The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Visiting Monticello Vicariously

Series: MHS in the News
By Jeremy Dibbell
Maira Kalman's New York Times blog is called And the Pursuit of Happiness, and her most recent post is particularly apt, given the title. In "Time Wastes Too Fast," Ms. Kalman recounts a recent visit to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home near Charlottesville, VA. It's a [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 29 June, 2009, 1:57 PM

Surgeon's Kit on Display

Series: On Loan
By Anne Bentley
A fitted case containing surgeon's instruments belonging to William Swift, M.D., United States Navy, in the War of 1812 is on display in the USS Constitution Museum’s newest exhibition: “All Hands on Deck: A Sailor’s Life in 1812.”  

[...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 25 June, 2009, 4:58 PM

Adams-Jefferson Conference Recap

By Jeremy Dibbell
Now that the Boston leg of the Adams-Jefferson Libraries conference has concluded (see my earlier post for the full story on the conference), I'd like to offer just a brief synopsis of the proceedings here, and some personal reflections on the meetings. Following a really [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 24 June, 2009, 11:03 AM

Meet & Greet: Publications

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Another round of introductions today: the Publications department. Since its inception, the MHS has taken as one of its major missions the "dissemination" of materials of historical interest, and the Publications team is responsible for carrying out that vital task. The [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 19 June, 2009, 12:36 PM

"Gluttons for Books"

Series: Exhibitions News
By Jeremy Dibbell
Books and reading played a major role in the lives and careers of both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. In a major conference, an exhibition, and a web presentation this summer, the MHS and other institutions around the country highlight the collections, reading habits, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 15 June, 2009, 10:28 AM

Collection Profile: Robert Keayne's Sermon Notebooks

Series: Collection Profiles
By Jeremy Dibbell
I've been reading the new collection of Edmund S. Morgan's essays, American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women who Shaped Early America (W.W. Norton, 2009), and one of the people he profiles is Anna Keayne (later Lane), the granddaughter of early Boston merchant Robert Keayne [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 10 June, 2009, 12:12 PM

Today @ MHS: Mann 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 Allison Mann of the University of New Hampshire and research fellow at MHS. Mann will discuss her current project: "Slavery Exacts an Impossible Price: John Quincy Adams and the Dorcas Allen [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 10 June, 2009, 9:13 AM

Martinko on Historic Preservation

Series: Research Published
By Jeremy Dibbell
University of Virginia doctoral candidate and 2009-10 MHS short-term research fellow Whitney Martinko's article "Progress and Preservation: Representing History in Boston's Landscape of Urban Reform, 1820-1860" has been published in the June issue of The New England Quarterly. [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 9 June, 2009, 9:28 AM

Meet & Greet: Research & Education

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Continuing with the departmental introductions, I thought I'd do two at once today: Research, plus Education & Public Programs. The Research department, overseen by Conrad Wright (Worthington C. Ford Editor and Director of Research), is responsible for organizing the [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 5 June, 2009, 9:56 AM

One Donor's Rationale

Series: From Our Collections
By Jeremy Dibbell
The sharp-eyed crew from the MHS Publications department alerted me to a very interesting section in one of our collections, the John Pierce memoirs, 1788-1849 (Ms. N-714). Rev. Pierce (1773-1849) was the minister of the First Parish Congregational Church in Brookline, and [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 3 June, 2009, 10:50 AM

Further Reading

By Jeremy Dibbell
I've recently been reading former MHS director Louis Leonard Tucker's 1995 book The Massachusetts Historical Society: A Bicentennial History, 1791-1991. The book, written for the Society's two-hundredth anniversary, offers the only in-depth narrative survey of the MHS' history, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 1 June, 2009, 7:53 PM

Latest MHS E-Newsletter Now Live

Series: Around MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
The May/June edition of @MHS, the Society's e-newsletter, is available here. It includes a report on the 2009 Annual Meeting, a note about the advent of The Beehive, and a full calendar of events for June. If you'd like to receive future editions of the e-newsletter, you [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 1 June, 2009, 2:35 PM

Today @ MHS: Kent Brown-Bag

Series: Today @MHS
By Jeremy Dibbell
Join us today (Monday) at 12 noon in the Dowse Library for a brown-bag lunch with Deborah Kent, Assistant professor of Mathematics at Hillsdale College and research fellow at MHS [our first-ever mathematician research fellow]. Kent will discuss her current project: "Substituting [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 1 June, 2009, 8:00 AM