“How do you do? Anxious, faint, melancholly? Chear up—dont be distressed. We shall see many good days yet, I hope.”
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Featured Item from the MHS Collection
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In this letter, dated 7 November 1895, 28-year-old W. E. B. Du Bois writes to Massachusetts Senator George Frisbie Hoar seeking Hoar’s assistance in securing a teaching position, either at Howard University or in the Washington, DC, public schools. Acknowledging that he has “no claim upon an entire stranger to ask so great a favor,” Du Bois outlines for Hoar his personal ambitions as a historian and sociologist in order to demonstrate how a teaching position in Washington, with access to the vast libraries in the nation’s capital, would help him achieve these goals.
Read more about Du Bois and this letter,
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The publishing phenomenon of summer reading started in the 19th century, as both print culture and tourist culture expanded in the United States. Drawing on publishing records, book reviews, readers’ diaries, and popular novels of the period, Donna Harrington-Lueker explores the beginning of summer reading and the backlash against it. Countering fears about the dangers of leisurely reading—especially for young women—publishers framed summer reading not as a disreputable habit but as a respectable pastime and welcome respite. Harrington-Lueker works to shed new light on an ongoing seasonal publishing tradition.
Register for the online program
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Share Your COVID-19 Experience(s)
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The MHS invites you to contribute your COVID-19 experience(s) to our collection. Record your experiences on a daily, weekly, or intermittent basis. You can contribute your thoughts and images online. Visit our
COVID-19 web display
to learn more and to share your thoughts. Or, you can keep a journal and donate it to the MHS. Contact
collections@masshist.org
for more information.
Thank you to everyone who has shared so far. If you have not yet done so or would like to contribute again, please visit:
www.masshist.org/projects/covid/index.php
.
You can also read what others have shared.
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