MHS Calendar of Events - March 2021

MARCH 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

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Cover: Mildred Mitchell sitting under a frescoed wall, by Margaret Hall, 1918.

RSVP Information

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March Programs at a Glance

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March Program Descriptions

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A Look Ahead: Spring Programs

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MARCH PROGRAMS

This winter, 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.

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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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TUESDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Health, Disease & Early American Environments Molly Nebiolo, Northeastern University, and Camden Elliott, Harvard University Comment: Thomas Wickman, Trinity College

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WEDNESDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity Carolyn Eastman, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Sara Georgini, MHS

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THURSDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

From Jobs & Freedom to Jobs & Opportunity: Andrew Young, Growth & the Illusion of Job Creation Danielle Wiggins, California Institute of Technology Comment: Brenna Greer, Wellesley College

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TUESDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Climate in Words & Numbers: How Early Americans Recorded Weather in Almanacs Joyce Chaplin, Harvard University

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THURSDAY |

6:00 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Confronting Racial Injustice Series Redlining: From Slavery to $8 in 400 Years Lew Finfer, Massachusetts Community Action Network, and Stephen Gray, Harvard Graduate School of Design

TUESDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Women of the Underground: Political Repression, Kinship Networks & the Transatlantic Resistance to Restoration Politics Cynthia Van Zandt, University of New Hampshire Comment: Adrian Weimer, Providence College

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WEDNESDAY |

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THURSDAY |

12:00 | SPECIAL ONLINE EVENT

Visionary Circle Virtual Launch Event

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Heroic Souls: Records of Trial from Thomas Shepard’s Church in Cambridge, 1638–1649 Lori Rogers-Stokes

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WEDNESDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

From Revolution to Pandemic: What Makes Boston One of the World’s Top Innovation Centers?

Robert Krim and Scott Kirsner

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THURSDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Marriage of Minds or Boston Divorce? The Lives & Good Works of Caroline Healey Dall & Rev. Charles Henry Appleton Dall on Two Continents Neilesh Bose, University of Victoria, and Helen R. Deese, Caroline Healey Dall Editor, MHS Moderator: Megan Marshall, Emerson College

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TUESDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Moderator: Adrian Walker, Boston Globe

The Parlor & the Public: Tin Pan Alley & the Birth of Manhattan Mass Culture Samuel Backer, Johns Hopkins University

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Comment: Jeffrey Melnick, University of Massachusetts Boston

MONDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

MARCH PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE

March

The Hunt for History: On the Trail of the World’s Lost Treasures—from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill & Einstein to the Secret Recordings Onboard JFK’s Air Force One Nathan Raab

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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.

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TUESDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Health, Disease & Early American Environments Molly Nebiolo, Northeastern University, and Camden Elliott, Harvard University Comment: Thomas Wickman, Trinity College This panel discussion brings together the histories of health, disease, and the environment to cast new light on key sites of Colonial American history. Molly Nebiolo’s research highlights how health and medical knowledge impacted the creation of early Atlantic cities. By examining the colonial history of promotional narratives, both written and spatial, her paper argues that health and well-being were fundamental ideas for the settlement of Philadelphia and Charleston. Camden Elliott’s paper recasts the history of the Stono Slave Rebellion through the lens of environmental history. Placing mosquitoes (and their pathogens) in a supporting role to a slave war in South Carolina, he investigates how yellow fever helped set the stage for resistance and malaria shielded maroons in the rebellion’s aftermath. This program is part of the Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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WEDNESDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity Carolyn Eastman, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Sara Georgini, MHS When James Ogilvie arrived in America in 1793, he was a deeply ambitious but impoverished teacher. By the time he returned to Britain in 1817, he had become a bona fide celebrity known simply as Mr. O, counting the nation’s leading politicians and intellectuals among his admirers. And then, like so many meteoric American luminaries afterward, he fell from grace. Ogilvie’s career featured many of the hallmarks of celebrity we recognize from later eras: glamorous friends, eccentric clothing, scandal-

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To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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THURSDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

From Jobs & Freedom to Jobs & Opportunity: Andrew Young, Growth & the Illusion of Job Creation Danielle Wiggins, California Institute of Technology Comment: Brenna Greer, Wellesley College This paper considers Atlanta mayor Andrew Young’s shifting ideas about job creation and economic opportunity to investigate how Democrats abandoned their 1970s goal of full employment in favor of policies that promoted private sector job creation via economic growth in the 1980s. By conflating growth with opportunity, Andrew Young sought to stake a middle path between development interests and anti-poverty coalitions, between white and Black voters, and between civil rights liberalism and supply-side liberalism. However, economic growth and its promise of opportunity proved to be an inadequate solution for the range of issues its proponents intended it to address. This program is part of the African American History Seminar series. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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TUESDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Climate in Words & Numbers: How Early Americans Recorded Weather in Almanacs Joyce Chaplin, Harvard University As we begin to consider climate as an everyday problem, it’s valuable to see how people did that in the past. With support from the Guggenheim Foundation, Joyce Chaplin is compiling and analyzing a database of manuscript notes about weather in early American almanacs, 1646–1821, out of 10,578 almanacs from nine different archives or libraries.

