7 minute read
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.
JUNE 1 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement Wendy Rouse, San Jose University
In Public Faces, Secret Lives, Wendy L. Rouse reveals that the suffrage movement included individuals who represented a range of genders and sexualities. However, owing to the constant pressure to present a “respectable” public image, suffrage leaders publicly conformed to gendered views of ideal womanhood in order to make women’s suffrage more palatable to the public. Rouse argues that queer suffragists did take meaningful action to assert their identities and legacies by challenging traditional concepts of domesticity, family, space, and death in both subtly subversive and radically transformative ways. Queer suffragists also built lasting alliances and developed innovative strategies in order to protect their most intimate relationships, ones that were ultimately crucial to the success of the suffrage movement. This is an online event.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Remembering Queer Nightlife Danny Harris, Elite’s Gay Club; Jackson Davidow, Tufts University; Geordon West, Emerson College; and Indee Mitchell, co-director, Last Call
Throughout history rarely have LGBTQ+ clubs, meeting places, and social areas been landmarked or turned into a museum. House museums that were once homes to Queer residents can pose difficult questions about the interpretation if the former residents were not public about their identity in their lifetime. Many important sites in Queer history simply don’t exist anymore.; clubs have closed, publications have shut down, buildings have been razed or radically altered, but these are still spaces that exist in the history and memory of the Queer community. Panelists will discuss their memories of Queer nightlife in Boston, as well as the ways they have used artistic mediums to bring these spaces back to life. This is a hybrid event.
Presented in collaboration with The History Project, Documenting LGBTQ Boston.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
JUNE 9 THURSDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID PROGRAM
Born in Cambridge: 400 Years of Ideas and Innovators Karen Weintraub, USA Today, and Michael Kuchta
Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a city of “firsts”: the first college in the English colonies, the first two-way, long-distance call, the first legal, same-sex marriage. In 1632, Anne Bradstreet, living in what is now Harvard Square, wrote one of the first published poems in British North America, and in 1959, Cambridge-based Carter’s Ink marketed the first yellow Hi-liter. W.E.B. Du Bois, Julia Child, Yo-Yo Ma, and Noam Chomsky all lived or worked in Cambridge at various points in their lives. Born in Cambridge tells these stories and many others, chronicling cultural icons, influential ideas, and world-changing innovations that all came from one city of modest size across the Charles River from Boston. This is a hybrid event.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
Annual Fiori Lecture Old Institutions, New Things Anthea Hartig, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; Louise Mirrer, New-York Historical Society; and Catherine Allgor, MHS
Standards of collecting and ideas about what was worth honoring have changed dramatically since the founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New-York Historical Society, and the Smithsonian Institution. In the past, it was a mark of prestige that these repositories had collected material from the wealthiest and most powerful individuals, communities, and businesses. While these collections retain relevance, scholars and the public today are increasingly approaching the material with a more critical eye, telling stories with more nuance, locating the silences in the archives, and looking to add collections that will tell stories from different perspectives so that we can learn from the entirety and complexity of the American experience. Join a conversation among the leaders of three of the most highly respected historical organizations in the United States about the opportunities and challenges faced by institutions that are now looking to understand and bring forth lesser-known parts of their holdings, diversify their collections, and reinterpret their holdings to be more representative of the communities they serve. This is an online event.
This program is co-sponsored by the New-York Historical Society and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
This panel is part of an annual lecture series in honor of President Emeritus Dennis Fiori in recognition of his leadership. The lecture series is made possible by gifts from friends of the Society.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
Conrad E. Wright Research Conference
July 14 to 16, 2022
Registration open until July 7! Visit www.masshist.org/research/conferences for more info.
Only the Clothes on Her Back: Clothing & the Hidden History of Power in the 19th Century Laura F. Edwards, Princeton University
What can dresses, bed linens, waistcoats, pantaloons, shoes, and kerchiefs tell us about the legal status of the least powerful members of American society? Only the Clothes on Her Back uncovers practices, commonly known then but now long forgotten, which made textiles a unique form of property that people without rights could own and exchange. Marginalized people used these textiles as currency, credit, and capital, but also as an entrée into the new republic’s economy and governing institutions. Wives wove linen and kept the proceeds, enslaved people traded coats and shoes, and poor people invested in fabrics, which they carefully preserved in trunks. Edwards shows that these stories are about far more than cloth and clothing; they reshape our understanding of law and the economy in an earlier America. This is a hybrid event.
To reserve: There is a $10 per person fee (in person). There is no charge for MHS Members, EBT Cardholders, or virtual guests. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
JUNE14 TUESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID PROGRAM
The Imposter’s War: The Press Propaganda & the Newsman Who Battled for the Minds of America Mark Arsenault
In the lead-up to America’s entry into the First World War, Germany spent the modern equivalent of one billion dollars to infiltrate American media, industry, and government to undermine the supply chain of the Allied forces. The story of John Rathom, editor of the scrappy Providence Journal, encompasses the propaganda battle that set America on a course for war. He rose within the editorial ranks, eventually transitioning from an editor to a de facto spy. Rathom brought to light the Huerta plot and helped to upend labor strikes organized by German agents to shut down American industry. Arsenault tracks the rise and fall of this enigmatic figure, while providing the rich and fascinating context of Germany’s acts of subterfuge through the early years of World War I. This is a hybrid event.
To reserve: There is a $10 per person fee (in person). There is no charge for MHS Members, EBT Cardholders, or virtual guests. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
Reflecting on the Work of Robert Gross Robert Gross, University of Connecticut; John Brooke, Ohio State University; David Waldstreicher, City University of New York; and Christine Heyrman, University of Delaware
In The Transcendentalists and Their World, Bancroft Prize-winning author Robert Gross presents a fresh view of the Transcendentalists; thinkers whose impact on philosophy and literature would spread from Concord, Massachusetts, to all corners of the earth. The book is both an intimate journey into a small community and a searching cultural study of major American writers as they plumbed the depths of the universe for spiritual truths. Robert Gross and a panel of scholars will reflect on the book as well as the career and impact of Robert Gross’ work.This is a hybrid event.
To reserve: There is a $10 per person fee (in person). There is no charge for MHS Members, EBT Cardholders, or virtual guests. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
JUNE 22 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Film Club: The Thomas Crown Affair Peter Drummey, MHS
Join MHS’ head historian Peter Drummey, as we discuss 1968’s The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. An adventuresome bank executive believes he has pulled off the perfect multimillion dollar heist, only to match wits with an insurance investigator. Watch the film at home and discuss your thoughts with us! The Thomas Crown Affair is available through Amazon Prime, Hulu, Starz, YouTube, and other streaming sites. This is an online event.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Documenting Queer Stories in Archives Tripp Evans, Wheaton College; Heather White, Harvard Divinity School; and Jen Manion, Amherst College
Researching Queer history in archives poses unique challenges. Where written records survive, a person’s sexual life or desires may not be included in the records or might be veiled. In other scenarios, descendants of LGBTQ+ people have censored or destroyed records. In the face of these issues, how do we create inclusive and accurate histories? Panelists will reflect on methods they have used to navigate the archives and highlight Queer stories. The panel also asks, how do you write LGBTQ+ history when the records are not enough? This is a hybrid event.
Presented in collaboration with The History Project, Documenting LGBTQ Boston.
To reserve: Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
JUNE 29 WEDNESDAY | 6:00 | HYBRID PROGRAM
