7:30PM There will be a pre-talk reception at 5:30. Gwenn Miller, College of the Holy Cross; Dael Norwood, University of Delaware; Moderator: Tunney Lee, MIT There is a $10 per person fee (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders).

Trade with China began in earnest in the peaceful years following the Revolution, with ports in Salem and Boston emerging as some of the most dynamic sites of economic activity in the early American landscape. This cross-cultural exposure and influence helped cast Boston’s strong regional identity and marked the city as an international force in its own right. This discussion will explore the breadth of Boston’s early global reach and how reflections of this past are still felt today.

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Public Program The Legacy of the China Trade in Massachusetts: Families, Fortunes, & Foreign Luxuries Register registration required 30 July 2019.Tuesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PM There will be a pre-talk reception at 5:30. Caroline Frank, Brown University; Dane Morrison, Salem State University; Moderator: Gwenn Miller, College of the Holy Cross There is a $10 per person fee (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders).

We live in a society where Chinese-made commodities are a part of everyday life. But dependence on foreign goods is not a modern American phenomenon. The economic, political, and social dimensions of early trade with China were felt on the domestic and individual levels, as reliance on tea, silks, and other materials sourced from China became staples in early American households. Massachusetts merchant families were able to capitalize on a hunger for these goods to shape the city as well as their own fortunes.

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