This Week @ MHS

The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 16 April, for Patiots' Day/Marathon Monday. Enjoy the race!

After the holiday we get right back into the public events here at the MHS. Here are the details:

- Tuesday, 17 April, 5:30PM : This week's seminar, part of the History of Women and Gender series, is "Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the High School U. S. History Curriculum: A Conversation." This panel discussion, featuring university faculty, secondary educators, and activist curriculum specialists, aims to seed an ongoing discussion between high school and post-secondary instructors of American history about gendering the U.S. History curriculum. What topics in women’s and gender history and in the history of sexuality get covered when, where, and how? How can college- and university-based scholars do more to connect their work with high school classrooms? How are secondary educators—and their students—advancing and reshaping the field? This program takes place at the Fay House, Radcliffe Institute, in Cambridge.

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.

- Tuesday, 17 April, 6:00PM : What fuels a family’s compulsion for philanthropy? Charitable giving is an intrinsic part of our culture and its story can be told through a colorful, multifaceted family whose actions mirror America’s attitudes towards giving. Between 1638 and today, the Browns of Rhode Island have provided community leaders, endowed academic institutions, and transformed communities through art and architecture. However, they also have wrestled with society’s toughest issues slavery, immigration, child labor, inequality and with their own internal tensions. Sylvia Brown, of the family’s 11th generation, and Edward Widmer will explore this story in "Grappling with Legacy."

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

- Thursday, 19 April, 6:00PM : What would the week be without some talk of the first shots of the American Revolution? "Lexington & Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World" is an author talk with George C. Daughan who will discuss his recent book by the same name on the anniversary of those pivotal events. The mounting political tensions that ignited the battles of Lexington and Concord are critical to the narrative of the American Revolution. However, the economic forces that propelled these iconic battles are another vital part of this history. When Benjamin Franklin wrote home describing the living conditions in Britain and Ireland, his country men were appalled. Could the Crown’s motive be to reduce the prosperous American colonies to such serfdom? This threat inspired the vast turnout of Patriot militiamen that so shocked the British and led the colonists to victory in the first armed conflictsof the War of Independence.

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

This Week @ MHS

It is a quiet week ahead at the Society as we lead into a long weekend. Here are the programs on the schedule for coming week:

- Tuesday, 10 April, 5:15PM : This week's seminar is part of the Environmental History series and features Andrew Robichaud of Boston University, with David Spanagel of Worcester Polytechnic Institute providing comment. "The Ice Trade: Frederic Tudor's 'Slippery Speculation'" reexamines the emergence and development of the ice trade in Boston and North America, described in 1806 by the Boston Gazette as a "slippery speculation." What can the ice trade tell us about environmental, economic, political, and spatial change in nineteenth-century Boston and North America?

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, 11 April, 12:00PM : Stop by at noon on Wednesday for a Brown Bag lunch talk with Kimberly Blockett of Pennsylvania State University at Brandywine, whose talk is titled "#sayhername: Recovering the Itinerant Ministry of Zilpha Elaw, 1820-1873." During the Second Great Awakening, almost all denominations discouraged female preachers. Of course, some women did it anyway. Elaw ignored her husband and clergy, faced significant danger, and preached from Maine to Virginia. Then famous, now Elaw and her published Memoirs are mostly unknown. Blockett will discuss the silences of race and gender in the archive. This talk is free and open to the public.

The exhibition Yankees in the West is now CLOSED. The exhibition galleries remain closed through the month of April as we prepare for our next exhibit, Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston's South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825, which opens to the public on Friday, 11 May.

Please note that the Society is CLOSED on Monday, 16 April, in observance of Patriots' Day.

This Week @ MHS

It's a new month and here at the Society we keep on rolling with our public programs. This is what we have on tap in the week ahead:

- Tuesday, 3 April, 5:15PM : Brendan McConville of Boston University starts the week with an Early American History seminar, "Terror Twice Told: Popular Conventions, Political Violence, and the Coming of the Constitutional Crisis, 1780-1787." This paper argues that the wave of political violence after the American victory at Yorktown in 1781 ultimately reflected conflicts within the American political community over who could be an American, what institutions constituted “the people” in a republic, and the character and limits of the “the people’s” power to form self-governing institutions. These disputes played an important role in creating the 1787 constitutional crisis.

