Stay engaged with the MHS!
“ The Sun brings on the glorious Spring, & refreshes mankind with a most delightsome Prospect. ”
 – Robert Treat Paine, sermon preached at Camp Lake George, 16 November 1755
Featured Item from the MHS Collection

" At my age there is a certain aspect of folly about the whole thing and yet I am glad that I hit him. "

On 2 April 1917, as President Woodrow Wilson prepared to address a joint session of Congress in which he called for a declaration of war against Germany, Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a strong supporter of US intervention to aid the Allies, not only dismissed a delegation of pacifists who attempted to meet with him, but in the hallway outside of his congressional office, exchanged first insults and then blows with Alexander W. Bannwart, a former minor league baseball player and rather pugnacious pacifist. Bannwart had traveled from Massachusetts to petition Lodge to stand against the rush to war. A mêlée followed that ended with Bannwart bloodied and under arrest and Lodge a somewhat embarrassed national celebrity. In this letter to Theodore Roosevelt, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge relates his version of the altercation. Read more about the skirmish between Lodge and Bannwart.
Online Programs

On Friday, 1 May, at 2:00 PM , join us for a live virtual talk with Abram Van Engen, Washington University in St. Louis.

Abram Van Engen shows how the phrase “City on a hill,” from a 1630 sermon by Massachusetts Bay governor John Winthrop, shaped the story of American exceptionalism in the 20th century. By tracing the strange history of Winthrop’s speech, from total obscurity in its own day to pervasive use in modern politics, Van Engen reveals the way national stories take shape. He shows how those tales continue to influence competing visions of the country—the many different meanings of America that emerge from a preservation of its literary past. Register for the online event.

Upcoming programs include an online talk and virtual tour on 8 May at 2:00 PM with Jonathan Lane, Revolution 250, looking at Plymouth & the Pilgrims and a virtual conversation on 14 May at 5:30 PM between Daniel R. Mandell, Truman State University, and Liz Covart, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, about Mandell's bo ok The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality in America,1600-1870 . Visit www.masshist.org/events for more information and to register.
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 by:
 
  • Keeping a journal and donating it to the MHS. For more information, contact collections@masshist.org.  
  • Contributing your thoughts and images online. Visit our COVID-19 web display to learn more and to share your thoughts.

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.
Previously scheduled for 5 May, the Making History Gala featuring Jon Meacham in conversation with
Emily Rooney will take place on

Tuesday, 17 November

5:30 sponsor reception | 6:00 cocktails and dinner

Fairmont Copley Plaza, Boston

Tickets are $500 per person
Visit www.masshist.org/gala to purchase