The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Was JQA a Tweeter?

By Jeremy Dibbell
The micro-blogging site Twitter wasn't around in John Quincy Adams' day, but a recent visitor to the MHS suggested he might have found it a very natural addition to his routine. JQA was a prolific diarist, filling fifty-one volumes over sixty-nine years (amounting to nearly [...] read more

comments: 2 | permalink | Published: Friday, 29 May, 2009, 12:16 PM

Today @ MHS: Egloff Brown-Bag

Series: Today @MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us today (Friday) at 12 noon in the Dowse Library for a brown-bag lunch with Jennifer Egloff, Ph.D. candidate at New York University and research fellow at MHS. Egloff will discuss her current project: "Popular Numeracy in Early Modern England British North America." This [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 29 May, 2009, 9:03 AM

Online Gallery Launched

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
We've launched a new web gallery to show off some of the many highlights from the MHS collections. Check it out by clicking on the image or visiting
http://www.masshist.org/online/gallery/. You can also browse by category here. Our digital projects team will continue [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 27 May, 2009, 1:28 PM

Today @ MHS: Wong Brown-Bag

Series: Today @MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us today (Wednesday) at 12 noon in the Dowse Library for a brown-bag lunch with Wendy Wong, Ph.D. candidate at Temple University and current Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at MHS. Wong will discuss her current project: "'Diplomatic Subtleties and Frank Overtures': Publicity, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 27 May, 2009, 8:10 AM

Workshop Opportunity for Teachers

By Jeremy Dibbell
Teachers are invited to participate in a collaborative professional development project presented by the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS), and the Worcester Public Schools (WPS). Defining Freedom examines how Americans conceived [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 26 May, 2009, 9:03 AM

Holiday Closure Notice

Series: From the Reading Room
By Jeremy Dibbell
Please note: The reading room will be closed on Saturday, 23 May and Monday, 25 May for the Memorial Day holiday. [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 22 May, 2009, 12:03 PM

"... he is a moral nuisance ..."

Series: Reading the Proceedings
By Jeremy Dibbell
Our curator of art, Anne Bentley, recently pointed out a fascinating (but brutal!) passage quoted in the MHS Proceedings of the March 1929 meeting. I feel compelled to share, and for any current author out there who's ever received a bad review, take heart - it could be [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 20 May, 2009, 8:44 PM

Today @ MHS: Brown Bag, Annual Meeting

By Jeremy Dibbell
Note: the reading room will close at 3:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, 20 May) for setup purposes. It's going to be a busy day at the Historical Society! Please join us at 12 noon for a brown-bag lunch with Alan Rogers, professor of history at Boston College and a 2009-10 New [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 20 May, 2009, 8:00 AM

Sedgwick Diaries Now Available

Series: Collections News
By Laura Lowell
We are pleased to announce that the diaries of Rev. Theodore Sedgwick (1863-1951) are now available for research. Sedgwick, an Episcopal minister, graduated from Harvard College in 1886 and from the Berkeley Divinity School in Middleton, Connecticut in 1890. He served [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 19 May, 2009, 3:08 PM

MHS Remembers Longtime Member

By Jeremy Dibbell
David Herbert Donald, the Charles Warren professor of history emeritus at Harvard and a member of the MHS since 1960, died on Sunday at the age of 88. Mr. Donald's many books included Lincoln's Herndon (1948); Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (1960); Charles [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 19 May, 2009, 10:00 AM

Serendipity Strikes!

Series: From Our Collections
By Jeremy Dibbell
Well I have to say I can't quite believe what I'm about to write. Literally hours after typing up my short introduction to the "Anonymous cipher diary", I decided to spend a little time surfing around on Google Books and see what I could find in terms of 18th century short-hand [...] read more

comments: 2 | permalink | Published: Friday, 15 May, 2009, 10:48 PM

Can you Crack the Cipher?

