Stay engaged with the MHS this year!
“New Year’s day is always a day of money transactions and a day of congratulations and mutual presents. Children delight in it often to the disturbance of their happiness. I worked as usual with little variation, upon accounts, upon Electra and the coins.”
“A Happy New Year's Greeting to the Colored People in the Department of the South”

In this new year’s greeting for 1863, Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, the military governor of the Department of the South, encourages the African American population of the area under Union control in South Carolina to assemble to hear the Emancipation Proclamation read and “to indulge in such other manifestations of joy as may be called forth by the occasion.” The celebration took place at the camp of the First Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers, the first unit of former enslaved persons raised for military service during the Civil War.
 
Our Favorite Things Exhibition Now Open for In-Person Viewing!

With millions of letters, diaries, photographs, and objects in our holdings, we can tell countless stories at the MHS. 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. Grouped into six categories—History Drawn with Light; From the Battlefield; Liberty's Call; Freedom and Unfreedom; Cabinet of Curiosities; and Craft of History—we invite you to explore these stories. History Drawn with Light and From the Battlefield are currently on display. The exhibition is open Monday through Friday, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

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.
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.
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’Connor, 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–Leibniz 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.
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.
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.
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