This Week @ MHS

It is a very quiet week ahead as we approach a long holiday weekend, with only one event on the calendar. It is:

- Tuesday, 23 May, 6:00PM : The House of Truth: A Washington Political Salon and the Foundations of American Liberalism is the title of a new book, and this talk, by Brad Snyder of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Through the lens of a group of ambitious young men disillusioned with the slow pace of change in the Taft Administration, Snyder looks at how ideas shifted from progressivism into what today we refer to as liberalism. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

Remember that our current exhibit, The Irish Atlantic, is open to the public free of charge, Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM. 

The MHS is CLOSED, Saturday, 27 May-Monday, 29 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 30 May. 

This Week @ MHS

- Tuesday, 16 May, 5:15PM : This week's Environemental History seminar is headed by Jason L. Newton of Syracuse University and is rescheduled from 14 March. "The Winter Workscape: Weather and the Meaning of Industrial Capitalism in the Northern Forest, 1850-1950," draws on methods from environmental and labor history and the history of slavery and capitalism to characterize industrial capitalism as a force that will sustain seemingly anachronistic modes of production as long as they remain profitable. Richard W. Judd, University of Maine, provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

- Thursday, 18 May, 6:00PM : Join us for the next installment of the Cooking Boston series. This episode, titled Sweet Boston, looks at the unusually strong interest in sweets that has long held in Boston. This panel discussion features Joyce Chaplin of Harvard University Department of History, author Michael Krondl, and Carla Martin, Founder and Executive Director of the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institution and Lecturer at the Harvard University Department of African American Studies. This talk is open to the public, registration required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

- Saturday, 20 May, 10:00AM : The History and Collection 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

- Saturday, 20 May, 2:00PM : Stop by for a free author talk with Andrew Carroll of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University, and author of My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War. Registration is required for this event at no cost. 

This Week @ MHS

It is a pretty quiet week here at the Society. This is what is on tap:

- Tuesday, 9 May : The Environmental History Seminar is CANCELED. 

- Wednesday, 10 May, 12:00PM : Join us for a Brown Bag lunch talk with Emily Gephart of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. "Avian Affinities and Refashioning Roles: Feathers, Millinery and American Bird Protection" examines the storyof how bird death led to rejection of fashion's mandates, a process that was neither swift, nor direct, nor simple, but reveals a complex politics of hybridity, in which roles, refusal, and refashioning play off one another in dynamic exchange. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Thursday, 11 May, 6:00PM : Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth is the title of a recent publication as well as the title of a talk with the author, Holger Hoock, of University of Pittsburgh. Often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, Hoock shows that the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war that shaped the nation and the British Empire in ways we have only begun to understand. This talk is open to the public. Registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

There is no tour this week, but you can still come in to view our current exhibition, The Irish Atlantic, anytime during normal exhibit hours, Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM. 

This Week @ MHS

- Tuesday, 2 May, 5:15PM : We start the week with an Early American History Seminar, this time in panel format. "Nathaniel Hawthorne and Friends" is a discussion with Philip Gould of Brown University and Thomas Balcerski of Eastern Connecticut State University. The conversation revolves around their respsective essays, "Hawthorne and the State of War" and "A Work of Friendship." Maurice Lee of Boston University provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

- Wednesday, 3 May, 12:00PM : Stephen Engle of Florida Atlantic University leads this week's Brown Bag lunch talk, titled "Politics of Civil War Governance: A Conversation about Lincoln and his Loyal Governors during the Civil War." Engle discusses his most recent book, Gathering to Save a Nation: Lincoln and the Union's War Governors and how it led to his current project, a biography of Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Wednesday, 3 May, 6:00PM : "Where to Go" is the next installment of the Cooking Boston series of public programs here at the MHS, exploring the culinary history of Boston. In the 20th century, Boston clung to two identities: that of thrifty Puritans and of cosmopolitanism through education. This created some remarkably bland food but also made the city fertile ground for a culinary revolution. In the 1960s, chefs like Julia Child and Joyce Chen brought the flavors of the world to America through Boston. This event features a discussion with James O'Connell, Corky White, and Eriwn Ramos, moderated by Peter Drummey of the MHS. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members of Fellows). A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

- Saturday, 6 May, 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

- Saturday, 6 May, 1:00PM : The practice of slavery in the early modern Atlantic world generated a variety of theological debates about its nature, origins, and legitimacy. "Of One Blood? New England Slavery and Theology," part of the Begin at the Beginning series of talks, is a discussion led by PhD candidate Eduardo Gonzalez of Boston College. This program is open to the public, registration required at no cost. The discussion is based on primary readings listed on the reigstration page.