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, 4 April, 12:00PM : This week's Brown Bag lunch talk is given by research fellow Natalie Joy of Northern Illinois University. "Native Americans in the Antislavery Movement" explores Native American participation in the American antislavery movement from the 1830s to the 1860s. In addition to attending meetings, Indians signed petitions, donated money, organized fundraising fairs, held positions in antislavery societies, and assisted fugitive slaves. Most significantly, they influenced abolitionist thought on a number of issues. This talk is free and open to the public.

- Wednesday, 4 April, 6:00PM : "Private Land" is the first event in a new series called This Land is Your Land. Some of the early efforts to preserve open space for the physical and spiritual benefits offered by access to nature came from private organizations. Mount Auburn Cemetery was the first large-scale designed landscape open to the public in North America and as such began the rural cemetery movement that later led to public parks. In 1853 the Laurel Hill Association was founded in Stockbridge, inspiring a national Village Improvement Society movement. Later generations have benefited from the first private, statewide conservation and preservation organization, The Trustees of Reservations. Historic New England has saved traditional farms and Mass Audubon and other private organizations preserve and manage open space across the state. How common is this preservation by private organizations? How sustainable is this concept for future generations? This talk is open to the public though registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows, EBT Cardholders, and Members of Co-Sponsoring Institutions). A pre-talk reception kicks-off at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

- Thursday, 5 April, 6:00PM : "Distilling Boston: From the Colonial Period to the Present" is a special event for MHS Fund Giving Circle Members, Fellows, and Members, who are invited to a lively evening that explores the culture and history of alcohol consumption in Boston. Using illustrations, photos, and multimedia clips, Stephanie Schorow will speak about Boston’s drinking history beginning in the colonial period, continuing through Prohibition and into the current craft cocktail scene. Following the talk, enjoy a reception, sample cocktails, and continue the conversation. Registration required at no cost. This progam begins at 6:00PM.

This is the final week to view our current exhibition, Yankees in the West! The exhibit closes on Friday, 6 April. The next exhibition, Entrepreneurship & Classical Design in Boston's South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose & Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825, opens to the public on 11 May.

There is no building tour this week.

This Week @ MHS

After three straight weeks with canceled programs or weather-induced closures, here is hoping that the last week of March lets us exit the month like a lamb. This is the slate of programs coming in the week ahead:

- Tuesday, 27 March, 5:15PM : First up this week is a seminar from the Modern American Society and Culture series with John Bezis-Selfa of Wheaton College, titled "La Villania Arizoniana: Disenfranchisement, Citizenship, and Defining the Body Politic in the Early 20th-Century US-Mexico Borderlands." In 1909 and 1912, the Arizona legislature enacted requirements that all voters be literate in English, sparking a storm of multilingual protests in the papers and the courts. How and why Anglo-Arizonans took the right to vote from thousands of Mexican-American men and how Spanish-speakers fought back shows how conflicting views of race and ethnicity have influenced citizenship in the U.S.’s southwestern borderlands. Alex Keyssar of the Harvard Kennedy School provides 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, 28 March, 12:00PM : Jaclyn Schultz of University of California at Santa Cruz leads this week's Brown Bag lunch talk, "Learning the Values of a Dollar: Childhood & Cultures of Economy, 1825-1900." Nineteenth-century children rarely had access to money, even when they worked. Yet, several forms of authority instructed children in specific expectations of spending, saving, and giving. This talk explores how and why children were taught to interact with and value financial resources as well as how these lessons were racialized. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Thursday, 29 March, 6:00PM : Protest & Citizenship is a panel discussion with Stephen Kantrowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Crystal Feimster, Yale University; John Stauffer, Harvard University; and Chad Williams, Brandeis University. Throughout American history many groups have struggled to establish their rights as citizens. While the United States was a grand experiment in republican government, in the beginning only a small percentage was allowed to participate. Over time, citizenship has grown, but this has often not been a simple or a smooth process. This talk explores this history of citizenship and protest. How have groups throughout American history used agitation to help change the dialog about their position as citizens? How can this history help inform our views and reactions to the changing political climate we see today?

This talk is open to the public, though registration is required. PLEASE NOTE - PEOPLE REGISTERING FOR THIS PROGRAM AFTER 3/15/18 MAY BE ASKED TO SIT IN OVERFLOW SEATING (The overflow seating is on the same floor, one room over with a live video feed).

This program is made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities. 

- Saturday, 31 March, 10:00AM : 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.

While you're here you will also have the opportunity to view our current exhibition: Yankees in the West.