Her talk focuses on how people recorded the weather in numbers (including degrees Fahrenheit) and in words, ranging from “dull” to “elegant!” These notations are significant as records of a period of climate change, the Little Ice Age, and also as records of how people made sense of and coped with that climatic disruption. This program is part of the Environmental History Seminar series. Please note that this session does not have a pre-circulated paper.

MARCH PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

ous religious views, narcissism, and even an alarming drug habit. Author Caroyln Eastman, along with Sara Georgini, will discuss Ogilvie’s history, which is at once a biography of a remarkable performer and a story of the United States during the founding era.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

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MARCH

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THURSDAY |

6:00 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Confronting Racial Injustice Series Redlining: From Slavery to $8 in 400 Years Lewis Finfer, Massachusetts Community Action Network, and Stephen Gray, Harvard Graduate School of Design Moderator: Adrian Walker, Boston Globe In 2015, the Boston Federal Reserve found the median net worth for Black families in Boston was $8, in stark contrast to $250,000 for white families. This discrepancy is largely driven by the gap in home ownership. Join community activists and urban planners as they discuss Boston’s history of redlining and discriminatory housing policies, the complicity of the banks and the real estate industry, and the consequent legacy of segregation and racial wealth disparity. We will also identify some specific actions we can take to address the inequities in home ownership.

Image courtesy of “Mapping Inequality”: Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, Richard Marciano, Nathan Connolly, et al., “Mapping Inequality,” American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers, accessed January 14, 2021, https://dsl.richmond.edu/ panorama/redlining/.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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MONDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

The Hunt for History: On the Trail of the World’s Lost Treasures—from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill, & Einstein to the Secret Recordings Onboard JFK’s Air Force One Nathan Raab Nathan Raab describes his years as the Sherlock Holmes of historical artifacts and shows us what the past can tell us about the present. Raab shares some fascinating stories: spotting a letter from British officials that secured the Rosetta Stone; discovering a piece of the first electric cable laid by Edison; restoring a fragmented letter from Andrew Jackson that led to the infamous Trail of Tears; and locating copies of missing audio that had been recorded on Air Force One as the plane brought JFK’s body back to Washington. Every document and artifact uncovers a story—and offers new insights into a life we thought we knew.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

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Wednesday, March 17 | 12:00 pm Join us at the Visionary Circle virtual launch where you will hear from Cornerstone Advisors about different ways to include MHS in your planned giving, including charitable gift annuities or charitable remainder trusts.

Declare your intent to make a planned gift before or after the event to receive a special gift!

Register online at www.masshist.org/events.

How a Charitable Gift Annuity Benefits All

Education You, the Visionary

Receive $1,175 annual income for life and a $8,838 charitable tax deduction* Make a $25,000 gift (cash or stock)

Remainder supports MHS priorities

Public History

MARCH PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

Visionary Circle Launch Event

Research

Exhibitions

* Calculations are for illustrative purposes only, assuming single donor, age 70. Actual benefits will vary according to gift size—minimum of $10,000.

To learn more or declare your intent contact Maureen Nguyen at mnguyen@masshist.org 9

MARCH

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TUESDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Women of the Underground: Political Repression, Kinship Networks & the Transatlantic Resistance to Restoration Politics Cynthia Van Zandt, University of New Hampshire Comment: Adrian Weimer, Providence College Non-conformist resistance to the Stuart Restoration is often told as the history of ministers, regicides, and other men who actively preserved their loyalty to political and religious ideals of the 1640s and 1650s. However, many of the ongoing activities necessary to preserve the movement were carried out by women. This paper explores women’s roles in the transatlantic kinship, religious, and veterans’ networks that enabled nonconformists to sustain themselves in the face of defeat and repression. This program is part of the Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar series. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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WEDNESDAY |

12:00 | SPECIAL ONLINE EVENT

Visionary Circle Virtual Launch Event Please join us to celebrate the Founding Members of the MHS Visionary Circle planned giving program. We will hear about core planned gift options from representatives at Cornerstone Advisors and offer an opportunity for attendees to ask questions. Any guests who declare their intent to make a planned gift will be recognized as a Founding Member and receive a special welcome gift.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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THURSDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Heroic Souls: Records of Trial from Thomas Shepard’s Church in Cambridge, 1638–1649 Lori Rogers-Stokes The most exciting find in the records of puritan minister Thomas Shepard (Cambridge, 1638–1649) are the voices of the women who came to tell him their stories of spiritual seeking. Serving women, elderly widows, young wives and mothers, daughters of powerful men—all told stories of heroic seeking that feature their independent labor in reading, praying, listening, asking questions, and making meaning in a world narrowed down to just

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To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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WEDNESDAY |

5:30 | VIRTUAL PROGRAM

From Revolution to Pandemic: What Makes Boston One of the World’s Top Innovation Centers?

