This Week @ MHS

On Tuesday, 2 April 2013, Davis Hsiung of Juniata College presents "Making Saltpetre for the Continental Army: How Americans Understood the Environment During the War of Indpendence." This Early American History Seminar is a case study which examines Americans' understanding of the workings of the natural world during the Revolutionary era, using the imperfect manufacture of gunpowder for the Continental Army as a backdrop. Mr. Hsiung contends that paying attention to the interatctions between humans and the natural environment leads to a richer understanding of the war, and that our current understanding of, and attitude toward, the environment have their roots in the Revolutionary period. Mr. Rob Martello, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, will provide comment for the seminar. The talk will begin at 5:15pm and is free and open to the public. RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar paper.

Then, on Wednesday, 3 April, visit the Society for a midday dose of Lincoln as long-term research fellow Martha Hodes of New York University shares updates about her ongoing research for an upcoming book with "Mourning Lincoln: Shock, Sorrow, Anger, and Glee in the Archives." In this Brown Bag Lunch talk, Ms. Hodes will discuss delving into private letters and journals in order to get a sense of personal responses to Lincoln's assassination. Her research spans a wide demographic spectrum including men and women, rich and poor, white and black, prominent and anonymous. The book explores the questions of what these responses to such a convulsive event can tell us about the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and what we can learn by understanding personal reactions to a transformative event. Brown Bag talks are free and open to the public, and begin at 12:00pm.

And on Thursday, 4 April, the MHS hosts a public program as John Stauffer of Harvard University presents "Massachusetts and the Civil War in Black and White: The Commonwealth's Role in Secession, Emancipation, and Reconstruction." Mr. Stauffer's discussion will focus on the contributions made by abolitionists and political leaders in Massachusetts to secession, freedom, and equality under the law. The talk will also look briefly at the state's response to the "counter-Revolution" that stripped these rights following Reconstruction. The discussion will be followed by a reception, both of which are free and open to the public though registration is required. Mr. Stauffer's talk will begin at 6:00pm.

The program serves as the keynote address and commencement of the MHS conference Massachusetts and the Civil War: The Commonwealth and National Disunion.This two-day conference will examine Massachusetts' participation in the war from almost every major aspect: reform activities and the origins of the war; military life; the war, politics, and the economy; slavery and emancipation; and how the citizens of Massachusetts came to terms with the consequences of the conflict. Established scholars and historians on the rise alike will include new areas of emphasis in their discussions, including health and the environment, memory of the war, and the radical intellectual tradition in the state. The event will be broken into six sessions in which panelists and commentators will offer brief remarkss followed by discussion with the audience. Conference papers will be made available in advance for those who preregister. Click here to view the conference program. Registration, with a fee, is required to attend the session. For more information, contact Kate Viens at kviens@masshist.org.

Due to the conference on Friday and Saturday, there will not be a public tour on Saturday, 6 April.

This Week @ MHS

In like a lion, out like a lamb. And so it goes with the MHS events schedule in this final week of March.

This Wednesday, 27 March 2013, the MHS hosts an author talk with New Jersey City University's Ellen Gruber Garvey. In this talk, Ms. Garvey will revisit the many perspectives featured in her recent book, Writing with Scissors: American scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance. Using scrapbooks as evidence, the book examines how a variety of people organized and made sense of large amounts of information in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through her research and findings, including work done with materials at the MHS, Ms. Garvey highlights a broad segment of these interpretations, from Mark Twain and an African-American janitor to Susan B. Anthony and Confederate soldiers, to demonstrate the complex nature of the press and its voices. Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30pm and the talk starts at 6:00pm. This is a public program with no cost but registration is required. Contact the education department at 617-646-0560 / education@masshist.org for more informaiton.  

And on Saturday, 30 March, stop by for a free tour that begins at 10:00am.The History and Collectons of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led tour of the Society's public spaces and informs visitors of the organization's history, collections, art, and architecture. The tour is free and open to the public and no reservation is required for individuals and small groups.
Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

FInally, remember that there are currently three related exhibits on view now until May 24. "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865," "Forever Free: Lincoln &the Emancipation Proclamation," and "Lincoln in Manuscript & Artifact," are open for public viewing at no cost, Monday-Saturday, 10:00am-4:00pm.

This Week @ MHS

Here is the weekly round-up of events going on at the MHS this week, presented in a 3-2-1 fashion.

First, there are three exhibitions currently on display, all interrelated. The main feature, "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865," highlights the work of Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and his famed newspaper the Liberator. Through manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts, the exhibit looks at the work of Bostonians to thwart the spread of slavery as well as the fierce resistance met by their radical movement.

In complement to the main feature, the Society has two smaller exhibits which focus on Abraham Lincoln, slavery, and the Emancipation Proclamation. "Lincoln in Manuscript & Artifact" includes a bronze cast of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in 1860 along with a letter to Joshua Speed which demonstrates his evolving views on slavery. In addition, "Forever Free: Lincoln & the Emancipation Proclamation" displays the pen that Lincoln used the sign his famous Proclamation along with paintings, broadsides, and manuscripts that tell the story of Boston's celebration of the Emancipation. All of these exhibits are free and open to the public, available for viewing Monday-Saturday, 10:00am - 4:00pm.

