This Week @ MHS

The Ides of March have come and gone and life at the MHS continues. This week is a busy one with plenty of public programs to satisfy your craving for history. First up, on Monday, 17 March, beginning at noon is an author talk with Emily Lodge. While the biographies of the Lodge patriarchs have been well-documented, the stories of the influential Lodge women have never been authoritatively chronicled. From the earliest days of the American colonies, through the Gilded Age, and into the first years of the 21st century, The Lodge Women, Their Men, and Their Times traces the family’s remarkable history through its female figures. This event is free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, 19 March, join us for a Brown Bag lunch talk presented by Katie Moore of Boston University. "'Dam all pumpkin states': King Williams War in the North and Colonial Legitimacy" examines the collapse of the Dominion of New England in the spring of 1689, brought about when provisional authorities in Boston and New York seized power. How did Puritan divines and a German militia captain use war with the French to legitimate their authority to colonists, colonial leaders, and Native American allies? How did they justify strategy, finance, and diplomacy? Stop by at noon to learn more about this fascinating project. Brown Bag lunch talks are free and open to the public. [This event has been rescheduled from February 5 when it was postponed due to snow.]

Also on Wednesday is a special event for members of the Jeremy Belknap Giving Circle. "An Evening at the Bostonian Society" begins at 6:00PM and features Brian LeMay and Nat Sheidley discussing ongoing plans for the Society and leading a tour of the building, including the tower with its resident ghost, with a reception to follow. The Bostonian Society is located at 206 Washington Street in Boston. To register, please call 617-646-0543 or e-mail awolfe@masshist.org. For access to these special events, join an MHS Fund Giving Circle today!

Then, on Thursday, 20 March, is the next event in the New England Biography Seminar series. Stop by at 5:30Pm for "The Days of Their Lives: Using Diaries, Journals, and an 'Almanack' to Recover the Past." Moderated by Susan Ware, General Editor of American National Biography, this program will feature a conversation with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard, who is using diaries (men's and women's) in her broader study of Mormon history; Louisa Thomas, an independent scholar and the author of "Conscience" (about her grandfather Norman Thomas), who is writing a biography of Louisa Catherine Adams; and Noelle Baker, Editorial Consultant to The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, who is preparing a digital edition of Mary Moody Emerson's diary. Seminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required. Subscribe to receive advance copies of the seminar papers.

And on Saturday, 22 March, come by at 10:00AM for The History and Collections of the MHS, a 90-minute tour of the Society's public rooms led by a docent or MHS staff member and touching on the history of the Society, and the art and architecture of building at 1154 Boylston Street. The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information, please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Also, do not forget to visit the MHS to see the current exhibition, "Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus-Saint Gaudens' Shaw Memorial." This exhibit, created in cooperation with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is open to the public Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM, through 23 May.