This Week @ MHS

The weather man is predicting a lovely week, so plan to escape a bit on your lunch break and head to the MHS for one of our lunchtime programs.  Be sure to check the online calendar for additional details about the events.

Monday, 9 July at noon Moira Gillis, University of Oxford, will present a brown-bag lunch program, The Emergence of the American Corporation: The New England Example. Gillis will discuss her research into the legal and historical parameters of the corporation as it developed in New England.

Wednesday, 11 July at noon Allison Lange, Brandies University, wil present a brown-bag lunch program, Pictures and Progress: The Politics of Images in the Woman Suffrage Movement, in which she explores the visual culture of the suffrage movement.

Saturday, 14 July at 10:00 AM join our 90-minute building tour "The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society."

Celebrating Independence on July 2nd!

Yesterday we shared an Independence Day message from John Quincy Adams on the Beehive. In keeping in the spirit of preparing to celebrate our nation's birthday, today we share some of John Adams' words on the subject.  In a letter dated 3 July 1776 future president John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: 

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Adams was correct about everything but the date!  His description of people using "Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations" to mark this "most memorable day" is spot on for most American communities today. On Monday, 2 July visit the MHS to hear Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey explain why John Adams believed 2 July 1776 would be the most memorable day in the history of America. We will offer two gallery talks, at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, for interested visitors to learn the story.

If you cannot make it to a gallery talk, you can still plan to visit the MHS to view the exhibition The Most Memorable Day in the History of America: July 2, 1776. The exhibition, features letters exchanged between John and Abigail Adams, manuscript copies of early drafts of the Declaration of Independence in both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson's own handwriting, and the Society's own first printing of the Declaration, also known as the Dunlap broadside. The exhibition is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, from 2 July through 31 August.  

Alex Ashlock of WBUR spoke with Peter Drummey about the exhibition over the weekend. Read more in his write-up Should We Be Celebrating July 2nd?

This Week @ MHS

There is much happening at the MHS this week. Be sure to check out our online calendar for more information about these and other upcoming programs. 

Do not miss your chance to learn more about the fenced in gardens on the Fenway and to join in celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Fenway Victory Gardens.  Tuesday, 5 June, join us at 1154 Boylston Street to view items from the Fenway Garden Society's collections, held by the MHS, and to stretch your legs with a walk through the gardens. This program is co-sponsored by the Fenway Garden Society. 

Wednesday, 6 June, at noon join us for a Brown-bag lunch program. Researcher Jared Hardesty, Boston College, will present his project The Origins of Black Boston, a project that examines the formation of a slave community in pre-Revolutionary Boston and argues that historians have overstated the significance of freedom as a motivating factor for slaves. Come listen to Jared's presentation, and then join in the Q & A session.

Saturday, 7 June, stop in for our tour "The History and Collections of the MHS."  The 90-minute guided tour departs the front lobby promptly at 10:00 AM. 

This Week @ MHS

This week we offer a bit of something for everyone.  Choose to attend one of the four programs we are offering to kick of May, or challenge yourself to see how many you can attend.  As always you can find more information about individual program on our online calendar.

Tuesday at 5:15 PM, Joanne van der Woude, Harvard University, will close out the season for the Boston Early American Seminar Series with a presentation of her paper "The Classical Origins of the American Self: Puritans and Indians in New England Epics." Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Northeastern University, will give the comment. The program is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required. Subscribers receive an advance copy of the paper.

Wednesday at noon, join us in the Dowse Library for a brown-bag lunch program. Jordan Watkins, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will present on his research "Clio and America's Civil War."  Be prepared to participate in a lively discussion after Watkin's completes his presentation. 

On Friday at 2:00 PM, MHS Curator of Art Anne Bentley will present a gallery talk in conjunction with our current exhibition Clover Adams a Gilded and Heartbreaking Life. This one-hour program will examine Clover's use of the photographic medium to reflect her emotional connections to the arts and her subjects, and will provide attendees with time to explore the exhibition up close.

On Saturday our 90-minute building  tour The History and Collections of the MHS departs the front lobby promptly at 10:00 AM.

Please note that the Biography Seminar scheduled for Thursday, 3 May, has been postponed.  A new date will be announced when our fall schedule is published.