This Week @ MHS

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 1825 General Lafayette made a farewell tour of the United States. The 67-year-old hero was welcomed in an adoring frenzy. The visit to Boston of the sole surviving major general of the Continental Army was one of the largest celebrations the city had ever seen. A “Committee of Arrangements” was organized to rent and furnish an appropriate home and all of the furniture was purchased from Isaac Vose & Son. Hoffman will recount the general’s visit and discuss his translation of Lafayette’s private secretary’s journal.

This talk is open to the public, free of charge, though registration is required. A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

- Wednesday, 23 May, 12:00PM : "Are We Descended from Puritans or Pagans?: New England's Critique of Manifest Destiny" is the title of a Brown Bag talk with current short-term research fellow Daniel Burge of the University of Alabama. This talk examines the religious critique of manifest destiny put forth by New Englanders from 1848-1871. Although manifest destiny is often portrayed as an ideology rooted in Puritan theology, this talk explores how opponents of expansion in New England used religion to castigate and separate themselves from this ideology.

Brown Bag talks are free and open to the public, so pack a lunch and stop on by!

Please note that the library is CLOSED on Saturday, 26 May, though the galleries remain OPEN, 10:00AM-4:00PM. Stop by and see our current exhibition The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825.

The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 28 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 29 May.

This Week @ MHS

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 Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM - 4:00PM. 

Here are the other events taking place this week:

- Tuesday, 15 May, 6:00PM : In 1805 and 1806, former vice president Aaron Burr traveled through the trans-Appalachian West gathering support for a mysterious enterprise, for which he was arrested and tried for treason in 1807. The Burr Conspiracy was a cause célèbre of the early republic-with Burr cast as the chief villain of the Founding Fathers—even as the evidence against him was vague and conflicting. James E. Lewis, Jr. of Kalamzaoo College will explore how Americans made sense of the reports of Burr’s intentions and examine what the crisis revealed about the new nation’s uncertain future.

This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

- Thursday, 17 May, 6:30PM : We invite you to join us for a festive evening in support of the Center for the Teaching of History at the MHS featuring Harvard President Drew Faust in conversation with MHS President Catherine Allgor. The evening will begin with a cocktail reception. A seated dinner will follow. Feast, sip, and celebrate history at the eighth Cocktails with Clio! 

Tickets are $300 per person. Purchase tickets today!

- Saturday, 19 May, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led walk through our public rooms. The tour is free, open to the public, with no need for reservations. If you would like to bring a larger party (8 or more), please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

While you're here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825.

This Week @ MHS

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 and Megan Marshall of Emerson University. They will discuss Hulbert's new book, Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives & Lessons of American Child Prodigies, which examines the lives of children whose rare accomplishments have raised hopes about untapped human potential and questions about how best to nurture it. The conversation will draw on a range of examples that span a century—from two precocious Harvard boys in 1909 to literary girls in the 1920s to music virtuosos today. Hulbert and Marshall will explore the changing role of parents and teachers, as well as of psychologists, a curious press and, above all, the feelings of the prodigies themselves, who push back against adults more as the decades proceed.

This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

- Wednesday, 9 May, 12:00PM : Pack your lunch and come in for a Brown Bag talk with Lindsay Keiter of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. While historians have analized the rise of companionship and romance in marriage, they have overlooked a critical continuity: marriage continued to serve vital financial functions. Keiter's talk, "For Love and Money: Marriage in Early America," briefly sketches the economic importance of marriage and families' strategies for managing wealth across generations.

This talk is free and open to the public.

- Thursday, 10 May, 6:00PM : MHS Fellows and Members are invited to attend the Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston's South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825 Preview and Reception. 

Registration required at no cost.

- Friday, 11 May, 10:00AM : All are welcome to view our new exhibition, Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815 to 1825. Virtually forgotten for 200 years, Isaac Vose and his brilliant furniture are revealed in a new exhibition and accompanying volume. Beginning with a modest pair of collection boxes he made for his local Boston church in 1788, Vose went on to build a substantial business empire and to make furniture for the most prominent Boston families. The exhibition and catalog restore Vose from relative obscurity to his rightful position as one of Boston’s most important craftsmen. Opening at the MHS on May 11, the exhibition will be on view through September 14.

The complementary book, Rather Elegant Than Showy (May 2018), by Robert Mussey and Clark Pearce, will be available for sale at the MHS.

- Saturday, 12 May, 10:00AM : With the opening of our new exhibition we also see the return of our free Saturday building tours. The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Tour is a 90-minute docent-led walk through our public rooms. The tour is free, open to the public, with no need for reservations. If you would like to bring a larger party (8 or more), please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

This Week @ MHS

Are you looking for some history-themed events to help pass your week as we head into May? Well then, you're in luck! Here are some programs coming in the week ahead here at the MHS:

- Tuesday, 1 May, 5:15PM : First up this week is a seminar from the Early American History series. Join us as Matthew Kruer of the University of Chicago presents "The Time of Anarachy: the Susquehannock Scattering and the Crisis of English Colonialism, 1675-1685," which is part of a larger book project. This paper argues that the seemingly distinct conflicts across the English colonies in the 1670s were actually connected by the political initiatives of the scattered Susquehannock Indians. The dispersion of the Susquehannocks caused instability in surrounding Native American and colonial societies, drawing them into a spiral of violence interrupted only by Susquehannock success, which brought stability to the northeast and shattered the southeast. Linford Fisher of Brown University is on-hand to provide comment.

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

- Wednesday, 2 May, 12:00PM : The Brown Bag talk this week centers on some 20th century topics. David Shorten of Boston University presents "Neutrality and Anti-Imperialism: A New Synthesis for the 1920s." After the war, a movement comprised of scholars, journalists, peace activists, and “anti-monopolist” US Senators worked together to articulate a new conception of US neutrality. Unlike the more widely discussed international war outlawry movement, this national movement focused narrowly on one radical conclusion: that protection of capitalist interests had motivated World War I, and thus, that the US government must permanently disavow the right to protect those interests in order to prevent war’s future recurrence.

Brown Bag lunch talks are open to the public, free of charge.

- Wednesday, 2 May, 6:00PM : The final event in the This Land is Your Land Series is "The Future of Our Land." The Boston metropolitan area is in the enviable spot of having more people who want to live and work here than there is space for. Real estate regularly sells for prices that would have seemed inconceivable twenty five years ago. This situation puts more funds in municipal coffers, but what will this increased demand and density do to plans to preserve open space? How will climate change impact our priorities for preserving open space and how might it limit our options? Join us for this panel discussion with Kathy Abbott, Boston Harbor Now; Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space for the City of Boston; Madhu C. Dutta-Koehler, City Planning and Urban Affairs, Boston University.

This program is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members or EBT cardholders). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

Please note that the library is CLOSED on Saturday, 5 May, to make room for a special teacher workshop. See below for details.

- Saturday, 5 May, 9:00AM : Known as the "master of the art of narrative history," David McCullough is the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. In a special teacher workshop, "History and the American Spirit," he will join us to discuss his perspective on history, education, and American legacy. This workshop is FULL and registration has closed. Please contact Kate Melchior at kmelchior@masshist.org or 617-646-0588 with any questions.