The Beehive: the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Spring Flowers

Series: From Our Collections , From the Reference Librarian 
By Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services
The month of May brought a sudden profusion of new growth to Boston’s green spaces this year: front yards, city parks, community gardens, and wild untamed lots all burst forth into a riot of green foliage and bright flowers. To celebrate the season on this final day [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 31 May, 2018, 12:51 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 28 May, for Memorial Day. As we return to the building after a long holiday weekend, we are looking at a fairly quiet week before the activity increases in June. Here are the events on the schedule this week: - Wednesday, 30 May,12:00PM [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 27 May, 2018, 12:00 AM

Anna Peabody Bellow’s Travel Diary

Series: From Our Collections
By Alex Kouroriez, Intern
Anna Peabody Bellow’s 1864 travel diary documents her voyage to England and France as a young and wealthy New England young woman during the Civil War. Included among her paragraph-a-day entries are watercolor and pencil sketches, perspective as a tourist in Europe, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Saturday, 26 May, 2018, 1:00 AM

Immigration and Trade in Early 20th-Century Worcester

Series: From Our Collections
By Brendan Kieran, Reader Services
The Rockwood Hoar Papers at the MHS document the life and career of Rockwood Hoar, a Worcester, Massachusetts lawyer and politician who lived from 1855 to 1906. Hoar was the son of United States Senator George Frisbie Hoar, and he served in Congress himself toward the end [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 25 May, 2018, 9:23 AM

Odd Accounts : Ship Sketches and More in the Smith Family Papers

Series: From Our Collections , From the Reference Librarian 
By Daniel Tobias Hinchen, Reader Services
As many of my colleagues have pointed out in the past here on the Beehive, one of the joys of working with the manuscript collections at the MHS is finding something unexcpected when going through a box of material. Recently, I tried to answer a reference question from [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 23 May, 2018, 4:36 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
It is a fairly quiet week at the Society as we head toward a long holiday weekend. Here is what is happening in the coming days: - Monday, 21 May, 6:00PM : We start things off with an author talk featuring Alan Hoffman who will discuss Lafayette In America. In 1824 and [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 20 May, 2018, 12:00 AM

A Wedding at Windsor

Series: From Our Collections
By Gwen Fries, Adams Papers
On May 19th, HRH Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle will wed at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. The couple has decided to update several royal wedding rituals, but their choice of venue is steeped in tradition. On March 10, 1863, Prince Harry’s great-great-great-grandfather, [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 18 May, 2018, 12:00 PM

Shedding Light on Boston's Baseball Past

Series: From Our Collections
By Rakashi Chand, Reader Services
Baseball season is in full swing and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 World Series, a series that became a part of city lore ever since the "Curse of the Bambino" was cast on Boston. Baseball has a long history in Boston which precedes the Red Sox, the Curse [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Thursday, 17 May, 2018, 3:44 PM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
The week ahead is a little bit lite on the number of public programs available. However, the MHS is pleased to announce that the newest exhibition is now open for viewing! The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825 is open to the public free of charge [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 13 May, 2018, 12:00 AM

Charles Cornish Pearson and the Great War, Part VI

Series: From Our Collections
By Susan Martin, Collection Services
This is the sixth post in a series about the wartime experience of Charles Cornish Pearson. Go back and read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V for the full story.   After the Battle of Château-Thierry on 18 July 1918, Sgt. Charles Cornish Pearson [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 11 May, 2018, 1:56 PM

Barbara Hillard Smith’s Diary, April 1918

Series: From Our Collections , From the Reference Librarian 
By Lindsay Bina, Intern and Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services
Today we return to the 1918 diary of Newton teenager Barbara Hillard Smith. You may read our introduction to the diary, and Barbara’s previous entries, here:   January | February | March | April May | June | July | August September | October | November | December   As [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 9 May, 2018, 12:00 AM

This Week @ MHS

Series: Today @MHS
By
The program schedule this week culminates with the opening of our newest public exhibition! Before we get to that, though, here is the full list of programs in the week ahead: - Monday, 7 May, 6:00PM : Starting the week is a conversation with Ann Hulbert of The Atlantic [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Sunday, 6 May, 2018, 12:00 AM

MHS and Massachusetts History Day

Series: Education Programs
By Amanda Fellmeth, Intern and Kate Melchior, Education
As the State Affiliates for Massachusetts History Day, Mass Historical and the Center for the Teaching of History are excited to celebrate the incredible work of young historians across the state.  From over 5,000 students competing at the school level to the 63 students [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Friday, 4 May, 2018, 5:14 PM

A Choise Garden of Rarest Flowers: John Parkinson’s "Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris"

Series: From Our Collections , From the Reading Room
By Shelby Wolfe, Reader Services
Somewhere amid April snow showers, I took my desire to see long-awaited signs of spring into my own hands and dug into a number of volumes here at the MHS regarding all things flora. I spent some time in A Little Book of Perennials (1927) by Alfred C. Hottes, consulted the [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Wednesday, 2 May, 2018, 12:00 AM

The Bygone Celebrations of May Day in Boston

Series: From Our Collections
By Rakashi Chand, Reader Services
Today is the 1st of May, a day once celebrated with merriment, song, dance and baskets. The celebration of May Day originated in pre-Christian Europe as a festival to celebrate the coming of Spring and the first planting. The boisterous celebrations of May Day suffered a [...] read more

comments: 0 | permalink | Published: Tuesday, 1 May, 2018, 11:48 AM