Many 19th-century Protestants in New England held religious ceremonies venerating deceased family and friends, in addition to their orthodox worship of God. This paper examines women’s desires to…

In late 19th-century Boston, battles over black party loyalty were fights over the place…

The Library is CLOSED for a staff development event.

This paper examines how radical pacifists refined nonviolent direct action to challenge racial segregation and inequality in the United States. These activists adopted the methods of earlier…

In 1867 forty Irish-American freedom fighters, outfitted with guns and ammunition,…

The musical Hamilton has catapulted a founding father to the heights of popular culture.Three historians will explore this creative approach to discussing the stories of America’s founding, the…

Calling all graduate students and faculty in history, American Studies, or any related field! Please join us for our ninth annual Graduate Student Reception.

Starting at six pm,…

Bringing to light previously unpublished manuscript letters, essays, speeches, and…

The talk will describe evidence in letters and public records suggesting that best-selling author Susanna Rowson may have based her last novel, Lucy Temple, at least in part on a scandal…

On the night of March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd gathered in front of…

In the decades after the Civil War, its veterans built communal summer cottages in waterfront locations to merge memory and leisure among their comrades and families. Through interdisciplinary…

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…

Silver coin was the primary commodity shipped to China from the United States in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some of which was reworked into silverwares by Chinese craftsmen for…

Henry Adams offers an account of his life and commentary on political and cultural events during the mid and late 19th century in the Pulitzer Prize–winning autobiography The Education of…

This talk explores the place of Rhode Island, a center of William Lloyd Garrison’s “radical” abolitionism, in the larger antislavery network. As historians of abolitionism increasingly focus on…

The Society is CLOSED in observance of Labor Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 4 September.

The Society is CLOSED on Saturday, 1 September, for Labor Day.

During the colonial period, captains acted as powerful auxiliaries for their vessel owners in markets far from the owners’ direct oversight. This talk explores why the economic services ship…