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Stay engaged with the MHS this year!
“Where now shall I begin this Spacious field
To tell what curses unbeleif doth yeild
Thou that dost daily feel his hand and rod --
And dare deny the essence of a God
If there's no heaven whither will thou go?
Make thy elysium in the shades below
If there's no God from whence Did all things spring
He made the greatest and minutest thing”
Private Abraham F. Brown

This tintype photograph depicts Private Abraham F. Brown, a member of Company E, part of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first Black regiment raised in the North during the Civil War.

Prior to 1863, no concerted effort was made to recruit Black men to be Union soldiers. The adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the white men in power to recruit free Black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the 54th Regiment.
 

We continue to offer an engaging selection of online programs. Click on the image below to take a look at our February 2022 calendar of virtual author talks, panel discussions, programs, and tours. Visit www.masshist.org/events for more information and to register. 
Events in February will be a mix of fully virtual or hybrid, with a choice of in-person or virtual attendance. Please be sure to register in the way you plan to attend.
The American Funding

On Tuesday, 1 February, at 5:15 PM, Katie Moore, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Ann Daly, Mississippi State University, present The American Funding, with comment by Simon Middletown, The College of William & Mary, a Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar.

This panel discussion will consider two papers on the history of money from the mid-18th through the early 19th centuries. Katie Moore’s essay will examine the political, economic, and monetary preconditions that informed the colonial Massachusetts land bank “controversy.” While previous scholars have linked the land bank to parallel events such as the Great Awakening or the coming of the American Revolution, this paper reappraises it as a solution to the full demand for labor that shaped Massachusetts’ economic decline after Queen Anne’s War and imperial restrictions that prohibited the colony from issuing its own currency after 1741. Ann Daly’s essay will then consider the cultural construction of monetary value in the antebellum US through two approaches to valuing individual coins. Known as the ‘science of real money,’ the first was a system of scientific analysis developed by federal scientists at the US Mint for elite capitalists. At the same time, lower-class Americans developed a competing sensory approach to assessing coinage. Whether they deployed scientific assessment or embodied inquiry, all Americans needed to gather knowledge to protect themselves from bad money.


On Thursday, 3 February, at 3:30 PM, the MHS will host its mid-year Fellows Meeting.

Elected MHS Fellows are invited to this mid-year meeting to discuss proposed bylaws changes and vote. The meeting will be held online and in-person so that more people can participate in the discussion. MHS Fellows are encouraged to attend the meeting at 1154 Boylston Street. Please note, that only those participating in person will be able to vote. 


The MHS offers both virtual and hybrid programs. For hybrid events, please be sure to register how you will attend. Visit www.masshist.org/events for updates, cancellations, and to register.

On Wednesday, 9 February, at 5:30 PM, Cynthia Cowan, Historic Newton; Stacen Goldman, Framingham History Center; Kyera Singleton, Royall House and Slave Quarters; and Barbara Brown, Hidden Brookline, present Challenging Assumptions in Telling Underrepresented History.

On Thursday, 10 February, at 6:00 PM, Sara Martin, current Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers, and Jim Taylor, former Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers, present Film Club: Amistad.

On Thursday, 17 February, at 5:30 PM, William Decker, Oklahoma State University, presents “Twas not long since I left my native shore”: Phillis Wheatley’s Celestial Cartography.

On Tuesday, 22 February, at 5:15 PM, A. Junn Murphy, Brandeis University, presents Back on the Clock: Labor Control in the Cold War Military’s New Workforce, with comment by Lauren Hirshberg, Regis University, a Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture Seminar.

On Wednesday, 23 February, at 5:30 PM, Jan Brogan presents The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston’s Struggle for Justice.

On Thursday, 24 February, at 5:15 PM, Julie Dobrow, Tufts University; Natalie Dykstra, Hope College; and Megan Marshall, Emerson College, present Talking Headstones: What Biographers Learn from Visiting Their Subjects’ Graves, a New England Biography Seminar.

On Monday, 28 February, at 5:00 PM, Neal Thompson presents The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty.
Interested in Viewing Past Programs?
If you missed a program or would like to revisit the material presented, please visit www.masshist.org/video or our YouTube channel. A selection of past programs is just a click away.
Visiting the MHS during COVID-19
Please note that all guests are required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the building. Learn more about our COVID-19 protocols.
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