The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
At the top of the list this week is our recently unveiled exhbition! Come by anytime Mon-Sat, 10:00AM-4:00PM, to take a look at The Private Jefferson. The exhibit is free to the public and will remain on display through 20 May 2016.  There are four other items on the [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 31 January, 2016, 12:00 AM

Margaret Russell’s Diary, January 1916

Series: From Our Collections
By Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services
After receiving positive feedback on last year’s serial documenting a journey up the Nile by an anonymous diarist, I decided to repeat the format in 2016 but with a very different type of diary from the MHS collections.     Between 1913-1922, Margaret [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Friday, 29 January, 2016, 1:49 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
It's hard to believe that the end of the month is here already but we have a big exhibit opening to round out our January programs. More on that down the page. Here's what is on tap at the MHS this week: - Tuesday, 26 January, 5:15PM : This week's lone seminar is part of [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 24 January, 2016, 12:00 AM

Guild Library Discoveries

Series: From Our Collections
By Wesley Fiorentino, Reader Services
As I mentioned in a previous Beehive post, there are all kinds of interesting discoveries to be made when exploring MHS collections. This time around I will be talking about a collection of books that I came across almost by accident while navigating through ABIGAIL, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 22 January, 2016, 4:07 PM

“He has so damnd himself to everlasting Infamy”: Alexander Hamilton and Abigail Adams

Series: From Our Collections
By Amanda Norton, Adams Papers
Between the $10 bill and a smash-hit musical, everybody seems to be talking about Alexander Hamilton. January marks not only the anniversary of Hamilton’s birth, and his resignation as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795, it also marks the anniversary of the most famous, [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 20 January, 2016, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
Please note that the MHS is CLOSED on Monday, 18 January, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 19 January. This week we have two seminars on tap to sate your historical appetite. They are - Tuesday, 19 January, 5:15PM - Join us [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 17 January, 2016, 12:00 AM

“. . . unidentified girl exercising with dumbbells”

Series: From Our Collections
By Kittle Evenson, Reader Services
That was the line in our online catalog that caught my eye last week. Sandwiched between portrait descriptions and mention of a family crest, this hint about a tintype dating to the 1870s in the Homans family photographs collection was too arresting not to follow up on. I [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 15 January, 2016, 12:00 AM

Counting Down to the Quasquibicentennial

Series: Around MHS
By Susan Martin, Collections Services
In eleven days, the Massachusetts Historical Society will be celebrating its quasquibicentennial, or, if you prefer, its bicenquasquigenary. In other words, on January 24, the MHS will turn 225 years old! We don’t think it looks a day over 200. The MHS was founded [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 13 January, 2016, 4:18 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
Our map exhibition just closed and we are awaiting the arrival of The Private Jefferson which comes later this month. In the meantime, we still have a couple of free programs to tide you over this week: - On Tuesday, 12 January, 5:15PM, there is an Environmental History seminar. [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 10 January, 2016, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
We are back in the library for another year (our 225th!) but we are starting things off slowly. This week we have two items on the agenda for you: - Wednesday, 6 January, 12:00PM : "Factory Fleets and Fewer Fish: Fisheries Management in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, 1945-1996" [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 3 January, 2016, 12:00 AM