Robert Krim and Scott Kirsner Dr. Robert Krim, author of Boston Made: From Revolution to Robotics—Innovations that Changed the World, presents a fascinating journey through Boston’s innovation history. Looking at the range of Boston-born innovations that have made Boston one of the world’s leading cities in innovation, Dr. Krim answers the question of why the city has remained innovative over its 400year history. He will describe in colorful detail the struggles the city—and its innovators—faced on their road to innovations which changed the nation, or the world, and will discuss how this unfettered innovative culture has helped the city reinvent itself after four devastating economic collapses.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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THURSDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

Marriage of Minds or Boston Divorce? The Lives & Good Works of Caroline Healey Dall & Rev. Charles Henry Appleton Dall on Two Continents Neilesh Bose, University of Victoria, and Helen R. Deese, Caroline Healey Dall Editor, MHS Moderator: Megan Marshall, Emerson College

MARCH PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

the seeker and her God. Heroic Souls, by Lori Rogers-Stokes, brings you these women’s stories—their lives and passions, and the super-charged energy for change, discovery, and meaning that they embraced.

Caroline Healey Dall (1822–1912) and Charles Henry Appleton Dall (1816–1886) met in Boston where, as a teenager in Margaret Fuller’s “Conversations,” Caroline learned to ask “all the great questions of life.” The handsome but sickly Charles graduated from Harvard with Henry Thoreau and was influenced by Joseph Tuckerman’s ministry to the poor.

Marrying in 1844, the couple struggled to find their footing as Charles took a series of ministerial jobs, each punctuated by a period of illness. When Charles left Caroline and their two children in 1855 to establish a Unitarian mission in Calcutta, drawn to the Brahmo Samaj and the Indian nationalist cause, his health improved. “Separated by half the earth,” historian Spencer Lavan writes, “their careers began to blossom.” Caroline emerged as a

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vehement writer and lecturer on abolition, women’s rights, and social science. Bose and Deese will effect a 21st-century reconciliation, putting into conversation a couple whose divergence led to lives of distinctive activism, documented in Caroline’s extensive journals held at the MHS. This program is part of the New England Biography Series.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

MARCH

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TUESDAY |

5:15 | VIRTUAL SEMINAR

The Parlor & the Public: Tin Pan Alley & the Birth of Manhattan Mass Culture Samuel Backer, Johns Hopkins University Comment: Jeffrey Melnick, University of Massachusetts Boston During the late 19th century, the upstart sheet music firms known as Tin Pan Alley developed a revolutionary approach to publishing, constructing a system able to sell songs at a previously unimaginable scale and rate. Relying on New York’s central role in national performance networks to disseminate their compositions, this industry was defined by the tension between publishers’ attempts to create mass-marketing commodities and the fast-moving, alcohol-drenched urban environments in which their products were required to thrive. This program is part of the Dina G. Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture Seminar series. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper.

To reserve: This is an online program. Please register at www.masshist.org/events.

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April 1: African American History Seminar, “Fighting the Dogs”: Fugitivity, Canine Hunters & Slave Resistance in the Rural South with Tyler Parry, University of Nevada—Las Vegas, and Harriet Riveto, MIT. April 6: Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction with Kate Masur, Northwestern University, in conversation with Edward Ayers, University of Richmond.

April 8: The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life & Improbable Education of Henry Adams with David S. Brown, Elizabethtown College.

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

April 13: Environmental History Series, Kaleidoscope Metropolis: Autonomy and Integration in the Fractured City with Garrett Nelson, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, and Lizbeth Cohen, Harvard University.

April 15: Confronting Racial Injustice series, Boston School Desegregation through the Rearview Mirror with Martha Minow, Harvard Law School; Becky Shuster, Boston Public Schools; Rachel E. Twymon; and moderator Matthew F. Delmont, Dartmouth College.

April 20: The History of Women, Gender & Sexuality Seminar, Contesting Domesticity with Kwelina Thompson, Cornell University; Shoniqua Roach, Brandeis University; Laura Puaca, Christopher Newport University; and Allison Horrocks, Lowell National Historical Park.

April 27: Malgeri Modern American Society & Culture Seminar, The “Other” Illegals: Unauthorized European Immigration to New York City & Boston in the 20th Century with Danielle Battisti, University of Nebraska Omaha; Carly Goodman, La Salle University; and Christopher Capozzola.

April 29: New England Biography Series, Fashioning a Life: How Style Matters in Biography with Caroline Weber, Barnard College; Channing Joseph, University of Southern California; and Natalie Dykstra, Hope College.

A LOOK AHEAD SPRING 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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The event that opened the eyes of a nation

Premiering Tue, 3/30 at 9pm GBH 2 and GBH Passport