This Week @ MHS

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, which means a shortened week here at the Society. 

- Monday, 20 November, 6:00PM : Join us for a conversation with author Richard Aldous of Bard College, with Fredrik Logevall of Harvard University, as they discuss Aldous's recent work Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian. Drawing on oral histories, rarely seen archival documents, and the official Schlesinger papers, this biography crafts an invaluable portrait of a brilliant and controversial historian who framed America’s rise to global empire. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the architect of John F. Kennedy’s legacy, redefined the art of presidential biography. A Thousand Days, his best selling record of the Kennedy administration, remains immensely influential and cemented his place as one of the nation’s greatest political image makers.This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM.

The Society closes early at 3:00PM on Wednesday, 22 November.

The Society is CLOSED on Thursday, 23 November, for Thanksgiving.

The Library remains CLOSED on Friday, 24 November and Saturday, 25 November.

The Exhibition Galleries are OPEN on Friday, 24 November and Saturday, 25 November.

- Saturday, 25 November, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS 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.

This Week @ MHS

We are back from a long weekend for the only full November week this year. Here are the programs coming in the week ahead:

- Tuesday, 14 November, 5:15PM : The next installment of the Environemental History Seminar series is with Jacqueline Gonzales of Historical Research Associates. "Drafting the Cape Cod Formula" examines how citizens articulated their concerns when the National Park Service wanted to create a federal park on Cape Cod, and how their responses helped the NPS and Senators John F. Kennedy and Leverett Saltonstall to create a new acquisiiton and land management policy that would then be applied to other living landscapes. Steven Moga of Smith College is on-hand to provide comment. To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call 617-646-0579.

Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

- Wednesday, 15 November, 12:00PM : The Brown Bag talk this week is presented by Adrian Weimer of Providence College and is titled "The Roasting of Hugh Peter: Satire and Politics in Early America." Accused regicide and former pastor of Salem, Massachusetts, Hugh Peter was the target of colorful satirical ballads and mock-sermons in the mid-seventeenth century. This presentation will explore the ways Royalists attacked Peter as a way of mocking the culture of puritanism, expressing anxieties about the very existence of puritan colonies. This event is free and open to the public. 

- Thursday, 16 November, 6:00PM : Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty is the new work by John Boles of Rice University. This biography does not ignore aspects of Thomas Jefferson that trouble us today but strives to see him in full and understand him amid the sweeping upheaval of his times. From his inspiring defenses of political and religious liberty to his heterodox abridgment of Christian belief, this book explores Jefferson’s expansive intellectual life and the profound impact of his ideas on the world. This author talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). Pre-talk reception starts at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

- Saturday, 18 November, 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.

This Week @ MHS

It is a short week here at the Society as we approach the Veteran's Day holiday. But there are still a few opportunities for quenching your thirst for history. Here is what is on the calendar for the week ahead:

- Tuesday, 7 November, 5:30PM : The next installment of the Early American History seminar series is with Craig Gallagher of Boston College, and is titled "British Caledonia: English America and the Scottish Darien Project, 1675-1702." Beginning in 1695, Scots at home and abroad flocked to support their country's nascent colony on the Darien isthmus in Panama. This paper argues that Scots’ enthusiasm for the Darien project stemmed not from national impulses, but from a desire to define their status in a liberal, Protestant British Atlantic World alongside their colonial American allies and patrons. Hannah Muller of Brandeis University will be on-hand to provide comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required, just click the link or call 617-646-0579. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. Please note that unlike other sessions in this series, this program begins at 5:30PM.

- Wednesday, 8 November, 12:00PM : Pack your lunch and stop by for a Brown Bag talk with Shira Lurie of the University of Virginia. "Politics at the Poles: Liberty Poles and the Popular Struggle for the New Republic" examines conflicts over liberty poles in the 1790s. Liberty poles offered grassroots partisans a tangible symbol through which to channel debates about political participation, popular sovereignty, and dissent under the new Constitution. This event is free and open to the public. 

- Wednesday, 8 November, 6:00PM : The Weeping Angel: Letters and Poems from World War I France is a new work edited by Mary Kelley, and the title of this author talk. Working as a soldier on the railroads in France during World War I, Hubert Williams Kelley found his vocation as a poet and writer through vivid letters to family. In this talk, Mary Kelley describes her efforts to retrace the forgotten history of a perceptive observer of the war's destruction. Christopher Capozzola of MIT will be on-hand to comment on the letters' contribution to new historical understandings that have emerged during the war's centennial. This talk is open to the public, though registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows). A pre-talk reception kicks-off at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

Please note that the Society is CLOSED on Friday and Saturday, 10-11 November, for Veteran's Day. Normal hours resume on Monday, 13 November. 

This Week @ MHS

Here we are, once again, with the weekly round-up of events to come.

- Monday, 30 October, 6:00PM : Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson is the latest work by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon S. Wood of Brown University, who will speak about his book and the relationship between these two founding fathers. A reception precedes the talk at 5:30PM and the speaking program begins at 6:00PM. THIS TALK IS SOLD OUT!

- Wednesday, 1 November, 12:00PM : Start off the new month right with a lunchtime Brown Bag talk. Join us as Kabria Baumgartner of University of New Hampshire presents "Equal School Rights: Black Girlhood and School Desegregation in Antebellum Massachusetts." This project looks at some of the integral players in the fight to desegregate public schools in Massachusetts before the Civil War. They authored anti-descrimination pamphlets, helped to organize boycotts, and wrote missives against racial prejudice. As the campaign grew, so did the activist network that bound together African American women, men, and children, as well as their allies across the state. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Saturday, 4 November, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS 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.

- Saturday, 4 November, 11:00AM : Experience revolutionary politics "indoors" and "out-of-doors" as it would have happened 250 years ago. Participate in a live reenactment at Faneuil Hall of a Boston town meeting; join the discussion as local citizens argue over whether or not to stop importing British goods; and join a rowdy procession of laboring-class Bostonians from Faneuil Hall to the Old State House as they express their disapproval of British trade policies in a rather colorful and intimidating way. The Devil and the Crown is being offered as a joint program of Boston National Historical Park, Minute Man National Historical Park, The Bostonian Society, and Revolution 250, a program of the MHS. Admission is free to all! For more information, please contact Jim Hollister at 978-318-7829 or jim_hollister@nps.gov.