The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
This week will be quiet here at the MHS but we still have a couple reasons for you to break your cabin fever and pay us a visit. First, we are happy to announce the opening of our most recent exhibition, "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865." [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 25 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

Ellen Coolidge Meets Charles Babbage, 1839

Series: Around MHS
By Jim Connolly, Publications
In 1838, Ellen Wayles Coolidge, granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, arrived in London for a visit that would last nearly a year and fill four notebooks with Ellen’s sharp and witty observations. Ellen and her husband, Joseph Coolidge, Jr., gained entry to some of the [...] read more

comments: 3 | permalink | Published: Friday, 22 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

Mary Rowlandson's "Dolefullest Day”

By Andrea Cronin, Reader Services
February 1676 likely marked the most devastating month of Mary Rowlandson’s long life. During the winter of 1675/76 many New England frontier towns experienced American Indian raids in a series of conflicts later known as King Philip’s War. On 10 February of [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 20 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
This week is shortened due to the President's Day holiday but there is still plenty of excitement at the MHS. There is a seminar that is overdue, an exhibit that is right on time, and tour of the MHS building. First, the next installment of our Early American Seminar series [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 18 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

MHS Painting Featured in Missouri Classroom

Series: From Our Collections
By Anna J. Cook, Reader Services
Last semester, students in Professor Norton Wheeler’s Age of Jefferson and Jackson course at Missouri Southern State University (Joplin, Missouri) read a critical edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Blithedale Romance (1852) alongside nonfiction works [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 15 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch Diary, Post 20

Series: Civil War 
By Elaine Grublin
The following excerpt is from the diary of Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch. Sunday, Feb. 15th, 1863 I should have recorded in my last entry that two of my young friends, - the Weymouths, - were taken prisoners at Galveston, with others from this neighborhood. [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 13 February, 2013, 1:00 AM

Lincoln’s Early Views on Slavery

Series: From Our Collections
By Emilie Haertsch, Publications
Today is President Abraham Lincoln’s 204th birthday. In honor of the occasion, we examine his early, often guarded, views on slavery. In a letter to his close friend Joshua Fry Speed, Lincoln reveals his personal beliefs prior to his presidency and the Civil War. Speed [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 12 February, 2013, 1:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
After the big storm this weekend, stop by the MHS this week to shake off the snow and enjoy some great public programs! Kicking the week off, on Monday, 11 February 2013, the Society will host "Lincoln & Liberty, too." In this program Mr. William Martin, author and [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 11 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

A Blizzard of Memories

Series: From Our Collections
By Amanda A. Mathews, Adams Papers
New England winters have often inspired memorable descriptions as the amazing power and beauty of the storms unite. As we remember the Blizzard of ’78, and dig out from Winter Storm Nemo, in March 1820, John Adams wrote to his daughter-in-law, Louisa Catherine Adams, [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Saturday, 9 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

"Preeminently a Good Hater": Lucius Manlius Sargent

Series: From Our Collections
By Dan Hinchen, Reader Services
The MHS is celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, signed into law 150 years ago last month, through two exhibitions, “Forever Free: Lincoln & the Emancipation Proclamation,” and “Lincoln in Manuscript & Artifact.”  While myriad considerations [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 8 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

The Diary of Ann Powell, 1789

Series: From Our Collections
By Susan Martin, Collection Services
The MHS has just acquired a manuscript copy of the fascinating 18th-century diary of a young woman named Ann Powell. In it, Ann describes a trip down the Saint Lawrence River, 11 May-June 1789, with her brother William Dummer Powell and his family. The Powells were United [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 6 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen, Reader Services
It is a new month and we have a good schedule of events in the first full week to kick things off. First, join us on Tuesday, 5 February 2013, for the latest installment of our Early American History Seminar series, when the MHS hosts "Panel Discussion: Race, Religion, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 4 February, 2013, 8:00 AM

The Personal Problems of a Social Reformer

Series: From Our Collections
By Emilie Haertsch, Publications
We could all learn a thing or two from 19th-century reformer and essayist Caroline Dall. An abolitionist and advocate for women’s suffrage, Dall worked for societal change throughout her life. We have her papers in our collections and published the Selected Journals [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 1 February, 2013, 8:00 AM