NOVEMBER CALENDAR
2021
Our mission is to promote understanding of the history of Massachusetts and the nation by collecting and communicating materials and resources that foster historical knowledge.
LOCATION 1154 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02215 CONTACT Tel: 617.536.1608 Fax: 617.859.0074 VISITOR INFORMATION The MHS galleries are currently closed to the public in an effort to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Learn more about our online offerings and latest updates at www.masshist.org. The library is now open to the public Monday through Friday, from 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM. Research is by appointment only. Learn more about our library policies and how to make an appointment at www.masshist.org/library/visit.
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@MHS1791 @MassachusettsHistoricalSociety
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Cover Image: Soldiers posing for a photo outside a canteen, Margaret Hall, from Letters and Photographs from the Battle County.
FALL PROGRAMS
The MHS offers an engaging roster of events, author talks, panel discussions, brown-bag lunches, and seminars. For a complete schedule, visit www.masshist.org/events.
RSVP Information
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November Programs at a Glance
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Program Descriptions
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A Look Ahead: December Programs
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Generous support provided by
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RSVP Information
Past Programs
Visit www.masshist.org/events for additional event information, updates, cancellations, and registration.
If you missed a program, would like to revisit the material presented, or are interested in viewing past programs, visit www.masshist.org/video. A selection of past programs is just a click away.
EVENTS, AUTHOR TALKS, AND SERIES For more information or to register visit www.masshist.org/events. WORKSHOPS Visit www.masshist.org/teaching-history for more information. Register online at www.masshist.org/events. BROWN-BAG LUNCH PROGRAMS Brown-bags provide an informal opportunity for visiting researchers to discuss their work, field questions, and receive new ideas. Please visit www.masshist.org/events for more information or to register for an online brown-bag. SEMINARS Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper. After brief remarks from the author and an assigned commentator, the discussion is opened to the floor. There is a subscription fee for advance access to supporting materials. For more information, please visit www.masshist.org/research/seminars; register online at www.masshist.org/events.
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Become a Member The MHS welcomes Members from near and far to join its community of history lovers. Members enjoy invitations to enhanced Memberonly events; free or discounted admission to special programs; and access to publications such as our calendar of events, newsletter, and Annual Report. Join today or give the gift of membership to the history enthusiast, amateur historian, or history professional in your life. Join at www.masshist.org/support.
Please check the website for updates and, once registered, your e-mail before attending the program.
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MONDAY |
5:30 |
VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter Gordon Rhea in conversation with Kevin Levin
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THURSDAY |
5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR
The “Science” of Dry-Farming: The Emergence of a Concept in Global Perspective Elizabeth Williams, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
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TUESDAY |
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THURSDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Introducing The Object of History Peter Drummey, Anne Bentley, Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, and Katy Morris
6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Literary Distinction in Historical Writing 2021: An Evening with the Society of American Historians Prize Winners Afia Atakora, Novelist; Brianna Nofil, College of William & Mary; and Christopher Tomlins, Berkeley Law Moderated by Megan Marshall, Emerson College, SAH past president
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TUESDAY |
Comment by Jeremy Vetter, University of Arizona
I Believe I’ll Go Back Home: Roots and Revival in New England Folk Music Thomas Curren
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TUESDAY |
SATURDAY |
2:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Looking Back at the Sesquicentennial and the Centennial: How Far Has Research on the 15th and 19th Amendments Come? Alison M. Parker, University of Delaware; Lisa Tetrault, Carnegie Mellon University Comment by Alex Keyssar, Harvard University
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TUESDAY |
5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR
Conversion in Confinement Justin Clark, Nanyang Technological University; Daniel Bottino, Rutgers University; and Hannah Peterson, Independent Scholar Douglas Winiarski, University of Richmond
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WEDNESDAY |
530 | HYBRID PROGRAM
Wilson and Lodge: One World, Two Visions, Unending Reverberations Patricia O’Toole, Columbia University
5:30 | HYBRID PROGRAM
5:15 | HYBRID SEMINAR
The Reinvention of Tradition: Conformist Nationalism in the United States, 1923– 1931 Kelly Lyons, Boston College Comment by Jonathan Hansen, Harvard University
NOVEMBER PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE
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Now Live!
MHS’s new interview-style podcast that takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of fragile documents, unusual artifacts, and intriguing artworks that connect us to the past. Join hosts Katy Morris and Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai as they chat with staff and outside scholars and interact with artifacts from the MHS collection to gain a richer understanding of the history behind them. Listen now at www.masshist.org/podcast. The first 5 episodes are available now. You can listen on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.
