This Week @ MHS

The icy grip of winter is clinging on for life as we head into this new week. But to balance it out, we also have a new exhibit up for viewing! Stop by any time Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM, to view The Irish Atlantic. Co-sponsored by the Forbes House Museum, this exhibit explores 175 years of the Irish in Boston. As always, our exhibitions are open to the public free of charge. 

While we do have a few programs on the calendar, please be sure to check the MHS website for closures and cancellations before venturing out into the cold and snow. Here is what is on tap for the week to come. 

- Tuesday, 14 March, 5:15PM : Appropriately enough, the first item on the calendar this week is titled "The Winter Workscape: Weather and the Meaning of Industrial Capitalism in the Northern Forest, 1850-1950." For this Environmental History seminar, Jason L. Newton of Syracuse University draws on methods from environmental and labor history and the history of slaver and capitalism to characterize industrial capitalism as a force that will sustain seemingly anachronistic modes of production as long as they remain profitable. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

- Wednesday, 15 March, 6:00PM : Join us for "Cooking Boston: Refined to Rustic." Moderator Barbara Wheaton leads this discussion with Keith Stavely, who explores the role Boston has played from being the home of early European refinement to the rise of the Colonial Revival rustic dishes, and Kelly Erby, who looks at the role of restaurants and the rise of commercial dining in 19th century Boston. This event is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Members or Fellows. A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM with the program starting at 6:00PM.

This program is the first installment of the new series Cooking Boston: How the Hub Shaped the American Diet. Future events in this series take place on 27 April, 3 May, and 18 May.

- Saturday, 18 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: The Irish Atlantic: A Story of Famine Migration and Opportunity.

This Week @ MHS

The coming week will see the opening of a new exhibit as well as a few public programs to take in. Here is what's on the calendar:

- Tuesday, 7 March, 5:15PM : Come in for the next installment from the Early American History seminar series, "A History of Violence: The Harpe Murders and the Legacies of the American Revolution." Kate Grandjean of Wellesley College shares information about this project which looks at a series of murders in Appalachia in the 1790s committed by former Loyalists. By following the lives of the Harpe borthers, who left a trail of blood through early Tennessee and Kentucky, it explroes the violent legacies of the American Revolution - especially in the southern borderlands. Eliga Gould of the University of New Hampshire provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

- Wednesday, 8 March, 12:00PM : "Inventing Citizens: Patents, Investors, and Civil Rights" is a Brown Bag lunch talk with Kara Swanson of Northeastern University. Swanson's project examines the foundational relationship between the growing republic and its accessible patent system by demonstrating how the patent system became a resource for marginalized groups making claims to full civil rights, particularly women and African Americans. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Thursday, 9 March, 6:00PM : SOLD OUT - "The Irish Atlantic" Fellows & Members Preview Reception. MHS Fellows and Members are invited to a special program, reception, and chance to preview The Irish Atlantic. The exhibition explores 175 years of the Irish in Boston. Guest curator William Fowler will give an overview, beginning with a look at the Irish community in Massachusetts stretching back into the 18th century, through famine relief efforts led by Capt. Robert Bennet Forbes at the helm of the Jamestown, to a mass migration movement, decades of community and institutional building, and a rise in political power.

- Friday, 10 March, 10:00AM : The Irish Atlantic begins. This exhibit is open to the public free of charge, Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM, through 22 September 2017.

- Friday, 10 March, 12:00PM : Stop by for the second Brown Bag lunch talk of the week, this time with Stephen A. West of the The Catholic University of America. "A Constitutional Lost Cause: The Fifteenth Amendment in American Memory and Political Culture, 1870-1920" examines how Americans - across lines of race, region, and party - placed the voting rights amendment at the center of their memores of Reconstruction, and how those memories shaped their debates about citizenship and the very nature of the Constitution. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Saturday, 11 March, 10:00AM : The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute, docent-led walk through the public spaces of the Society at 1154 Boylston St., providing information about the historic building, collections, artwork, and architecture of the MHS. This event is free and open to the public with no need for reservations for individuals or small groups. Larger parties (8 or more) should contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley in advance 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.

This Week @ MHS

Here is what's on tap at the MHS as we enter a new month:

- Monday, 27 February, 6:00PM : Self-Evident Truths: Contesting Equal Rights from the Revolution to the Civil War is a new book by Richard Brown of University of Connecticut. This book offers a much-needed exploration of the way revolutionary political ideas penetrated popular thinking and everyday practice. In this talk, Brown discusses how the ideal that "all men are created equal" was tested in struggles over race and ethnicity, religious freedom, gender and social class, voiting rights and citizenship. He shows how high principles fared in criminal trials and divorce cases when minorities, women, and people from different social classes faced judgment. This talk is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Members and Fellows). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM, followed by the program at 6:00PM. 

