This Week @ MHS

Mark your calendar and plan to join us for an event this week.  More information about each event is available through our online calendar. 

Wednesday, 18 April at noon join us for a brown-bag lunch program and listen as Trenton Jones, The Johns Hopkins University, talks about his project "Prisoners of War and the Making of Revolutionary American Military Culture."  After the presentation, be ready to join in the lively Q & A session. 

Friday, 20 April at noon, Fred Wallace, Framingham Town Historian, presents Framingham's Civil War Hero, the Life of General George H. Gordon.

And on Saturday, 21 April, the 90-minute building tour, The History and Collections of the MHS, departs the front lobby promptly at 10:00 AM.

This Week @ MHS

Looking for stimulting conversation? Plan to attend one of the two seminars offered this week. You will find additional details about each event, and our current exhibitions, on our online calendar.

Tuesday, 10 April at 5:15 PM the Environmental History Seminar continues with Brian J. Payne, Bridgewater State University, presenting "Controlling the Cost of Fish: Weir Fishermen and Price Control in the Sardine Herring Fishery, 1875-1903." Josh Reid, University of Massachusetts, Boston, will provide the comment. 

Thursday, 12 April at 5:30 PM the History of Women and Gender Seminar concludes its spring series with Stephanie Jones-Rogers, Rutgers University, presenting her paper "'She thought she could find a better market': White Women and the Re-Gendering of the Antebellum Slave Market and Slave-Trading Community." Walter Johnson, Harvard University, will give the comment.

For both seminars advance copies of the papers are available for a small subscription fee. Whether you are a subscriber, or simply plan on attending one of the events, we ask that you RSVP so that we know to expect you. 

On Saturday, 14 April at 10:00 AM our 90 minute tour, The History and Collections of the MHS, departs the front lobby.  All are welcome to attend.

Also, remember that our current exhibitions, A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885 and The First Seasons of the Federal Street Theatre, 1794-1798, are free and open to the public Monday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. 

Finally, make note that Friday, 13 April marks the opening of The Object of History: Colonial Treasures from the Massachusetts Historical Society.  This exhibition, on display at the Concord Museum 13 April through 17 June, is open to the public Monday through Saturday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.  Visit the Concord Museum's website for directions and admission fee information. 

This Week @ MHS

The April starts off busy, as we offer six free public programs this week. Mark you calendar and be sure to join us for one of the following:

Tuesday, 3 April at 5:15 PM, the Boston Early American History Seminar brings Len Travers, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, to the MHS to present his paper "The Court-Martial of Jonathan Barnes." Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College, will give the comment. 

Wednesday, 4 April at 12:00 PM, join in the conversation at a brown-bag lunch program.  Joanne Melish, University of Kentucky, will present her finding on the topic "Making Black Communities: White Laborers, Black Neighborhoods, and the Evolution of Race and Class in the Post-Revolutionary North." Then at 6:00 PM join in a second conversation, are our conversation series, Considering the Common Good: What We Give Up/What We Gain, offers its latest installment with Lewis Hyde, Kenyon College and Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, presenting "Common as Air: A Conversation with Lewis Hyde." A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30 PM.

Friday, 6 April at 12.00 PM, Robert Turner, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia Law School presents The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy in a lunchtime program. And at 2:00 PM, the MHS' Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey presents a gallery talk "Being Mrs. Adams" in conjunction with a viewing of our current exhibition A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life: The Photographs of Clover Adams, 1883-1885.

And Saturday, 7 April, our 90-minute tour "The History and Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society" departs the front lobby at 10:00 AM. 

For additional details about all of these events please visit our online calendar. 

This Week @ MHS

Tuesday, 6 March at 5:15 PM the Boston Early American History Seminar continues with Karin Wulf, College of William and Mary, presenting her paper "Ancestry as Social Practice in Eighteenth-Century New England: The Origins of Early Republic Genealogical Vogue."  Laurel Ulrich, Harvard University, will give the comment.  Advance copies of the paper are available to all seminar subscribers. The seminars are free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required.  You can RSVP by email or phone at 617-646-0568.

Wednesday, 7 March offers two programs.  At noon, in the Dowse Library, current Andrew W. Mellon fellow Nancy Siegel, Towson University, presents a brown-bag lunch focused on her research "Political Appetites: Revolution, Taste, and Culinary Activism in the Early Republic."  Then at 6:00 PM, our conversation series, moderated by Steve Marini of Wellesley College, continues with Reclaiming the Commons. Brian Donohue, Brandeis University, will engage in a conversation with the audience in this second installment in our Considering the Common Good: What We Give Up/What We Gain series. The event is free and open to the public. You can pre-register for the event here or by calling 617-646-0560.