This Week at the MHS

Stay engaged with the MHS this year!

“There are yet no good accounts that I have seen of the Wright apparatus. It is like their 1902 machine, but larger, being 40 ft 4 in across by 6 ft 6 in wide, and two surfaces 6 ft 2 in across. It is provided with a 10 Horsepower motor, by the side of the aviator, and 2 screw propellers 8 ft 6 in in diameter in the rear. A pair of sleds take [the] shock on landing. It is started by resting the center on a rolling platform which runs upon a single plank set edgewise and shod with iron; men running at the side and keeping the machine evenly balanced. The enclosed rough sketch will give you the idea.

I had a telegram from the sister of Messrs Wright on 17th

‘Boys report four successful flights today from level

against 21 mile wind. Average speed through air 31 miles.

Longest flight 57 seconds.’

At 30 miles per hour the resistance was computed at 92 Lts. At 40 miles an hour, 121 Lts. The thrust of the propellers was tested up to 132 Lts.”

– Letter from Octave Chanute to Samuel Cabot, 19 December 1903.

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Featured Item from the MHS Collection

Dan Tate and the Wright Brothers Launching the Wright Glider, Outer Banks, North Carolina, 1903

This 1903 photograph of one of the Wright brothers’ practice flights in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, was taken by engineer and aviation enthusiast Octave Chanute. He captured this moment only weeks before the first flight of the Wrights’ engine-powered, heavier-than-air Wright Flyer on 17 December 1903. The photograph is part of an archive of materials on early aircraft, aviation equipment, and flight experiments collected by Boston businessman, inventor, and aviation pioneer Godfrey Lowell Cabot.

View this photograph up close.

Our Favorite Things, Exhibition Now Open for In-Person Viewing!

With millions of letters, diaries, photographs, and objects in our holdings, the stories we can tell at the MHS are countless. Our Favorite Things connects a selection of compelling, captivating, and amusing items from our collection to the backgrounds, interests, and memories of the MHS staff.

General Public:

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Tuesday and Thursday, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Members-only:

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Tuesday and Thursday, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Want access to the exhibition during Members-only hours?

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Visiting the MHS during COVID-19

Please note that all guests are required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and wear a well-fitted mask covering the nose and mouth while in the building. Learn more about our COVID-19 protocols.

The Object of History, MHS Podcast

The Object of History podcast unravels the stories behind historical objects held at the MHS.

Episode 4, “A Miniature Portrait of Elizabeth Freeman,” explores the story of Elizabeth Freeman, a woman born into slavery in the 18th century who successfully sued for her freedom and helped bring about the end of slavery in Massachusetts. Leaving the house of her enslavers, John and Hannah Ashley, Freeman took up paid work within the household of the lawyer who represented her in court, Theodore Sedgwick. This episode takes a close look at a miniature portrait of Freeman, a gold bead bracelet that once belonged to her, and a brief biography of Freeman, written by Catharine Maria Sedgwick.

Listen to this episode now on the website or wherever you regularly listen to your podcasts.

Programs

MHS’s online programs are held on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive an e-mail with a link to join the program. Some programs will be hybrid with in-person and virtual registration available. Please be sure to register how you will attend.

Visiting the MHS during COVID-19

Please note that all guests are required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and wear a well-fitted mask covering the nose and mouth while in the building. Learn more about our COVID-19 protocols.

Crisis: 1774–1775

On Tuesday, 7 December, at 5:15 PM, Sarah Beth Gable, Brandeis University, presents Crisis: 1774–1775, with comment by Donald Johnson, North Dakota State University, a Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar.

This project explores the role of the Committees in Massachusetts communities during the American Revolution, particularly the role they played in punishing community dissent and compelling ideological allegiance to the Revolutionary cause. This paper chapter highlights these committees’ activities in the aftermath of the passage of the Massachusetts Government Act in May 1774 and argues that this period served as a training ground for later reprisals against community members. During this period, Massachusetts saw the most dramatic actions against suspected loyalists—the committees deployed mobs to suspected loyalists’ homes, detained Colonial officials, and drove others out of the towns into Boston. This paper argues that the heightened tension of the moment created an atmosphere of suspicion and conspiracy under which the definition of loyalism began to broaden.

Writing History with H. W. Brands: Book Talk and Extended Q&A

On Tuesday, 7 December, at 6:00 PM, H.W. Brands, moderated by Ryan Woods, American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Catherine Allgor, MHS, presents Writing History with H.W. Brands: Book Talk and Extended Q&A.

A ticket of $50 includes the Zoom meeting link and a signed and personalized book sent in time for holiday giving!

The best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, H. W. Brands, shares insights on his research and craft of writing history following a discussion of his new, page-turning narrative of the American Revolution.

In a fresh and dramatic recasting of the American Revolution, H. W. Brands reveals how the war was not simply a conflict between the American colonists and British redcoats. It was also a violent battle among neighbors, friends, and family members, affecting Ben Franklin and his relationship with his son; George Washington’s standing at the apex of Virginia society; and the lives and friendships of royal governors such as Thomas Hutchinson. Native Americans and the enslaved had daunting choices to make as civil war broke out around them. Those committing sedition were ultimately remembered as heroes and Founding Fathers.

