The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

A Lesser-Known Massachusetts "First": 1812 Flag-Raising on Catamount Hill

Series: From the Reading Room
By Elise Dunham, Reader Services
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is home to countless United States “firsts.” Among the most famous Massachusetts initiatives are claims to the first Thanksgiving celebration, the first public park, the first university, and the first public library. The Commonwealth [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 28 August, 2013, 1:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
There are no public events on the calendar this week at the Society as we head into a long holiday weekend. However, this is the last chance to view one of our current exhibitions, "Estlin Cummings Wild West Show," which will be closed at the end of the day Friday, 30 August. [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 26 August, 2013, 12:00 AM

The Other Adams-Jefferson Correspondence

Series: From Our Collections
By Amanda A. Mathews, Adams Papers
Two hundred years ago today, August 22,1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his old friend, Abigail Adams; the first he had directed to her since 1804. While Jefferson’s incredible correspondence with John Adams has rightly acquired fame, Jefferson and Abigail [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 22 August, 2013, 1:00 AM

Honoring MHS Trustee Pauline Maier

By MHS
All of us at the MHS were saddened by the sudden passing of Pauline Maier, a distinguished historian and author of Revolutionary-era America and the foundations of U.S. democracy, and a good friend of the Society, on Monday, 12 August. She was 75. A great historian, teacher, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 15 August, 2013, 3:53 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
August is creeping by and the summer is beginning its downward trajectory toward fall. So to with the event schedule here at the Society. This week is the last of the month to feature public programming so be sure to stop by and take part! First, on Monday, 12 August 2013, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 12 August, 2013, 1:00 AM

Orange is the Old Black?: Nineteenth-century Prisoner Activism in the MHS Collections

Series: From Our Collections
By Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services
There’s been a lot of chatter recently about the new Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black,” a drama about life in a women’s prison. As Heather Chapman, one-time volunteer at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Framingham, writes [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 9 August, 2013, 8:00 AM

Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, Post 24

Series: Civil War  , From Our Collections
By Elaine Grublin
The following excerpt is from the diary of Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch. Saturday, Aug. 1, 1863 Have sympathized with the relatives of Henry Foster, who died by his own rash or bewildered act, at New Orleans, and of my friend Rev. T. B. Fox’s son, who [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 7 August, 2013, 1:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
This week at the MHS there are two events on schedule for public consumption as well as a multi-day Society-sponsored workshop. First, on Wednesday at 12:00pm there will be a Brown Bag Lunch talk taking place. Join us as Marian Desrosiers of Salve Regina University presents [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 6 August, 2013, 8:07 AM

Happy Twitterversary JQA!

Series: From Our Collections
By Nancy Heywood, Collection Services
John Quincy Adams (JQA) had a remarkable life and over the course of almost 70 years assembled an extraordinary number of diaries.  JQA began keeping a diary in 1779 at the age of twelve and continued writing diary entries until shortly before his death in 1848.  [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 5 August, 2013, 1:00 AM

The Letters of Rev. John Higginson’s Merchant Sons

Series: From Our Collections
By Andrea Cronin, Reader Services
“Dear Brother Nathaniel. It is now sixteen years since you left England, from whence, while you were there, I had often refreshing letters from you,” wrote Salem merchant John Higginson to his brother Nathaniel Higginson on 16 April 1699, in a letter contained [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Friday, 2 August, 2013, 1:00 AM