The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror and the new year looms on the horizon. But if we focus on the present, we can learn a lot about the past. Here are the public programs on offer in the week to come: - Tuesday, 29 November, 5:15PM : Join Patrick Lacroix of the University [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 27 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

1815: the Year Without a Summer

Series: From Our Collections
By Alex Bush, Reader Services
As November wears on and the weather grows colder, many Bostonians are digging their coats and sweaters out of storage in anticipation of the long winter ahead. As if winter isn’t long enough already, imagine for a moment that temperatures started to drop in May instead [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Friday, 25 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

Six Degrees of Paul Revere

Series: From Our Collections
By Susan Martin, Collections Services
While processing the Fay-Mixter family photographs, I came across this small tintype.     A note on the back of the photograph, probably written by a relative, identifies the subject as “Joseph W. Revere / about 18 yrs old.” I wondered if he was [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 23 November, 2016, 12:15 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
It is a very short holiday week for us here at the Society. On Monday, 21 November, there is a public conversation with Jonathan Holloway of Yale and Adriane Lentz-Smith of Duke: "A Most Peculiar Institution: Slavery, Jim Crow, and the American University Today." This talk [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 20 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

Margaret Russell’s Diary, November 1916

Series: From Our Collections
By Anna J. Clutterbuck Cook, Reader Services
Today, we return to the line-a-day diary of Margaret Russell. You can read previous installments here: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October As winter approaches, Margaret Russell’s activities shift from the north shore [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 18 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
The events schedule is full this week. Without further ado, here's a look at what's coming up. - Monday, 14 November, 6:00PM : Kicking off the week is an author talk featuring Wendy Warren of Princeton University. She will be speaking about her recent book, New England [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 13 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

Clearing the Seas with Fire and Steam

Series: From Our Collections
By Rhonda Barlow, Adams Papers
In the spring of 1787, two men wrote to America’s representative in London recommending naval inventions that they thought would help the United States fight the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. One of those writers was Andrew Quin, a gunner aboard the Dutch warship, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 9 November, 2016, 10:58 AM

A Brief Look at 19th-Century Children’s Stories at the MHS

Series: From Our Collections
By Brendan Kieran, Reader Services
I initially came across The Carrier Pigeon and Other Tales: Illustrating the Rewards of Virtue and the Punishment of Vice, selected by Mrs. Pamela Chandler Colman (Worcester, 1849), in an effort to find materials relating to pigeons at the MHS. However, I ended up utilizing [...] read more

comments: 1 | permalink | Published: Monday, 7 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By Dan Hinchen
It is a little bit quieter at the Society this week but we still have three public programs on offer. Here is what is happening: - Monday, 7 November, 12:00PM : "The Church Militant: The American Loyalist Clergy and the Making of the British Counterrevolution, 1701-92" [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 6 November, 2016, 12:00 AM

Bringing Willa Home: A Child Displaced by Civil War

Series: From Our Collections
By Susan Martin, Collection Services
I’ve written a few times here at the Beehive about manuscripts from the Fay-Mixter family papers, and I’d like to dive into that collection again this week. I was intrigued by four letters from December 1861, so I dug a little deeper and uncovered the story of [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 2 November, 2016, 12:00 AM