The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Elaine Grublin
This week we offer a bit of something for everyone.  Choose to attend one of the four programs we are offering to kick of May, or challenge yourself to see how many you can attend.  As always you can find more information about individual program on our online [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 30 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

Explore the World of Marian Hooper Adams

Series: Exhibitions News
By Elaine Grublin
Have you had a chance to visit our current exhibition A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885? Hundreds of visitors have visited 1154 Boylston Street to view this stunning exhibition featuring the late-19th-century photographs of Marian [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 26 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Elaine Grublin
We have a couple of interesting events planned this week, as well as two exhibitions open to the public 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday through Saturday.  As always, check the online calendar for more details about individual events.  Tonight, 23 April, at 6:00 PM [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 23 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

Recently Published Research

Series: Research Published
By Anna J. Cook
Putting together a summer reading list?  Here are some recent publications that we are aware of, completed by researchers that made use of our collections or publications.   JANUARY-APRIL 2012: Baldwin, Peter. In the Watches of the Night: Life in the Nocturnal [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Saturday, 21 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

Happy Birthday, Fenway Park!

Series: Around the Neighborhood
By Elaine Grublin
  Today hordes of people -- Red Sox fans and baseball stadium aficionados alike -- will descend on Fenway Park to celebrate the 100th anniversary of that venerable stadium's opening in 1912. We at the MHS are lucky. Being just a short walk from the ball park allows [...] read more

comments: 2 | permalink | Published: Friday, 20 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Elaine Grublin
Mark your calendar and plan to join us for an event this week.  More information about each event is available through our online calendar.  Wednesday, 18 April at noon join us for a brown-bag lunch program and listen as Trenton Jones, The Johns Hopkins University, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 17 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

A Battle Among the Icebergs

Series: From Our Collections
By Emilie Haertsch
“Since last we met a great battle has been fought among the icebergs and under the star-filled skies of the North Atlantic.” These words began Rev. Edward Cummings sermon at Boston’s South Congregational Church just one week after the sinking of the RMS [...] read more

comments: 2 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 15 April, 2012, 1:00 AM

Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, Post 12

Series: Civil War 
By Elaine Grublin
The following excerpt is from the diary of Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch. April 13th, 1862 A year today since the surrender of Fort Sumter. The crime then committed has in part received its punishment. Not that I think we at the North are entirely without blame. [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 13 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

The MHS on a Television Near You . . .

Series: Around MHS
By Elaine Grublin
The Sunday, 8 April 2012, episode of the PBS program Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has a strong "connection" to the MHS. Several items from our collection are featured in the program, which highlighted the genealogy of Hollywood couple Kyra Sedgwick and [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 10 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Elaine Grublin
Looking for stimulting conversation? Plan to attend one of the two seminars offered this week. You will find additional details about each event, and our current exhibitions, on our online calendar. Tuesday, 10 April at 5:15 PM the Environmental History Seminar continues [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 9 April, 2012, 8:00 AM

Even Civil War Soldiers Played Ball

Series: Civil War  , From Our Collections
By Elaine Grublin
The Boston Red Sox meet the Detroit Tigers today in the first regular season game of the 2012 season. The arrival of baseball season is always a welcome treat in Boston. Getting myself into a baseball frame of mind, my thoughts wandered to a letter one of our volunteers, [...] read more

comments: 3 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 5 April, 2012, 1:00 AM

A New Way to Look at an Old (and forgotten) Story

Series: Exhibitions News
By Peter Drummey
We have just opened a new exhibition, The First Seasons of the Federal Street Theatre: 1794-1798, that complements a larger exhibition, Forgotten Chapters of Boston’s Literary History, at the Boston Public Library. The controversy over a public theater that raged [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 4 April, 2012, 1:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Elaine Grublin
The April starts off busy, as we offer six free public programs this week. Mark you calendar and be sure to join us for one of the following: Tuesday, 3 April at 5:15 PM, the Boston Early American History Seminar brings Len Travers, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 2 April, 2012, 1:00 AM

Did John Quincy Adams Have a Sense of Humor?

By Peter K. Steinberg
Did John Quincy Adams (JQA) have a sense of humor? Would he, had it been practiced at the time, conducted April Fool’s hijinks?  Editors and staff of the Adams Papers admit to me that JQA might not have displayed much interest in performing jokes, but that he [...] read more

comments: 5 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 1 April, 2012, 1:00 AM