The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Barbara Hillard Smith’s Diary, January 1918

Series: From Our Collections
By Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services, and Intern Lindsay Bina
A new year means a new serialized diary here at The Beehive, where for the past three years we have showcased a diary from the collections written one hundred years ago (you can read the 2015, 2016, and 2017 series in our archives!). This year’s diary was transcribed [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 31 January, 2018, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
It's time, once again, to see what public programs are coming in the week ahead here at the MHS: - Monday, 29 January, 6:00PM : Martha McNamara of Wellesley College and Karan Sheldon of Northeast Historic Film discuss the selection of essays they recently edited titled [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 28 January, 2018, 12:00 AM

Charles Cornish Pearson and the Great War, Part III

Series: Collection Profiles , From Our Collections
By Susan Martin, Collection Services
This is the third post in a series about the wartime experience of Charles Cornish Pearson. Go back and read Part I and Part II for the full story. ***** Today we return to the letters of Charles Cornish Pearson, a young man who served during World [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 26 January, 2018, 1:40 PM

Reference Collection Book Review: Boston’s South End

Series: From Our Collections
By Brendan Kieran, Reader Services
In Boston’s South End: The Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood Shawmut Peninsula Press, 2015), Russ Lopez constructs an engaging historical account of the South End from before the start of its development as a neighborhood in the 1850s through the time of his [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 24 January, 2018, 2:34 PM

Life in the Boarding House: Elizabeth Dorr’s Diaries

Series: From Our Collections
By Shelby Wolfe, Reader Services
During a recent search in our online catalog, ABIGAIL, I came across two subject headings that caught my attention – “Single women” and “Boardinghouses—Massachusetts.” These struck me as familiar since during my first years in Boston as [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 19 January, 2018, 12:00 AM

No Mere 'Adventurer': P. T. Barnum, Iranistan, and the Swedish Nightingale

Series: From Our Collections
By Rakashi Chand, Reader Services
March 7 1882 Sir, I send Cards as you 
request. I am too full
of elephants to command
much sentiment. All my
thoughts & cares at present are
locked up in two trunks - one of
which belongs to Jumbo & [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 17 January, 2018, 11:49 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
First things first in this weekly round-up: The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 15 January, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 16 January. Now that we have that out of the way, on to the programs scheduled for the coming week: - [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 14 January, 2018, 12:00 AM

A Midwinter’s Tale

Series: From Our Collections
By Sara Georgini, Adams Papers
  At eight o-clock on a January morning in 1891, and a world away from the ice-caked streets of his native New England, 52-year-old Henry Adams leisurely began to go about his day. Armed with coffee, he surveyed the two-room cottage that he had rented in Apia, Samoa, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 12 January, 2018, 4:41 PM

Charles Cornish Pearson and the Great War, Part II

Series: From Our Collections
By Susan Martin, Collection Services
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to the MHS collection of Charles Cornish Pearson papers. Charles served with the 101st Machine Gun Battalion in France during World War I. We pick up his story in the village of Mont-lès-Neufchâteau in the early days of 1918. Charles [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 8 January, 2018, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
It is a very quiet week here at the Society as we await the thaw following last week's storm. Here are the calendar notes for the coming days: - The Exhibition Galleries are CLOSED on Monday, 8 January and Tuesday, 9 January. Normal hours resume on Wednesday, 10 January. - [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 7 January, 2018, 12:00 AM

A New Year’s Greeting from Merrymount Press, 1918

Series: From Our Collections , From the Reference Librarian 
By Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services
  Welcome to the future! In this first week of the new year, I bring you a New Year’s greeting from one hundred years in the past. This illustration by Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978) graced the annual greeting to the friends of Merrymount Press, Boston at the [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 3 January, 2018, 10:15 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
We are back to business this week at the Society, thought it appears that Mother Nature may have other plans for us. Without thinking about the weather, here is what is on the calendar for the first week of the new year: - Wednesday, 3 January, 12:00PM : Derek O'Leary of [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Monday, 1 January, 2018, 12:00 AM