Series: From Our Collections
By Jeremy Dibbell
One of the items in our collections I find most intriguing is the "Anonymous cipher diary, 1776-1845" (known by its call number, Ms. Sbd-133). It is a small bound volume containing ciphered or shorthand notations broken down by years, months, and days, with long entries [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 15 May, 2009, 4:15 PM

Organizing the 54th

Series: From Our Collections
By Jeremy Dibbell
Our "Object of the Month" for May is a letter from Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew to Francis Shaw. In the letter, dated 30 January 1863, Governor Andrew lays out his reasons for forming what would become the 54th Massachusetts, the first regular army regiment of African [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 13 May, 2009, 2:54 PM

Today @ MHS: Cope Brown-Bag

Series: Today @MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us today (Wednesday) at 12 noon in the Dowse Library for a brown-bag lunch with Rachel Cope, Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University and current Ruth R. and Alyson R. Miller Fellow at MHS. Cope will discuss her current project: "'A New Course of Life was Begun': The [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 13 May, 2009, 7:23 AM

Today @ MHS: Revere in Myth and Memory

By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us this evening (Tuesday, 12 May) at 6:00 p.m. for a talk by Nina Zannieri, Executive Director of the Paul Revere House. Zannieri will speak on "Myth and Memory: The Legacy of Paul Revere." This event is co-sponsored by The Concord Free Public Library and Minute Man [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 12 May, 2009, 8:05 AM

Meet & Greet: Collections Services

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Continuing with the departmental introductions (first installment here), let's meet the Collections Services team! These are the good people who not only coordinate the acquisition of new materials, but also perform the wide range of tasks which make our collections of manuscripts, [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Monday, 11 May, 2009, 11:11 AM

A Starred Review!

By Jeremy Dibbell
I can't resist posting a wonderful bit of good news just received this afternoon: Hobson Woodward, Associate Editor of the Adams Papers, has received the first review for his forthcoming book, A Brave Vessel: The True Story of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired [...] read more

comments: 2 | permalink | Published: Friday, 8 May, 2009, 3:41 PM

2009-2010 Research Fellows Announced

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
The MHS awards a wide variety of research fellowships each year. Those for the 2009-2010 season were recently announced. Please pardon the lengthy list (impressive, isn't it?). For more information about each type of fellowship, click the link in the heading. MHS-NEH Long-Term [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 8 May, 2009, 12:13 PM

New Publications from MHS Friends

Series: Research Published
By Jeremy Dibbell
One of the things I'll try to keep track of here at The Beehive is new and recent publications based on MHS collections. The only promise I can make about this is that I won't be able to be comprehensive (I try to keep a pretty close eye on these things, but it would be [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 7 May, 2009, 3:39 PM

MHS Proceedings & MHR Now Available on JSTOR

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
I'm very pleased to report that the Proceedings of the Massaschusetts Historical Society (1791-1997) and the Massachusetts Historical Review (1999- ) are now available digitally through the subscription database JSTOR. Most universities and large public libraries (including [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 6 May, 2009, 11:42 AM

Today @ MHS: Nelson Brown-Bag

Series: Today @MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us today (Wednesday) at 12 noon in the Dowse Library for a brown-bag lunch with Megan Kate Nelson, Assistant Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton. Nelson will discuss the cultural and environmental frameworks that inform her book project, Ruin [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 6 May, 2009, 8:00 AM

Meet & Greet: Reader Services

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting occasional pieces designed to introduce the various departments responsible for the wide range of activities that go on at 1154 Boylston Street. I thought it only fair to begin with my own department, since we in Reader Services are [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 4 May, 2009, 3:25 PM

The Sun Never Sets ...

Series: From the Reading Room
By Jeremy Dibbell
Here's a perfect example of the far-reaching influence of the MHS. Cuiyun Li, a professor at the College of Foreign Languages and Culture at Inner Mongolia University in China, has recently published a book which draws heavily on the collections and publications of the Historical [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 1 May, 2009, 3:57 PM