Stay engaged with the MHS this year.

“Evening for the first time warm enough to sit upon the Portico in front of the House. The scene has been remarkably lovely today. Indeed as much like enchantment as possible. As I look upon it, I can describe to no one my feelings nor ask sympathy, for the effect is upon my whole mind, lighting it with sunny rays.” – Diary of Charles Frances Adams, 3 July 1838, volume 8.
Japanese Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, Third Class, 1909

Emperor Meiji of Japan bestowed the medal shown here, the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, Third Class, on Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow of Boston in 1909. Created in 1875, this Japanese imperial decoration honored individuals who had rendered distinguished service to the nation and people of Japan and constituted the highest Japanese distinction that could be bestowed upon a civilian.
Trained as a surgeon, Bigelow left Boston after just two years of medical practice for a contemplative period in Japan in 1882-1889. There he immersed himself in Japanese art and culture and in the study of Buddhism. Bigelow amassed a vast collection of Japanese Buddhist art and, together with Edward Sylvester Morse, Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, and Okakura Kakuzō (also known as Okakura Tenshin), played an important role in preserving and promoting Buddhist art during a period when it was intentionally neglected or destroyed. Now at the MFA Boston, Bigelow’s collection forms the basis of what is considered the finest collection of Japanese art outside Japan.
 
Bigelow's Order of the Rising Sun medal, received for his efforts to preserve Japanese Buddhist art, forms part of the Society's numismatic collection of medals, coins, and paper currency. Read more about the medal.
2021 Virtual Advocacy Day: Tuesday 13 April
You already know that National History Day (NHD) equips students with the 21st-century skills needed for success in college, career, and active citizenship. Now we need your help to spread the word!
 
Join us on Tuesday, 13 April, for the NHD in Massachusetts 2021 Virtual Advocacy Day! We will be writing, calling, and tweeting Massachusetts state legislators to ask them to support funding for NHD in the FY22 state budget. State funding means that we can deepen our engagement with the 6,000 students who participate in the program. This funding also ensures that we can bring the NHD program to more students in more schools across the Commonwealth.
 
Check out our NHD advocacy page to learn how you can voice your support for NHD! We’ve provided an advocacy toolkit, including how to contact your legislators and key talking points about NHD’s value and impact in Massachusetts.
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.

Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

On Tuesday, 6 April, at 5:30 PM, Kate Masur, Northwestern University, presents Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction in conversation with Edward Ayers, University of Richmond.

The half-century before the Civil War was beset with conflict over equality as well as freedom. Many free states enacted laws that restricted African Americans’ rights and movement. But over time, African American activists and their white allies built a movement to fight these racist laws. Pastors, editors, lawyers, politicians, ship captains, and countless ordinary men and women battled in the press, the courts, the state legislatures, and Congress, through petitioning, lobbying, party politics, and elections. When Congress began rebuilding the nation after the Civil War, Republicans installed the movement’s vision of racial equality in the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. Kate Masur and Edward Ayers will discuss Masur’s book Until Justice Be Done, a pathbreaking new history of this early civil rights movement and its landmark achievements.

The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams

On Thursday, 8 April, at 5:30 PM, David S. Brown, Elizabethtown College, presents The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams.

Historian David Brown sheds light on the life and times of Henry Adams, perhaps the most eclectic, accomplished, and important American writer of his time. His autobiography and modern classic, The Education of Henry Adams, was widely considered one of the best English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century. The last member of his distinguished family–after great-grandfather John Adams and grandfather John Quincy Adams–to gain national attention, he is remembered today as an historian, a political commentator, and a memoirist. Presenting intimate and insightful details of a fascinating and unusual American life and a new window on nineteenth-century US history, Brown offers us a more modern and human Henry Adams than ever before.
 
The 11 Places That Have Shaped Innovation in Boston 1636–2021

On Monday, 12 April, at 5:30 PM, Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe, presents 11 Places That Have Shaped Innovation in Boston 1636–2021 in conversation with Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot.

Scott Kirsner, author of the recently published book Innovation Economy and longtime Boston Globe columnist, will take you on a photographic tour of 11 places in the Boston area that have given birth to world-changing inventions, from the telephone to COVID vaccines to robots that vacuum your living room. Kirsner will be joined in conversation by iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner as they discuss the dynamics that make New England such a fertile place for invention and entrepreneurship and Greiner’s journey in the innovation economy.
 
On Tuesday, 13 April, at 5:15 PM, Garrett Nelson, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, presents Kaleidoscope Metropolis: Autonomy and Integration in the Fractured City with comment by Lizbeth Cohen, Harvard University.

On Thursday, 15 April, at 6:00 PM, Martha Minow, Harvard Law School; Becky Shuster, Boston Public Schools; and Rachel E. Twymon present Boston School Desegregation through the Rearview Mirror with moderator Matthew F. Delmont, Dartmouth College. This is the second program in the series Confronting Racial Injustice.

On Tuesday, 20 April, at 5:15 PM, Kwelina Thompson, Cornell University; Shoniqua Roach, Brandeis University; and Laura Puaca, Christopher Newport University, present Contesting Domesticity—A Panel Discussion with comment by Allison Horrocks, Lowell National Historic Park.

On Thursday, 22 April, at 5:30 PM, Karen Mauney-Brodek, Emerald Necklace Conservancy; Rep. Nika Elugardo; and Chris Reed, Harvard Graduate School of Design, present Clean Water, Green Spaces, and Social Equity moderated by Sarah Glazer.

On Monday, 26 April, at 5:30 PM, Christopher Capozzola, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America's First Pacific Century.

On Tuesday, 27 April, at 5:15 PM, Danielle Battisti, University of Nebraska Omaha, and Carly Goodman, La Salle University, present The “Other” Illegals: Unauthorized European Immigration to New York City and Boston in the 20th Century with comment by Christopher Capozzola, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On Thursday, 29 April, at 5:15 PM, Caroline Weber, Barnard College, and Channing Joseph, University of Southern California, present Fashioning a Life: How Style Matters in Biography moderated by Natalie Dykstra, Hope College.

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.