Stay engaged with the MHS this year.

“A most beautiful morning. We have the most moderate Winter that ever was known in this country. For a long time together we have had serene and temperate Weather and all the Roads perfectly settled and smooth like Summer.”
Featured Item from the MHS Collection

The MHS has a digitized collection of 320 glass lantern slides depicting buildings and street scenes of Boston including this image of Adams Square from about 1900. Although predominantly focused on the downtown area and the Back Bay, the slides also present other neighborhoods in Boston from the Reservoir at Chestnut Hill to Lower Roxbury. The slides are divided into two series that show, or attempt to show, the same location several decades apart. They offer historical perspective on parts of the city that are now lost, though some streets, buildings, and views seem rather miraculously to have remained unchanged. One of the sections of Boston most decimated over time was the quintuple-square area: Dock Square, Faneuil Hall Square, Adams Square, Brattle Square, and Scollay Square. A number of photographs, including the one featured here, capture the vicinity in its confusion of streets and intersections. Read more about our lantern slides.
This Week’s Online Programs

On Thursday, 28 January, at 5:30 PM, Ben Mutschler, Oregon State University, and Liz Covart, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, present The Province of Affliction: Illness & the Making of Early New England. Afflictions of all sorts coursed through 18th-century New England–towns and cities set ablaze by epidemics, soldiers sickened and injured in the fight for empire, families and households laboring under an astonishing range of sufferings that were at once common and costly. This session will bring Ben Mutschler, author of The Province of Affliction: Illness and the Making of Early New England (Chicago, 2020), together with Liz Covart, podcast host of Ben Franklin’s World, to discuss how the early modern world addressed issues at once strange and familiar to us all. Register for this online program.
Please note: Excavating Egyptology: The Emma B. Andrews Diary Project with Sarah Ketchley, University of Washington, has been postponed. This program was originally scheduled for Tuesday, 26 January, at 5:15 PM.
Upcoming February Programs
On Monday, 1 February, at 5:30 PM, Gretchen Sorin, SUNY Oneonta, and Catherine Allgor, MHS, present Driving While Black: African American Travel & the Road to Civil Rights.

On Tuesday, 2 February, at 5:15 PM, Cynthia Van Zandt, University of New Hampshire, presents Women of the Underground: Political Repression, Kinship Networks & the Transatlantic Resistance to Restoration Politics with comment by Adrian Weimer, Providence College.

On Thursday, 4 February, at 5:30 PM, Peter Wirzbicki, Princeton University, presents Higher Laws: Black & White Transcendentalists & the Fight Against Slavery.

On Tuesday, 9 February, at 6:00 PM, join us for the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize Ceremony and a conversation between Kerri Greenidge, Tufts University, and
Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard University.

On Thursday, 11 February, at 5:30 PM, James Oakes, The Graduate Center, CUNY, and Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School, present The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution.

On Tuesday, 16 February, at 5:15 PM, Trysh Travis, University of Florida, presents Boston Women on Drugs with comment by Elizabeth Lunbeck, Harvard University.

On Thursday, 18 February, at 6:00 PM, Nicole Maskiell, University of South Carolina; Elon Cook Lee, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and moderator Jared Hardesty, Western Washington University, present Confronting Racial Injustice: Slavery, Wealth Creation, & Intergenerational Wealth. Developed by the Northeastern University School of Law Criminal Justice Task Force, Confronting Racial Injustice is a free, five-part series hosted by the MHS and sponsored by a number of Boston-area organizations.

On Tuesday, 23 February, at 5:15 PM, Sean Fraga, University of Southern California, presents A Portal to the Pacific Ocean: Puget Sound, the Transcontinental Railroads & Transpacific Trade, 1869–1914 with comment by David Armitage, Harvard University.

On Wednesday, 24 February, at 5:30 PM, Julia Rose Kraut presents Threat of Dissent: A History of Ideological Exclusion & Deportation in the United States.

On Thursday, 25 February, at 5:30 PM, Stephen Kantrowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Crystal Feimster, Yale University; Chad Williams, Brandeis University; and Hasan Jeffries, Ohio State University, present Protest & Citizenship: Revisited.

Visit www.masshist.org/events for more information and to register for programs.
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.
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.

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/members.