Stay engaged with the MHS this year!
|
|
“This was the day appointed according to custom, for returning thanks to the divine being for so many favours and so much bounty as he has been pleased to bestow upon us. For my own part, I hope I am sufficiently impressed with a sense of my share of them. I hope I am properly aware of the duty of neither exulting nor repining at the situation in which I have been placed. How much during the last year as during every year, I have had cause to be thankful for. How unmixed my prosperity has been. My only prayer is to deserve by my conduct no discontinuance of these blessings—To do my duty in this world as I ought, in whatever relation I may be placed.”
|
|
Cranberries Are Grown in Massachusetts!
If you haven’t lived in Massachusetts, you may not know that cranberries have been a crop grown here for thousands of years.
The image here is from the Ropes family photographs at the MHS, which includes four photographs of workers harvesting cranberries on Cape Cod, circa 1900–1910. The photographer is unknown, and the exact location does not seem to be clear, but the photos do provide snapshots of cranberry harvesting in Massachusetts at that time.
The people picking the cranberries in Massachusetts at the turn of the century were mostly immigrants from two distinct areas: Portugal and Cape Verde. In his essay, “Plymouth and Some Portuguese,” Rev. Peter J. Gomes discusses, from his perspective as the descendant of Cape Verdean immigrants, the development of Cape Verdean immigration to Massachusetts: “From New Bedford they spread over the Cape and southeast coastal region, shipping out and tending to agriculture and odd jobs between voyages. As the whaling industry declined during the last two decades of the century, the Portuguese, like his quondam employer, the shipmaster, had to seek out other means of livelihood. He found it in the cranberry industry.”
|
|
The Object of History podcast unravels the stories behind historical objects held at the MHS.
Episode 3, “The Relics of Nora Saltonstall,” looks at the papers and artifacts of Nora Saltonstall, an adventurous young American who volunteered with the Red Cross in France during the First World War. As a driver for a mobile hospital unit, Saltonstall transported supplies and taxied wounded soldiers across the war front. For her services she received the Croix de Guerre—the highest honor given by the French government to volunteers. After returning safely to Boston in 1919, she embarked on a camping tour of national parks in the American West, where she met an unexpected fate.
Listen to this episode now on the website or wherever you regularly listen to your podcasts.
|
|
Abigail Adams and the “Reigns of Government”
Abigail Adams is perhaps best known for her 1776 call to “Remember the Ladies.” Among the thousands of words she penned during her life, why is it this phrase that continues to resonate? Dr. Sara Martin, editor in chief of the Adams Papers, joined Dr. Catherine Allgor, president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, to explore Adams’s thoughts on government and women’s role in society.
|
|
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.
|
|
I Believe I’ll Go Back Home: Roots and Revival in New England Folk Music
Between 1959 and 1968, New England saw a folk revival emerge in more than fifty clubs and coffeehouses; a revolution led by college dropouts, young bohemians, and lovers of traditional music. From Club 47 in Harvard Square to candlelit venues in Amherst, musicians and audiences alike embraced folk music and progressive ideals. While the folk revival was short lived, the youthful attention that it spurred played a crucial role in the emerging civil rights, world peace, and back-to-the-land movements. Thomas Curren traces a direct line from Yankee revolutionaries and nineteenth-century pacifists to the emergence of blues and rock 'n' roll, ultimately landing at the period of the folk revival.
|
|
Writing History with H. W. Brands: Book Talk and Extended Q&A
A ticket of $50 includes the Zoom meeting link and a signed and personalized book sent in time for holiday giving!
The best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, H. W. Brands, shares insights on his research and craft of writing history following a discussion of his new, page-turning narrative of the American Revolution.
In a fresh and dramatic recasting of the American Revolution, H. W. Brands reveals how the war was not simply a conflict between the American colonists and British redcoats. It was also a violent battle among neighbors, friends, and family members, affecting Ben Franklin and his relationship with his son; George Washington’s standing at the apex of Virginia society; and the lives and friendships of royal governors such as Thomas Hutchinson. Native Americans and the enslaved had daunting choices to make as civil war broke out around them. Those committing sedition were ultimately remembered as heroes and Founding Fathers.
In this intimate Zoom meeting, the best-selling historian will share an illustrated presentation, join in a discussion, and answer your questions about his inspirations, research, and process behind writing his new book and other celebrated works of American history. Don’t miss this informative and inspiring literary event, which comes with a signed and personalized copy of Our First Civil War.
|
|
On Tuesday, 7 December, at 5:15 PM, Sarah Beth Gable, Brandeis University, with comment by Donald Johnson, North Dakota State University, presents Crisis: 1774–1775, a Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar.
On Thursday, 9 December, at 5:15 PM, Sally Hadden, University of Western Michigan, with comment by Jessica Otis, George Mason University, and Susanna Blumenthal, University of Minnesota, presents Digitizing Early Massachusetts Court Records, a Digital History Seminar.
On Tuesday, 14 December, at 5:15 PM, Hannah Smith, University of Minnesota, with comment by Nora Doyle, Salem College, presents “The Kind of Death, Natural or Violent”: Fetal Death and the Male Midwife in Nineteenth-Century Boston, a History of Women, Gender & Sexuality 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.
|
|
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.
|
|
Help us improve your experience with the MHS.
Adjust your e-mail preferences by updating your profile below,
and we will adjust our e-mails to you accordingly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|