Next on the calendar, the MHS has two public seminars this week. On Tuesday, 19 March 2013, drop by the MHS for the latest Immigration and Urban History Seminar, "Dynamic Tensions: Charles Atlas, Immigrant Bodybuilders, and Eugenics, 1920-1945." Dominique Padurano, Scarsdale High School, presents a paper which highlights the paradox of bodybuilders like Charles Atlas who marketed diet and exercise regimens by emphasizing their own innate weaknesses while, at the same time, espousing eugenics techniques of the day. Ms. Padurano also argues that, in a time when the nation was not a hospitable place for foreigners, both techniques served as sorts of assimilation strategies within immigrant and ethnic bodybuilding communities. Martin Summers, Boston College will provide comment. The seminar will begin at 5:15pm and is free and open to the public. RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar paper.

Then, visit the Society again on Thursday, 21 March, for "Subjects in Context: The Role of Place in the Writing of Bigoraphy." In this panel discussion, part of the MHS Biography Seminar series, Carla Kaplan, Diane McWhorter, and Lois Rudnick will present their views on the topic through the prisms of their respective projects. Ms. Kaplan will highlight her forthcoming book on white women in the Harlem Renaissance; Ms. McWhorter will focus on the civil rights struggle and the growth of the military-industrial comples in postwar Alabama; and Ms. Rudnick discuss Mabel Dodge Luhan and her circle of friends in New Mexico. The discussion will be moderated by Carol Bundy. This event is also free and open to the public and will begin at 5:30pm. Again, RSVP required.

And rounding out the countdown this week, there will be one public tour happening. Come in on Saturday, 23 March 2013, for a free docent-led tour of the Society. The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute tour that touches on the history and collections of the MHS, as well as some of the art and architecture on display in the Society's public rooms. No reservation required for individuals or small groups but parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending the tour. For more information, please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org. Tour will begin at 10:00am in the lobby.

Making Music, Making History

Over the last four hundred years Boston has nurtured the creation and performance of numerous musical genres. Distinguished by the breadth and intensity of its musical life, Boston has been home to talented and influential composers, conductors and performers; world-class orchestras and conservatories; and community music societies representing a broad range of musical genres. Located in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, the MHS is literally surrounded by several premier musical institutions. In addition to sharing walls with two of these institutions, (Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory) the MHS also counts the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New England Conservatory, the Handel and Haydn Society, and Boston University School of Music as its near neighbors. Over the next several months the MHS will offer several public programs that bring Boston’s history makers and music makers together, using music as a lens to investigate Boston’s history.

Our goal is to introduce fans of music to the history behind some of their favorite songs, venues, and performers, and to the local, national, and even global historical context of specific musical moments. We also want to expose our devoted corps of intellectually curious adults to a new way of investigating Boston’s past. We will begin with two programs in spring 2013. On 13 March, prize-winning author Megan Marshall will offer insights from her newest book Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, her biography of the 19th-century heroine who spent her last years in Rome and Florence as a war correspondent covering the early stages of Italy’s Risorgimento. Folk ensemble Newpoli will be on hand to conjure the vibrant music that Fuller came to love as emblematic of Italy. Together with the audience, Ms. Marshall and Newpoli will discuss what music can tell us about Fuller’s life in Italy and how Italian history was presented and commemorated in nineteenth-century America.

On 29 May, we will collaborate with Berklee professor Peter Cokkinias and the Boston Saxophone Quartet to explore the music of the Civil War era. This two-hour program will feature familiar tunes from the 1860s that were sung around the parlor piano, as well as songs written specifically for the newest instrument of the era: the saxophone. The Quartet will also perform several pieces composed by Patrick Gilmore, the band leader who established the concert band as an American institution and removed music from the home and concert hall to the parade ground and bandstand. In the early years of the Civil War, Gilmore’s band became attached to the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, accompanying the troops to North Carolina in 1861–1862. Audience members will sing along to familiar camps songs and discuss the role of musicians in the Civil War.

Planning is also underway for a third program, which will take audiences out in the field to experience musical venues in the fall of 2013. Our “Tempos of Turbulence” walking tour will immerse participants in the music of the Society’s Back Bay neighborhood. We will focus our tour narrative on stories that demonstrate how the creation and enjoyments of music in early twentieth-century Boston were intertwined with larger, political, cultural, and social issues. For example, at Berklee College of Music, participants will learn about the founding of the institution in 1945, and why its creator, composer Lee Berk, chose to focus on training musicians in jazz, blues, and other forms of American popular music in the years after World War II. At Symphony Hall, we will hear examples of works by German, Austrian, and Hungarian composers, which dominated the repertoires of symphonies in cities like Boston in the years prior to WWI, and explore (visually and aurally) American responses to this music in the years during and after the war.  Just across the street from Symphony Hall, a block of jazz clubs dominated Massachusetts Avenue in the 1940s.  We will use these “lost” venues to discuss the influence of black culture on the music scene in mid-century Boston, as well as the moment when jazz music began to spread from the African American community to clubs attended by an ethnic and economic cross-section of the population.

You too can experience theses musical moments at the MHS! Visit our web calendar to learn more about upcoming events and how to reserve your spot on the guest list.