- Tuesday, 28 February, 5:15PM : "Vietnamese Political Prisoners and the Politics of Family, 1975-1996" is a seminar featuring Amanda C. Demmer of the University of New Hampshire and is part of the Modern American Society and Culture series. This project dispels the myths that American involvement in Vietnam ended abruptly after the fall of Saigon and that U.S. servicemen listed as prisoner of war/missing in action were the only exception to American disengagement. Arissa Oh of Boston College provides comment. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

- Wednesday, 1 March, 12:00PM : Bring a lunch and join us for "Ask Carol Lane!: Imaginaries of Safe Travel in the 1950s." As post-war traffic fatalities rose, so did the concern to create safe communities and roads. Some of the work done by organizations involved creating imaginary personas, mostly of women, to perpetuate the rules of safe travel and normalize traffic and travel safety during a period of increased vehicle use, recreational travel, and fatality risk on the roads. This talk examines these personas and their place in the larger safety context of the 1950s. Renee Blackburn of MIT presents this Brown Bag talk which is free and open to the public. 

Thursday, 2 March, 6:00PM : In 2014, the Brookline Historical Society received a tiny photo album with postage stamp-sized photos of 48 Brookline and Boston children. In this presentation titled "A Children's Photo Album," Ken Liss of Boston University Libraries tells the tale of this ablum and the people inside it. This event is open to the public and registration is required with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows or Members). Pre-talk reception starts at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

This Week @ MHS

The MHS is CLOSED on Monday, 20 February, for Presidents' Day. 

Despite the holiday-shortened week, there is quite a bit of activity at the Society. Here's is what we have the calendar for the final full week of February:

- POSTPONED : "Harvest for War: Fruits, Nuts, Imperialism, and Gas Mask Manufacture in the United States During World War I," originally scheduled for Tuesday, 21 February, is postponed to Tuesday, 9 May, 5:15PM. 

- Wednesday, 22 February to Thursday, 23 February : "Women in the Ear of the American Revolution" is a two-day teacher workshop open to K-12 educators. Participants will explore the daily lives of revolutionary women, including those who served as soldiers and secret agents, or followed the army as cooks and laundresses. The program fee includes a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts. Please email education@masshist.org or call 617-646-0557 for more information or to register.

- Wednesday, 22 February, 12:00PM : Stop by at lunchtime for a Brown Bag talk with Emily C. Burns of Auburn University. Her talk, "Constructing American Belatedness: The Archives of American Artists in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris" culls archival materials to understand how American culture collectively became defined through internatioanl mobility as belated and innocent. This talk is free and open to the public. 

- Wednesday, 22 February, 6:00PM : "MIT: History and Architecture," is a public talk with Douglass Shand-Tucci, author of the recently published MIT: The Campus Guide. This talk focuses on the way MIT and Harvard, now universally ranked among the top five seats of higher learning in the world, reflected Boston 19th century Unitarian tradtion and framed its Brahmin Ascendancy. Registration is required for this program with a fee of $10 (no charge for MHS Fellows or Members). Pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the speaking program at 6:00PM. 

- Thursday, 23 February, 5:30PM : Please join us for a conversation with the authors of two important new books in the history of sexuality. "Sexuality of History, History of Sexuality" is part of the History of Women and Gender seminar series.  This wide-ranging discussion, with Sue Lanser of Brandeis  University and Jim Downs of Connecticut College, will explore the relationship between lesbian and gay male histories, literary and historical methods, representation and political mobilization of people and communities. Jen Manion of Amherst College moderates the discussion. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers. Please note that there are no precirculated essays for this session. This program takes place at Radcliffe, Fay House, Sheerr Room, 10 Garden St. in Cambridge.

- Saturday, 25 February, 9:00AM : "Abraham Lincoln & Emancipation" is a teacher workshop open to K-12 educators. MHS staff and participants will use primary sources from the Society's collection to discuss and debate Lincoln's grounds for opposing slavery and his thoughts on colonization, abolition, and gradual emancipation. The group will be joined by Kevin M. Levin, author of Civil War Memory. Registration is required with a fee of $25. Please email education@masshist.org or call 617-646-0557 for more information or to register. This workshop was originally scheduled for Saturday, 11 February.

- Saturday, 25 February, 1:00PM : "Begin at the Beginning: Mapping New England - a visual story." Join MHS librarian Peter Drummey in investigating the world of early New England maps: how they were created; what they included and what they omitted; the images their creators choose and the messages they conveyed. Were early maps designed to encourage emigrants, or aids to navigation? Did they chart colonial-Native American conflict or paint an idyllic garden scene? Find out how these non-textual artifacts communicated the world of 17th-century New England. Registration is required at no cost. Please RSVP 

NOTE: This meeting is a discussion, not a lecture. Come prepared to examine maps, raise questions, and make your points! No expertise required, just a willingness to engage with primary material, talk to fellow attendees, and enjoy yourself.

- Saturday, 25 February, 10:00AM-4:00PM : This is your last chance to view our current exhibition, Turning Points in American History, which ends on 2/25. 

There is no public tour this week.