This Week @ MHS

Returning from a long weekend, this week's schedule is heavy at the tail-end. Here is what's coming up in the week ahead:

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

- Thursday, 1 June, 6:00PM : The seventh annual Cocktails with Clio takes place at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum at Columbia Point. We invite you to join us for a festive evening in support of the Center for the Teaching of History at the MHS featuring Jill Lepore in conversation with Robin Young. The evening will begin with cocktails in the pavilion space overlooking the harbor. A seated dinner will follow. Registration is required for this event. 

- Friday, 2 June, 2:00PM : A Description of the New York Central Park by Clarence C. Cook, published in 1869, is recognized as the most important book about the park to apper during its early years. Stop by on Friday for a talk with Maureen Meister, who recently penned the introduction to a re-publication of the work. This talk is free and open to the public. 

The Library closes early on Friday at 2:30PM.

- Saturday, 3 June, 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, 3 June, 1:00PM : Begin at the Beginning - "'They being stolne': Conflicting Views of Slavery and Governance in Early Massachusetts." Holly Brewer of the University of Maryland leads a discussion of primary documents revealing Massachusetts’s contradictory views and practice on slavery.  Compared to other British colonies, where elements of slavery were justified with broad and near-feudal rationales, she argues, Puritan Massachusetts resisted the right of kings and broadened the idea of consent. These ideas helped restrict slavery, even in the face of royal approval and promotion of slavery during the later 17^th century and into the eighteenth century. This event is open to the public and registration is required at no cost.