masshist.org/podcast
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NOVEMBER
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MONDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter Gordon Rhea in conversation with Kevin Levin Stephen Atkins Swails exhibited exemplary service in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry and became the first African American commissioned as a combat officer in the United States military. After the Civil War, Swails remained in South Carolina, where he held important positions in the Freedmen’s Bureau, helped draft a progressive state constitution, and served in the state senate. He remained active in South Carolina politics until violent Redeemers drove him from the state. After Swails died in 1900, state and local leaders erased him from the historical narrative. Gordon C. Rhea’s biography restores Swails’s remarkable legacy. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
NOVEMBER
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THURSDAY |
5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR
Environmental History Seminar
The “Science” of Dry-Farming: The Emergence of a Concept in Global Perspective Elizabeth Williams, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Comment by Jeremy Vetter, University of Arizona This paper examines the emergence of dry farming as a new “scientific” agricultural method in the late 19th and early 20th centuries within broader global circulations of agricultural knowledge. Connecting the dry farming knowledge of American agronomists to that of French colonial officials working in North Africa, who were themselves indebted to centuries of knowledge about dry farming techniques developed by farmers working in rainfed lands around the Mediterranean basin, it sheds light on the politics of expertise involved in the production of this “science.”
NOVEMBER PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
Founded in 1791, the MHS is an invaluable resource for American history, life, and culture. Our extraordinary collections tell the story of America through millions of rare and unique documents, artifacts, and irreplaceable national treasures. Please check the website for updates and, once registered, your e-mail before attending the program.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
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VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
Our Favorite Things Objects that Fascinate, Interest & Inspire
Explore the virtual exhibition at
www.masshist.org/ourfavoritethings 8
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SATURDAY |
2:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Looking Back at the Sesquicentennial and the Centennial: How Far Has Research on the 15th and 19th Amendments Come? Alison M. Parker, University of Delaware, and Lisa Tetrault, Carnegie Mellon University Moderated by Alex Keyssar, Harvard University Join us for a special retrospective keynote panel to reflect on the scholarship presented at the 2020 Conrad E. Wright Research Conference, “Shall Not Be Denied: The 15th and 19th Amendments at the Sesquicentennial and Centennial of their Ratifications.” This conference revisited the long journey to secure voting rights for African Americans and women in United States history. It considered the legal precedents and hurdles that each amendment faced, the meaning and uneven outcomes of each, the social context that allowed for ultimate ratification, the role of key individuals and groups in these respective contexts, and how each amendment has been remembered over time. This panel will take stock of this cutting-edge scholarship and consider the state of the field a year after the commemorative events of 2020. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
NOVEMBER
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TUESDAY |
5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR
Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar
Conversion in Cofinement Justin Clark, Nanyang Technological University; Daniel Bottino, Rutgers University; and Hanna Peterson, Independent Scholar Douglas Winiarski, University of Richmond This panel will consider two papers exploring the world of early American religious culture through the lens of carceral conversions. Daniel Bottino’s essay will explore the 38-page conversion narrative of Patience Boston, a Native American woman hanged for murder in York, Maine, in 1735. The document offers an extraordinary opportunity for an exploration of religious culture in New England on the verge of the Whitefieldian awakenings of the 1740s. When examined in its proper historical context, the narrative reveals the spiritual power capable of being wielded even by the most socially marginal people in the intensely religious atmosphere of early 18th-century New England. Justin Clark’s essay will show that as Congregationalist New England’s 18th-century revivalists offered a brief window of spiritual hope for thousands of sinners, civil authorities began to extend additional periods of time to the region’s condemned convicts. This paper examines the emergence of these extended capital reprieves and their relationship to
NOVEMBER PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
NOVEMBER
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the accelerated spiritual conversions outside gaol walls. What role did the revivals play in encouraging New Englanders before the penitentiary to re-conceive of carceral time as transformative in itself? To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
NOVEMBER
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WEDNESDAY |
5:30 | HYBRID PROGRAM
Wilson and Lodge: One World, Two Visions, Unending Reverberations Patricia O’Toole, Columbia University President Woodrow Wilson came home from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 with the Versailles Treaty, which ended World War I and created the League of Nations, the first global body committed to preserving world peace. Americans favored ratification of the treaty, but the Senate Majority Leader, Henry Cabot Lodge, was determined to block it unless Wilson agreed to modifications. The battle that followed was one of the most consequential in American diplomatic history. O’Toole will look at that struggle and how it has played out in U.S. foreign policy and American memory. Please note, this is a hybrid event that may be attended either in person at the MHS or virtually on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
NOVEMBER
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TUESDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Introducing The Object of History Peter Drummey, Anne Bentley, Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, Katy Morris MHS’s new podcast, The Object of History, highlights our extraordinary collections that tell the story of America through millions of rare and unique documents, artifacts, and irreplaceable national treasures. Each episode of the podcast takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of that vast collection. MHS staff experts and historians introduce you to fragile documents, unusual artifacts, and intriguing artworks that make the past come alive. This conversation is an introduction to the podcast with the producers and staff experts sharing highlights and talking about what was left on the cutting room floor. Listen to the podcast at any time on the MHS website, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
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Underrepresented Voices of the American Revolution
NOVEMBER PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
Conrad E. Wright Research Conference
Save the date!