In this intimate Zoom meeting, the best-selling historian will share an illustrated presentation, join in a discussion, and answer your questions about his inspirations, research, and process behind writing his new book and other celebrated works of American history. Don’t miss this informative and inspiring literary event, which comes with a signed and personalized copy of Our First Civil War.

Presented in partnership with American Ancestors/NEHGS and Porter Square Books.

Grand Duke Alexis in Boston

On Wednesday, 8 December, at 5:30 PM, Lee Farrow, Auburn University, presents Grand Duke Alexis in Boston.

One hundred and fifty years ago, in the autumn of 1871, Alexis Romanov, the fourth son of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, set sail for an extended journey through the United States and Canada. Alexis in America centers on the first Russian royal ever to visit the United States, recounts the duke’s progress through the major American cities, detailing his meetings with celebrated figures such as Samuel Morse and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and describing the national self-reflection that his presence spurred in the American people. Alexis visited Niagara Falls, participated in a bison hunt with Buffalo Bill Cody, and attended the Krewe of Rex’s first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. He also spent six days in Boston, where he stayed at the Revere House, and visited City Hall, the Old State House, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He attended performances at the Boston Music Hall and was the guest of honor at a ball at the Boston Theatre.

Digitizing Early Massachusetts Court Records

On Thursday, 9 December, at 5:15 PM, Sally Hadden, University of Western Michigan, presents Digitizing Early Massachusetts Court Records, with comment by Jessica Otis, George Mason University, and Susanna Blumenthal, University of Minnesota, a Digital History Seminar.

Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature records represent one of the fullest collections of colonial court documents in North America, covering the entirety of the eighteenth century. This seminar explores the process of transcribing, annotating, and presenting this information via Mirador, the browser-based interface that gives the end user control over how much or how little information to display. The database used to capture annotations and make them searchable using complex queries will also be described. This project is underwritten by the Ames Foundation and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

The Transcendentalists and Their World

On Monday, 13 December, at 5:30 PM, Robert Gross, University of Connecticut, presents The Transcendentalists and Their World, in conversation with Catherine Allgor, MHS.

Bancroft Prize–winning author Robert Gross presents a fresh view of the Transcendentalists, thinkers whose impact on philosophy and literature would spread from Concord, Mass, to all corners of the earth. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Alcotts lived in Concord, but the town was no pastoral idyll fit for poets and philosophers. The small, ordered society founded by Puritans and defended by Minutemen was dramatically unsettled by capitalism, democracy, and integration into the wider world. The Transcendentalists and Their World is both an intimate journey into a small community and a searching cultural study of major American writers as they plumbed the depths of the universe for spiritual truths.

Upcoming Programs

On Tuesday, 14 December, at 5:15 PM, Hannah Smith, University of Minnesota, with comment by Nora Doyle, Salem College, presents “The Kind of Death, Natural or Violent”: Fetal Death and the Male Midwife in Nineteenth-Century Boston, a History of Women, Gender & Sexuality Seminar.

On Thursday, 16 December, at 5:15 PM, Sally McMurray, Pennsylvania State University, with comment by Andrew Robichaud, Boston University, presents Local Food Before Locavores: Growing Vegetables in the Boston Market Garden District, 1870–1930, an Environmental History Seminar.

On Tuesday, 11 January, at 5:15 PM, Peter Jakob Olsen-Harbich, The New American Antiquarian, presents Seceding from the Sachemship: Coercion, Ethnology, and Colonial Failure in Early Historic New England, with comment by Linford Fisher, Brown University.

On Wednesday, 12 January, at 5:30 PM, Reed Gochberg, Harvard University, presents Useful Objects: Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America.

On Thursday, 13 January, at 6:00 PM, Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai and Kevin Levin present Film Club: Glory.

On Tuesday, 18 January, at 5:15 PM, Lindsay Keiter, Pennsylvania State University–Altoona, presents The Emergence of the Marriage Market, with comment by Ellen Hartigan-O’onnor, University of California–Davis, a History of Women, Gender & Sexuality Seminar.

On Wednesday, 19 January, at 5:30 PM, Tegan Kehoe, Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation at MGH, presents Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures.

On Tuesday, 25 January, at 5:15 PM, Katrin Kleeman, German Maritime Museum–Leibenz Institute for Maritime History, presents Earthquakes in New England, 1600–1800: Extraordinary Natural Events and Timekeeping Practices in Early America, with comment by Lukas Rieppel, Brown University, an Environmental History Seminar.

On Wednesday, 26 January, at 5:30 PM, Seth Bruggeman, Temple University, presents Lost on the Freedom Trail: The National Park Service and Urban Renewal in Postwar Boston, with other experts, TBA.

On Thursday, 27 January, at 5:15 PM, Chad Williams, Brandeis University, presents In the Shadow of World War: Revisiting W. E. B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction, with comment by Adriane Letz-Smith, Duke University, an African American History Seminar.

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.