“The weather which for some days has been windy and boisterous is now settling into a clear cold, and announcing to us the approach of Winter.”
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Featured Item from the MHS Collection |
“I am more than grateful to you for your loyalty to Clover, and I shall love the fresh Marian dearly”
Known to her friends and family as “Clover,” Marian Hooper Adams was born in Boston on 13 September 1843 to Ellen (Sturgis) Hooper and Robert W. Hooper. She married historian and writer Henry Adams, great-grandson of President John Adams, in 1872. Marian Hopper Adams took up photography in 1883 and her work as a portraitist and landscape photographer was admired within her social circle. Devastated by her father’s death in April 1885, Adams succumbed to an overwhelming depression and took her own life on 6 December of that year.
After Marian’s passing, Henry, bereft, destroyed all of her letters and rarely, if ever, spoke of her in public. However, in a letter dated 5 December 1886, one day before the first anniversary of his wife’ s suicide and two weeks after his own father’ s passing, Henry Adams wrote mournfully to his friend Annie Palmer Fell that he had “buried pretty nearly everything I lived for.” The letter continues with Adams’s warm wishes for Fell’ s new daughter, who she named Marian after Henry’s wife. Read the letter here. Learn more about Marian Hooper Adam here.
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Stay Inspired & Informed: Support the MHS
We know the MHS is important to you.
December is a month to consider year-end contributions and how your tax-deductible support can bolster the Society’s work to keep you inspired and informed during an extraordinary year. The MHS collections and programs provide fascinating educational content, while also provoking meaningful conversations about the world around us.
On this Giving Tuesday, let your gratitude overflow into a contribution for the MHS Fund. We have passed the halfway point to our $400,000 goal but we need everyone’s help to bring us to the finish line by 31 December. Please make a donation today!
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This Week's Online Programs |
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On Tuesday, 1 December, at 5:15 PM, Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, Roger Williams University, and Casey Schmitt, Cornell University, present Caribbean Connections with comment by Ryan Quintana, Wellesley College. This panel brings together the work of two historians investigating the Caribbean. Casey Schmitt’s paper explores the intersection of warfare and human trafficking in the 17th century. Unmet demand for enslaved labor in smaller markets coupled with near constant warfare among major European powers in the region reinforced practices of
raiding and captivity. Schmitt’s paper shows how the lure of seizing captives facilitated manning expeditions during wartime and demonstrates the centrality of violence against enslaved communities to 17th-century warfare. Carrington-Farmer’s paper explores how 18th-century New Englanders diversified their thriving equine breeding and exportation business in an effort to meet an increasing demand for mules in the West Indies. Whilst New England’s foray into mule breeding never reached the success of its horse enterprises, the lengths that farmers and merchants went to start a breeding program demonstrates how wider Atlantic markets drove New England’s economy. This program is part of the Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar series. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper. Register for this online program.
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In 1864 a ship leaves its New England port carrying a USCT regiment to fight Confederates on the Louisiana front. But on the way, a showdown takes place when Pvt. John Green refuses his commanding officer’s order to cut his hair, protesting that it is contrary to his religion. In the events that follow, a revealing picture of black self-assertion in the making of freedom emerges, one too often hidden by a Civil War master narrative. This paper tells John Green’s story and asks how we might look at emancipation differently when we view it through his dreadlocks. This program is part of the African American History Seminar Seminar series. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper. Register for this online program.
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Upcoming December Programs |
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Interested in Viewing Past Programs? |
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Share Your COVID-19 Experience(s) |
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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Our Members are the heart of the MHS community and an integral part of the MHS story. Become a Member to help make possible the Society’s mission to promote the study of American history. Receive benefits including invitations to enhanced Member-only events; free or discounted admission to special programs; and access to publications such as our calendar of events, newsletter, and Annual Report. Learn more at www.masshist.org/support/members.
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