Stay engaged with the MHS this year!
“One Source of the Disorders in this Ship, is the Irregularity of Meals. There ought to be a well digested System, for Eating, Drinking and sleeping. At Six, all Hands should be called up. At Eight, all Hands should breakfast. At one all Hands should dine. At Eight again all Hands should sup. It ought to be penal for the Cook to fail of having his Victuals ready punctually.—This would be for the Health, Comfort and Spirits of the Men, and would greatly promote the Business of the Ship.”
Dinner Invitation from Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 19 October 1803

While Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, he must have sent out many invitations to dine with him. This particular invitation was to William Eustis, a democratic-republican from Massachusetts, who had been re-elected to the House of Representatives, defeating Jefferson’s frenemy’s son, John Quincy Adams, the year previous.

What is really interesting about this invitation is the way it is half printed and half hand-written text. As president, Jefferson’s time was precious and having dinner invitations ready to fill must have saved him some time. That is, of course, if he penned these notes himself. Do they remind you of today’s fill-in invitations?
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.
The “Science” of Dry-Farming: The Emergence of a Concept in Global Perspective

On Thursday, 4 November, at 5:15 PM, Elizabeth Williams, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, presents The “Science” of Dry-Farming: The Emergence of a Concept in Global Perspective, with comment by Jeremy Vetter, University of Arizona, an Environmental History Seminar.

This paper examines the emergence of dry farming as a new “scientific” agricultural method in the late 19th and early 20th centuries within broader global circulations of agricultural knowledge. Connecting the dry farming knowledge of American agronomists to that of French colonial officials working in North Africa, who were themselves indebted to centuries of knowledge about dry farming techniques developed by farmers working in rainfed lands around the Mediterranean basin, it sheds light on the politics of expertise involved in the production of this “science.”
Looking Back at the Centennial and Sesquicentennial: How Far Has Research on the 15th and 19th Amendments Come?

On Saturday, 6 November, at 2:00 PM, Alison M. Parker, University of Delaware, and Lisa Tetrault, Carnegie Mellon University, present Looking Back at the Centennial and the Sesquicentennial: How Far Has Research on the 15th and 19th Amendments Come?, with moderator Alex Keyssar, Harvard University.

Join us for a special retrospective keynote panel to reflect on the scholarship presented at the 2020 Conrad E. Wright Research Conference, “Shall Not Be Denied: The 15th and 19th Amendments at the Sesquicentennial and Centennial of Their Ratifications.” This conference revisited the long journey to secure voting rights for African Americans and women in United States history. It considered the legal precedents and hurdles that each amendment faced, the meaning and uneven outcomes of each, the social context that allowed for ultimate ratification, the role of key individuals and groups in these respective contexts, and how each amendment has been remembered over time. This panel will take stock of this cutting-edge scholarship and consider the state of the field a year after the commemorative events of 2020. 
On Tuesday, 9 November, at 5:15 PM, Justin Clark, Nanyang Technological University; Daniel Bottino, Rutgers University; and Hannah Pearson, Independent Scholar, present Conversion in Confinement, with Douglas Winiarski, University of Richmond, a Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar.

On Wednesday, 10 November, at 5:30 PM, Patricia O'Toole, Columbia University, presents Wilson and Lodge: One World, Two Visions, Unending Reverberations.

On Tuesday, 16 November, at 5:30 PM, Peter Drummey, Anne Bentley, Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, and Katy Morris present Introducing the Object of History.

On Thursday, 18 November, at 6:00 PM, Afia Atakora, Novelist; Brianna Nofil, College of William & Mary; and Christopher Tomlins, Berkeley Law, present Literary Distinction in Historical Writing 2021: An Evening with the Society of American Historians Prize Winners, moderated by Megan Marshall, Emerson College, SAH past president.

On Tuesday, 23 November, at 5:30 PM, Thomas Curren presents I Believe I'll Go Back Home: Roots and Revival in New England Folk Music.

On Tuesday, 30 November, at 5:15 PM, Kelly Lyons, Boston College, presents The Reinvention of Tradition: Conformist Nationalism in the United States, 1923–1931, with comment by Jonathan Hansen, Harvard University, a Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture 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.

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