Daily Archives: February 25, 2021


Tuesday, March 9, 5:15 pm – 6:30 pm – Climate in Words and Numbers: How Early Americans Recorded Weather in Almanacs, Online

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 of Harvard University 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 March 9 Massachusetts Historical Society talk beginning at 5:15 pm Eastern time 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, also as records of how people made sense of and coped with that climatic disruption.

The Environmental History Seminar invites you to join the conversation. Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper. Learn more.

Please note, this is an online event held on the video conference platform, Zoom. Registrants will receive an email with links to join the program. Free. Register HERE.


Thursday, March 11, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – The Future of the Past, Online

For this New Directions in the American Landscape virtual workshop on March 11 from 1 – 2:30, Patricia Klindienst and Clayton Brascoupe will share ideas about how the making of a garden helps maintain and transmit cultural heritage. They will explore the twin imperatives to honor and pass on traditional knowledge of garden and farming practices while healing the land and people estranged from their cultural heritage. $28. Cosponsored by the American Horticultural Society, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and Wild Ones – Native Plants, Natural Landscapes. Register at www.ndal.org

Patricia Klindienst is the author of The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, & Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans. Clayton Brascoupe , Mohawk / Anishnabeg/ life long gardener / farmer, began working on family subsistence garden and commercial farms at age 13. Clayton has worked with Akwesasne Notes, at the time was the largest Native Newspaper, with distribution nationally and internationally. Currently farming with family at Pueblo of Tesuque New Mexico, USA Clayton and wife Margaret named their farm Four Sisters Farm after their 4 daughters, where they grow traditional and heirloom crops for food and seed. Clayton is a founding member of and Program Director of the Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA) a non-profit inter-tribal association of Indigenous farmers, gardeners, educators, and health professionals. TNAFA’s mission is “to revitalize traditional agriculture for spiritual and human need”. Program director of TNAFA develops educational programs to engage Native youth, women, current farmers and those who wish to learn.


Renovation of Copley Square – Second Survey

On February 11th, 2021, the City of Boston Parks Department shared conceptual design options for the renovation of Copley Square. You can find a recording of the meeting here. You can find a PDF of the slideshow here.

This survey asks similar questions to those asked during the public workshop in order to ensure that everyone has a chance to make their voices heard about the future of Copley Square. This survey will be open for two weeks, until 2/26/2021, so please feel free to share the link with others who might be interested. You can also fill out the survey in Spanish or Chinese