Object of the Month

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newer objects

February 2018

"They belonging to themselves": Minda Campbell Redeems Her Family from Slavery

Manuscript, 28 August 1860

December 2017

News of the Halifax Explosion Reaches Boston

Manuscript, 6-7 December 1917

November 2017

A New England Thanksgiving in the California Gold Country, 1850

Manuscript, 1948

October 2017

"I don't think you could beat our mode of travel for seeing a great deal of country": Auto-Camping in the West

Manuscript, 4 July 1919

September 2017

"There is no public or private man in Massachusetts for whom I should sooner vote than for you."

Manuscript, 2 November 1886

August 2017

The Fairy Sisters: Smallest Persons in the World

Poster, circa 1873

July 2017

Cy Young and other baseball players at the Huntington Avenue Grounds

Glass plate negative, circa 1908-1911

June 2017

Under Seven Flags: A Drawing of the Confederate Ironclad Ram Stonewall

Manuscript, 1863-1864

May 2017

When the Circus came to Boston in 1889: in Honor of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Final Tour

Painting, 1889

April 2017

President of the Massachusetts Historical Society in a Fistfight: War Declared

Manuscript, 4 April 1917

March 2017

"Shall we submit to have our citizens shot down by a set of vagabond Irishmen!": Changing Perceptions of the Irish in Massachusetts

Broadside, 1854

February 2017

"A living and very robust reminder of the nearness of the great year of 1848": Mr. Thuolt and his Boston Riding School

Carte de visite, [1862]

January 2017

The Balloon Post: Susan Hale celebrates the birth of airmail and raises money for war relief in 1871 Boston

Periodical, 11 April 1871

December 2016

Rebeccah of Brook Farm

Doll, 1841

November 2016

The Deadlocked Presidential Election of 1800

Manuscript, 26 January 1801

October 2016

Ether Day, 16 October 1846: the Conquest of Pain

Manuscript, 16 October 1846

September 2016

The Other Side of the Hill

Speech, [1952]

August 2016

A Curiosity of Early Printing and Science from the Library of Laura Norcross Marrs

Mezzotint, 1752

July 2016

A Cool Day for a Declaration

Manuscript, July 1776

June 2016

Adventure: A Portrait of Robert Haswell, Mariner

Pastel on paper, circa 1800

May 2016

Glorious News of the End of the Stamp Act

Broadside, 1766

April 2016

“You know the balance of trade was always against me”: Thomas Jefferson and Abigail Adams Go Shopping

Manuscript, 9 August 1786

March 2016

The Biblical View of the Great Question of Woman’s Suffrage

Manuscript, 10 April [1868]

February 2016

The Sage of Monticello Edits a Letter to His Granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 27 August 1825

Manuscript (draft), 27 August 1825

January 2016

"I shall be satisfied if I can but carry the hod and mortar for men of learning." Thomas Wallcut records the first meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 24 January 1791

Minutes, 1791

December 2015

Farewell to The Liberator: the last issue of William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper is printed twice on 29 December 1865

Newspaper, 29 December 1865

November 2015

The Mount Kenya book club: Theodore Roosevelt discusses politics and literature while on safari in East Africa in 1909.

Manuscript, 10 September 1909

October 2015

Richard Gridley’s 1746 Plan of the Fortress of Louisbourg

Map, 1746

September 2015

A Letter from the Baltimore Jail

Manuscript, 16 November 1844

August 2015

The True Sons of Liberty of Massachusetts Gather to Celebrate the Fourth Anniversary of the Stamp Act Riots, 14 August 1769

Manuscript, 14 August 1769

July 2015

"Shamefully abus'd": Bobolition Day Broadsides in 19th Century Boston

Broadside, [1818]

June 2015

“If it pleases you to have another ‘Mayor Quincy’ in the family”: Colonel Samuel Miller Quincy describes his appointment as military mayor of New Orleans, 5 May 1865.

Letter, 5 May 1865

May 2015

"Business Above All": a German Medalist Commemorates the Lusitania Disaster

Cast bronze medal, 1915

March 2015

Adventures in Animal Husbandry: the Bull Admiral in Essex County

Broadside, 1824

February 2015

First to Fly for France: Frazier Curtis and the Birth of the Lafayette Flying Corps

Barograph, 1915

January 2015

A Street Sweeper's New Year's Greetings

Broadside, 1824

December 2014

Charles Bulfinch begins his Life’s Work

Engraving, 1790

November 2014

Is this a depiction of the Sand Creek Massacre? A view of U. S. cavalry advancing on a Cheyenne village by Bear’s Heart, 1877.

Ink, watercolor, colored pencil on wove paper, circa 1875-1878

September 2014

We Are Doing Our Bit: A 1918 Liberty Loan Poster with an African American Theme

Lithograph, [1918]

August 2014

"These Words deserve to be written in Letters of Gold . . . ." Boston printer James Franklin argues for the right to a trial by his peers, but apparently not for the protection of intellectual property.

Newspapers, 23-30 July 1722

July 2014

"Not a dream": A Portrait from Margaret Hall's World War I Memoir

Photograph, circa late 1918

June 2014

A "Barbarous Murder" on Boston Common: the Phillips-Woodbridge Duel

Broadside, 4 July 1728

May 2014

"O fairhaired northern hero With thy guard of dusky hue": proposed inscriptions for the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common

Letterbook, circa 24 June 1892

April 2014

"The question is whether the historico-literary line is practically worth following"

Manuscript, 2 June 1872

March 2014

The Trapp Family Singers sign Governor Leverett Saltonstall's guest book at the Massachusetts State House

Manuscript, circa 1940-1942

February 2014

"We welcome you, Lords of the Land of the Sun!" The menu for a banquet in honor of the Iwakura Mission during the Japanese embassy's visit to Boston in 1872.

Broadside on silk, 1872

January 2014

"I think we shall succeed in copper plate printing": Views of Hawaii Engraved at the Lahainaluna Seminary

Engraving, 1840

December 2013

1914 New Year’s greetings from Daniel Berkeley Updike to the Friends of the Merrymount Press

engraving, 1913

older objects