This Week @ MHS

The weather this week is predicted to be lovely!  Why not walk down to the MHS to attend a program.  We are offering two evening seminars, two afternoon public talks, and a morning tour -- so there is a bit of something for everyone! And all events this week are free and open to the public.

Tuesday, 4 December, at 5:15 catch the final Early American History Seminar of 2012. Alejandra Dubcovsky, Yale University, will present “ 'To know if it is true': Spies, Sentinels, and Prisoners of War in the South Carolina-Florida Borderland." This seminar paper, available to series subscribers prior to the event, describes how the Spanish created a new network of information that consisted of mobile and trusted informers in the colonial South. Seminars are free and open to the public. An RSVP is required.

Wednesday, 5 December at noon enjoy listening to MHS-NEH Long-term Fellow Kristen Collins, Boston University, discuss her research "Entitling Marriage: A History of Marriage, Public Money, and the Law." After a brief presentation Collins will entertain questions from the audience.  Bring a brown-bag lunch if you wish. Coffee & softdrinks are provided.

Thursday, 6 December brings the final History of Women and Gender Seminar of the year. Beginning at 5:30 PM, Premilla Nadasen, Queens College, presents "The Origins of the Domestic Worker Rights Movement." The seminar paper is part of a book-length project that follows four women and examines how and why they launched local campaigns for the rights of domestic workers. Ruth Milkman, City University of New York and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Stud, will provide the comment.  An RSVP  is required. And remember to subscribe to received an advance copy of the seminar paper.

Friday, 7 December at 2:00 PM, the Society's own art curator, Anne Bentley, offers her gallery talk "A Family Remembers: The Cheever, Davis, & Shattuck Memorial Jewels." This hour-long talk allows guests to take an in-depth look at the half a dozen mourning jewels that George Cheever Shattuck gifted to the Society in 1971.  The jewels are part of our ongoing exhibition In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewlery.

And finally our Saturday tour "The History and Collections of the MHS" departs the front lobby promptly at 10:00 AM.  This 90-minute tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or via email. 

This Week @ MHS

Bouncing back from the November holidays, we have a very busy week ahead at the MHS.

Tuesday, 27 November at 6:00 PM, Waite Rawls, Museum of the Confederacy, presents The Confederacy in History, Myth, & Memory.  A pre-event reception begins at 5:30 PM. Reservations are requested for this free event. To RSVP call 617-646-0560 or click here.

Immediately following the program, current and prospective associate members (age 40 and under) are invited to adjorn to The Hawthorne in Kenmore Square to continue the conversation at our first historical happy hour from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM.  A separate reservation is required for this event and can be made by calling 617-646-0560 or clicking here.

Friday, 30 November, we close out the month with our signature fundraising event.  Tickets are still available for Cocktails with Clio.  The evening begins at 6:00 PM with an elegant cocktail buffet at the Society’s building, followed by a trip to the Harvard Club for dessert and a conversation with cultural critic, Harvard scholar, host of PBS series Finding Your Roots, and MHS Overseer Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Tickets cost $200 per person. All net proceeds from the event will support the Society's outreach efforts. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Carol Knauff at cknauff@masshist.org or 617-646-0554.

Please note that in order to transform our building for the event, the library and exhibition galleries will close at 2:00 PM on Friday, 30 November.

This Week @ MHS

It is a relatively quiet week at the MHS, with only one public program being offered.  But it promises to be a great one.

If you are looking for something to do on your lunch hour on Wednesday, 7 November, come to 1154 Boylston Street at 12:00 PM for a brown-bag lunch presentation by MHS-NEH long-term fellow Matthew Dennis, University of Oregon. Dennis will present "American Relics and the Material Politics of Public Memory," a project that assesses American relics that have emerged and persisted since the colonial period, placing them in a broader context, using their histories to analyze the means through which Americans have used them to express and authorize their public words by making those words (literally) concrete.

Please note that their is no building tour on Saturday as the MHS will be closed Saturday, 10 November and Monday, 12 November in observance of Veterans Day. 

This Week @ MHS

It has been busy, busy, busy at 1154 Boylston Street this fall.  And this week is no different.  Plan to attend one of this week's events.  And remember to visit the online calendar for additional information.

Monday, 22 October at 6:00 PM, author Missy Wolfe launches her new publication, Insubordinate Spirit: A True Story of Life and Loss in Earliest America 1610-1665 with Elizabeth Winthrop: Insubordinate Spirit.  Reservations are requested. To RSVP call 617-646-0560 or register online. 

Tuesday, 23 October at 5:15 PM the Boston Immigration and Urban History Seminar continues with John Ochsendorf, The Guastavino Project, MIT, presenting Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America's Great Public Spaces.  This event will take place at the Boston Public Library.  In lieu of reading a paper, participants will engage in discussion with the presenter after touring the exhibition “Palaces for the People.”

Please note there will be no building tour on Saturday, 27 October. The exhibition galleries, featuring In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry and In the Arena: The Presidential Election of 1912 in Massachusetts will be open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.