JULY 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 Our building is temporarily closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working remotely, we are offering an engaging selection of online programs, building a virtual community of scholars, delivering online resources to educators, providing access to our collection, and continuing to publish. While the library is closed to the public, members of our Reader Services team are working remotely and are available to assist you. Please visit www.masshist.org/library/reference for more information about the resources available to all researchers. SOCIAL AND WEB
@MHS1791 @MassachusettsHistoricalSociety
www.masshist.org 2
Cover Image: View of crowded beach, probably Boston area, lantern slide circa 1910s, from the Arthur Asahel Shurcliff collection.
JULY PROGRAMS
The MHS offers an engaging roster of online special 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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July Programs at a Glance
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July Program Descriptions
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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 & SERIES For more information or to register for an online program, 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.
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All programs will take place online unless otherwise noted.
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THURSDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North Crystal Lynn Webster, University of Texas at San Antonio, in conversation with Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, MHS
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FRIDAY |
2:00 | VIRTUAL GALLERY TOUR
Virtual Gallery Tour of Our Favorite Things Exhibition Peter Drummey, MHS
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TUESDAY |
6:00 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College This program is co-sponsored by the MHS and hosted by the Boston Athenaeum, and is free for MHS Members/Fellows. Please register through the Boston Athenaeum.
THURSDAY |
5:30 | FILM SCREENING
Borderland: The Life and Times of Blanche Ames Ames Barbara F. Berenson A discussion will follow the film screening.
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TUESDAY |
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THURSDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election Stephen Kendrick in conversation with Larry Tye
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865–1915 Jon Grinspan, National Museum of American History
JULY PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE
July
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VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
Our Favorite Things Objects that Fascinate, Interest & Inspire
Explore the virtual exhibition at
www.masshist.org/ourfavoritethings 6
JULY
8
THURSDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North Crystal Lynn Webster, University of Texas at San Antonio, in conversation with Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, MHS For all that is known about the depth and breadth of African American history, we still understand surprisingly little about the lives of African American children. But hidden in institutional records, school primers and penmanship books, biographical sketches, and unpublished documents is a rich archive that reveals the social and affective worlds of northern Black children. Crystal Webster argues that young African Americans were frequently left outside the nineteenth century’s emerging constructions of both race and childhood. They were marginalized in the development of schooling, ignored in debates over child labor, and presumed to lack the inherent innocence ascribed to white children. But Webster shows that Black children nevertheless carved out physical and social space for play, for learning, and for their own aspirations. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
JULY
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FRIDAY |
JULY 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. All programs are virtual unless otherwise noted.
2:00 | VIRTUAL GALLERY TOUR
Virtual Gallery Tour of Our Favorite Things Peter Drummey, MHS Join Peter Drummey, Chief Historian and Stephen T. Riley Librarian, for a closer look at our newest online exhibition. With millions of letters, diaries, photographs, and objects in our holdings, the stories we can tell at the MHS are countless. Our Favorite Things connects a selection of compelling, captivating, and amusing items from our collection to the backgrounds, interests, and memories of the MHS staff. This virtual gallery tour will give online guests a closer look at a few of these staff-curated collection items and the remarkable stories they embody. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events. 7
S AV E T H E DA T E
N OV E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 2 1 featuring
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON in conversation with Jared Bowen, GBH honorary chairs Henr y Louis Gates Jr. R e n é F. J o n e s & B r i g i d D o h e r t y FAIRMONT COPLEY PLAZA, BOSTON
festivities begin at 5:30
pm
Ti cke t s on s a l e Au g ust 1 8
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TUESDAY |
6:00 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College This program is co-sponsored by the MHS and hosted by the Boston Athenaeum. In Force and Freedom, Kellie Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum Black activists. Through rousing public speeches, the burgeoning Black press, and the formation of milita groups, Black abolitionist leaders mobilized their communities, compelled national action, and drew international attention. Drawing on the precedent and pathos of the American and Haitian Revolutions, African American abolitionists used violence as a political language and a means of provoking social change. Through tactical violence, Black abolitionist leaders accomplished what white nonviolent abolitionists could not: creating the conditions that necessitated the Civil War. Force and Freedom takes readers beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and theromanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the Black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.bostonathenaeum.org.
JULY
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THURSDAY |
5:30 | FILM SCREENING
Borderland: The Life and Times of Blanche Ames Ames Barbara F. Berenson lanche Ames Ames (1878–1969) was an artist, an activist, a B builder, an inventor, a birth control maverick, and a leader of the woman suffrage movement in Massachusetts. She was a woman of privilege who was not afraid to shock polite society. Her name doesn’t appear in most American history books, this, too, is part of her story. Borderland: The Life & Times of Blanche Ames Ames is a 55-minute documentary that chronicles the life of a woman who was born in the 19th century, worked to change the 20th century, and whose wisdom still resonates in the 21st century. A screening of the film will be followed by audience discussion with consulting historian Barbara F. Berenson.
JULY PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
JULY
To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
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JULY
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TUESDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election Stephen Kendrick in conversation with Larry Tye Less than three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, thirty-one-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested at a sit-in in Atlanta. While King’s imprisonment was decried as a moral scandal in some quarters and celebrated in others, for the two presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon it was the ultimate October surprise: an emerging civil rights leader was languishing behind bars, and the two campaigns raced to decide whether, and how, to respond. Nine Days is the first full recounting of an event that changed the course of one of the closest elections in American history. At once a story of electoral machinations, moral courage, and, ultimately, the triumph of a future president’s better angels, Nine Days is a gripping tale with important lessons for our own time. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
JULY
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THURSDAY |
5:30 | VIRTUAL CONVERSATION
Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865–1915 Jon Grinspan, National Museum of American History Democracy was broken. Or that was what many Americans believed in the decades after the Civil War. Shaken by economic and technological disruption, they sought safety in aggressive partisanship. The results were the loudest, closest, most violent elections in U.S. history, driven by vibrant campaigns that drew our highest-ever voter turnouts. At the century’s end, reformers finally restrained this wild system, trading away participation for civility in the process. They built a calmer, cleaner democracy, but also a more distant one. Americans’ voting rates crashed and never fully recovered. In telling the tale of what it cost to cool our +republic, historian Jon Grinspan reveals our divisive political system’s enduring capacity to reinvent itself. To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.
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Underrepresented Voices of the American Revolution
JULY PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
Conrad E. Wright Research Conference
Save the date!
July 14 and 15, 2022 Visit www.masshist.org/conferences for more info. 11
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