July 14 and 15, 2022 Visit www.masshist.org/conferences for more info. 11
NOVEMBER
18
THURSDAY |
6:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Literary Distinction in Historical Writing 2021: An Evening with the Society of American Historians Prize Winners Afia Atakora, Novelist; Brianna Nofil, College of William & Mary; and Christopher Tomlins, Berkeley Law Moderated by Megan Marshall, Emerson College, SAH past president. Since its founding in 1939, the Society of American Historians has worked “to promote literary distinction in the writing of history” by conferring membership and honoring outstanding works. The 64th annual Francis Parkman Prize, awarded to Christopher Tomlins for In the Matter of Nat Turner: A Speculative History, recognizes “literary merit” in a nonfiction book that “makes an important contribution to the history of what is now the United States.” Afia Atakora’s novel, Conjure Woman, is the fifteenth winner of the SAH’s biennial Prize for Historical Fiction, which recognizes narrative skill and authentic portrayal of the past. Brianna Nofil’s “Detention Power: Jails, Camps, and the Origins of Immigrant Incarceration, 1900–2002” received the 61st Allan Nevins Prize for a doctoral dissertation. Megan Marshall, herself a Parkman Prize winner, will interview the authors on their work and aims as historical writers. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
NOVEMBER
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TUESDAY |
5:30 | HYBRID PROGRAM
I Believe I’ll Go Back Home: Roots and Revival in New England Folk Music Thomas Curren Between 1959 and 1968, New England saw a folk revival emerge in more than 50 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 19th-century pacifists to the emergence of blues and rock ‘n’ roll, ultimately landing at the period of the folk revival. Please note, this is a hybrid event that may be attended either in person at the MHS or virtually on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
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TUESDAY |
5:15 | HYBRID SEMINAR
Dina G. Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture Seminar
The Reinvention of Tradition: Conformist Nationalism in the United States, 1923–1931 Kelly Lyons, Boston College Comment by Jonathan Hansen, Harvard University In the 1920s, amid fears that American national identity was under threat from communism, pacifism, and immigration, nationalist organizations in the United States standardized many of the patriotic rituals and traditions Americans performed in their daily lives. This Nationalist Network, led by the American Legion and U.S. Flag Association, grew increasingly right-wing in this period, inventing and reinventing patriotic traditions to “Americanize” those who were already citizens and control their behavior to adhere to white, upper middle-class norms. These traditions reinforced existing racial and class hierarchies and defined American nationalism along exclusionary principles. Please note, this is a hybrid event that may be attended either in person at the MHS or virtually on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
NOVEMBER PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
NOVEMBER
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RESCHEDULED!
M AY 2 , 2 0 2 2 featuring
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON in conversation with
JARED BOWEN, GBH honorary chairs Gover nor Charlie Baker & First Lady Lauren Baker H e n r y L o u i s G a t e s J r. Attorney General Maura Healey R e n é F. J o n e s & B r i g i d D o h e r t y
John Codman Ropes Award p r e s e n t e d b y D i a n e & D e va l Pa t r i c k Hon. Levin H. Campbell Huber t E. Jones musical tribute Boston Children’s Chorus attend
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W W W. M A S S H I S T. O R G / G A L A 14
December Wednesday, December 1, at 5:30 PM: Four Centuries of Christmas in New England with Ken Turino, Historic New England. Thursday, December 2, at 5:15 PM: African American History Seminar, “Challenge or Be Challenged”: the Par-Links Black Women’s Golf Club in East Bay, CA with Paula C. Austin, Boston University; and comment by Louis Moore, Grand Valley State University. Monday, December 6, at 5:30 PM: Urban Archipelago: Environmental History of the Boston Harbor Islands with Pavla Šimková. Tuesday, December 7, at 5:15 PM: Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar, Crisis: 1774–1775 with Sarah Beth Gable, Brandeis University; and comment by Donald Johnson, North Dakota State University. Tuesday, December 7, at 6:00 PM: Writing History with H. W. Brands, in discussion with Catherine Allgor, MHS, and Ryan J. Woods, American Ancestors/NEHGS. Wednesday, December 8, at 5:30 PM: Grand Duke Alexis in Boston with Lee Farrow, Auburn University. Thursday, December 9, at 5:15 PM: Digital History Seminar, Digitizing Early Massachusetts Court Records with Sally Hadden, University of Western Michigan. Monday, December 13, at 5:30 PM: The Transcendentalists and Their World with Robert Gross, University of Connecticut. Tuesday, December 14, at 5:15 PM: History of Women, Gender & Sexuality Seminar, “The Kind of Death, Natural or Violent”: Fetal Death & the Male Midwife in 19th-Century Boston with Hannah Smith, University of Minnesota; and comment by Nora Doyle, Salem College. Thursday, December 16, at 5:15 PM: Environmental History Seminar, Local Food Before Locavores: Growing Vegetables in the Boston Market Garden District, 1870–1930 with Sally McMurry, Pennsylvania State University; and comment by Andrew Robichaud, Boston University.
A LOOK AHEAD DECEMBER PROGRAMS
Take a look at our upcoming slate of online author talks, panel discussions, workshops, seminars, and brown-bag lunch programs. Please visit www.masshist.org/events for updates and to register.
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