Meet & Greet: Adams Papers
Last but certainly not least in our survey of MHS departments is the Adams Papers editorial staff, the diligent group responsible for overseeing the publication of the papers of several generations of members of the Adams family. The project, begun in 1954, has produced some 42 volumes to date (published by Harvard University Press), with many more scheduled (the cutoff date for the project is 1889, with the death of Abigail Brooks Adams). The editors do not edit the words written by the Adams family members; "rather, they continue the search for Adams documents, select the material to be included in the edition, provide a faithful transcription of the manuscripts, and supply annotation."
As their website notes, "The Adams Papers was funded originally by Time-Life Inc. and the Ford Foundation. At present funding is provided primarily by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional funding from the Lyn and Norman Lear Fund, the Packard Humanities Institute, and private donors. Over the years, these supporters have included The J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation through the Founding Fathers Papers, Inc."
The MHS' collection of Adams Family papers forms the core of the publication project, but more than 27,000 documents held by other institutions or individuals have also been gathered for inclusion in the published editions.
Portions of the Adams Family papers are now available digitally through the MHS website; see the Guide to Adams Resources for more information.
The Adamses are ever-present here at MHS, and the work done by the supremely able staff of the Adams Papers editorial team is vital in allowing us to answer questions and provide information and context about the lives and works of the family members. We couldn't do it without them!
Adams Papers staff members include: Editor in Chief C. James Taylor; Senior Editor Gregg Lint; Editor Margaret Hogan; LCA Diary Series Editor Judith Graham; Associate Editors Robert Karachuk and Hobson Woodward; Assistant Editors Mary Claffey, Beth Luey, Sara Martin, and Sara Sikes; Transcribers James Connolly and Amanda Matthews. Full contact information is available here.
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| Published: Wednesday, 26 August, 2009, 10:16 AM
Meet & Greet: Administration & Development
It's been quite a while since we've done a Meet & Greet post (and I've only got a few departments left, too!). The folks in Administration and Finance, as well as in the Development office, do much work to keep the place up and running every day, so it's their turn:
The Society's president is Dennis Fiori, and his Executive Assistant is Mary Kearns.
Peter Hood is the Director of Finance, while Tammy Hamond serves as Account Manager and Chris Coveney is the Chief Technology Officer. Our Operations crew consists of Chris Carberry (Operations Manager), Jennifer Smith (Operations Assistant) and James "Harry" Harrison (Custodian).
Nicole Leonard is our Director of Development, and Emily Hogan is the Annual Fund Coordinator.
Complete contact information is available here.
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| Published: Friday, 14 August, 2009, 12:00 PM
Latest MHS E-Newsletter Now Live
The July/August edition of @MHS, the Society's e-newsletter, is available here. It includes a note about our upcoming John Quincy Adams Twitter project, information on some of the latest grants received by the Society, a staff spotlight on Hobson Woodward and his new book, and a full calendar of events. If you'd like to receive future editions of the e-newsletter, you can sign up here.
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| Published: Wednesday, 29 July, 2009, 4:09 PM
Martineau Society Visits MHS
Last Thursday, the MHS hosted sixteen members of the Martineau Society, a group based at Manchester College, Oxford and devoted to the "preservation, study and publication in the public interest of material relating to the Martineau family of Norwich in the 19th century and the principles of freedom of conscience advocated by Harriet Martineau and her brother, Dr. James Martineau." Librarian Peter Drummey displayed manuscript materials from our collections related to Martineau and her works, while curator of art Anne Bentley showed paintings, medals and other artifacts.
Among the items shown was a Harriet Martineau manuscript, a long letter to an unidentified recipient about a trans-Atlantic voyage, in the form of a journal, 3-25 August 1836. This letter, from the George E. Nitzsche Unitariana Collection, 1778-2007 (collection guide) was printed in edited form as an appendix to Martineau's Autobiography (1877). The manuscript copy in the Nitzsche collection contains several drawings by Martineau, and also includes the names of those discussed in the letter (which are changed in the printed version).
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| Published: Monday, 20 July, 2009, 9:01 PM
Meet & Greet: Publications
Another round of introductions today: the Publications department. Since its inception, the MHS has taken as one of its major missions the "dissemination" of materials of historical interest, and the Publications team is responsible for carrying out that vital task. The types of volumes published by the MHS include:
- Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. First published in 1792, and now numbering more than ninety volumes, these are documentary editions of materials from our collections. The most recent is Selected Journals of Caroline Healey Dall, Volume I (1838-1855), edited by Helen R. Deese.
- Thematic collections of essays on historical topics, Studies in American History and Culture.
- The Massachusetts Historical Review, an annual journal.
- Illustrated books highlighting materials and artifacts from MHS collections.
Click here for a full list of in-print MHS publications.
The Publications department staff include Ondine Le Blanc, Director of Publications, and Assistant Editors Suzanne Carroll and Jeanine Rees.
Complete contact information is available here.
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| Published: Friday, 19 June, 2009, 12:36 PM
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