Boston Flora

Tag: Massachusetts Historical Society

  • Wednesday, May 27, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Eastern – Curious & Complex Connections: Environmental History & the War of Independence

    Many of us give only a moment’s thought about the environment when considering the War of Independence: the slope of Breed’s Hill, the ice-choked Delaware River, and diseases such as smallpox. But what might we gain by connecting biology, ecology, and geology to the thinking and actions of soldiers and civilians? Rebels and British soldiers acquired and used energy in the form of food, fuel, and work animals, which shaped people’s lives, the course of the war, and the direction of environmental change. Join the Massachusetts Historical Society on May 27 at 6 pm Eastern as David Hsiung, in conversation with Joyce Chaplin, discusses the intricate and often surprising ways in which the natural environment and the war changed each other.

    This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin 6:00 PM. Register at https://www.masshist.org/events/curious-and-complex-connections

  • Thursday, October 9, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Swinging 1770s Disco

    Young Patrons of the Massachusetts Historical Society are invited to a special evening inspired by the best of two centuries. Enjoy disco hits, sip a Benedict Arnold Palmer, and play games and trivia to test your knowledge of the 1770s and 1970s. Festive attire is encouraged, whether you prefer bell bottoms or a tricorne hat! Young Patron Members can register themselves and a guest for free here. Registration by October 1 is required for entrance. Register at https://www.masshist.org/events/swinging-1770s-disco

    Interested in becoming a Young Patron Member? Membership for those 40 years old and younger starts at $40 and includes free admission to public programs and invitations to Member-only events. You can join today HERE

    If you would like to attend the Young Patrons Swinging 1770s party, and are not a Young Patron Member, you can register HERE for $30. For questions about the event, contact Hanna van Belle at hvanbelle@masshist.org. The venue is 1154 Boylston Street in Boston.

  • Tuesday, March 11, 6:00 pm – Making History Gala

    The Massachusetts Historical Society is delighted to announce the 2025 Making History Gala at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, Boston, will feature National Book Award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick. Tickets are now on sale, with an early rate of $400 per ticket until December 31, 2024. Tickets increase to $500 on January 1, 2025. Proceeds from the Making History Gala support programming for K-12 students and teachers, collections preservation, free access to the MHS library and exhibitions, and other resources.

    Nathaniel Philbrick is a New York Times bestselling author of American history. He won the National Book Award for In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. His books on the Revolutionary War have received national recognition. These titles include Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution; Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution; and In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown. His writing on the American Revolution presents fresh perspectives and fascinating character studies that shed light on key figures and moments, allowing us to consider anew this critical juncture in our nation’s past.

    Questions about the Gala? Contact Hanna van Belle at hvanbelle@masshist.org or 617-646-0551. Buy your ticket at https://www.masshist.org/gala

  • Thursday, March 14, 6:00 pm Eastern – Wheatley in the 21st Century, Live and Online

    Register for a hybrid event sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society on March 14 at 6 pm, reimagining an iconic female Black poet’s book. Join us for a unique evening remembering and celebrating America’s 19th-century, African American poet, Phillis Wheatley. See Phillis’ words in her own hand in items displayed from the MHS collection and hear how these words inspire poets today.

    Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters celebrates the 250th anniversary of Phillis Wheatley’s historic and transformative Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). The new volume gathers the voices of 20 Black female poets to reimagine the work of this iconic literary ancestor for a new generation. The volume’s editors, Danielle Legros Georges and Artress Bethany White will provide commentary and contributors Florence Ladd and Janice Lowe will read selections from the book.

    The in-person reception starts at 5:30 PM and the program will begin at 6:00 PM. The program is free for MHS Members; $10 per person (in person). There is no charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). The online event will be hosted on the video streaming platform YouTube. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information. Register to attend in person HERE. Register to attend online HERE.

    If you have questions about the event, please contact Olivia Sayah at 617-646-0580 or osayah@masshist.org.

  • Tuesday, January 16, 5:00 pm Eastern – Seeing the Forest as the Key: Lumbermen, Foresters & Racial Power in the Early Twentieth-Century South & the West, Live and Online

    This Massachusetts Historical Society panel on January 16 at 5 pm examines the role of the environment in the United States during the early twentieth century and its relationship to colonialism. As a science largely employed by colonizing European powers at the turn of the twentieth century, forestry, Evan Bonney’s paper suggests, helped the United States claim the Intermountain West as part of its empire. Perri Meldon’s work centers on the Great Dismal Swamp, the wetland, once owned by George Washington. As promotional material illustrates, the swamp became less an actual wetland and more an imagined space imbued with revolutionary (and rebel) spirit. Yet the swamp’s ecology repeatedly resisted the visions of those who promoted it. Meldon’s essay documents the efforts of local officials, outdoors enthusiasts, and lumber companies to advertise the swamp and how the wetland evaded their goals.

    Register to attend in person

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  • Thursday, September 21, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite, Live and Online

    In June of 1889 in San Francisco, John Muir—environmentalist, writer, and philosopher—meets, for the first time, his longtime editor Robert Underwood Johnson, an elegant and influential figure at The Century magazine. Before long, the pair, opposites in many ways, decide to venture to Yosemite Valley. Upon their arrival they confront a shocking sight: predatory mining, tourism, and logging industries have plundered and defaced “the grandest of all the special temples of Nature.” While Muir is consumed by grief, Johnson, a champion of society’s pressing debates through the pages of the nation’s most prestigious magazine, decides that he and Muir must fight back. The pact they form marks a watershed moment, leading to the creation of Yosemite National Park and the launching of an environmental battle that captivates the nation and ushers in the beginning of the American environmental movement. 

    Join the Massachusetts Historical Society either live or online on September 21 for a talk with author Dean King. This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin at 6:00.

    Register to attend online

    Register to attend in person

  • Wednesday, March 29, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Eastern – Lethal Tides: Mary Sears & The Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II, Live and Online

    When World War II began, the U.S. Navy was unprepared to enact its island-hopping strategy to reach Japan. Mary Sears, a marine biologist, was the expert they turned to, and she along with a team of quirky marine scientists were instrumental in turning the tide of the war in the United States’ favor. The Sears team analyzed ocean currents, made wave and tide predictions, identified zones of bioluminescence, mapped deep-water levels where submarines could hide and gathered information about the topography and surf conditions surrounding the Pacific islands and Japan. Sears was frequently called upon to make middle-of-the-night calculations for last-minute top-secret landing destinations and predicted optimal landing times and locations for amphibious invasions. In supplying these crucial details, Sears and her team played a major role in averting catastrophes that plagued earlier amphibious landings, like the disastrous Tarawa, and cleared a path to Okinawa, the last major battle of World War II.

    This hybrid Massachusetts Historical Society event is free for virtual attendees, $10 for in person attendees (but free for MHS members). Author Catherine Musemeche will be the speaker.

    Register to attend online

    Register to attend in person

  • Tuesday, March 28, 5:00 pm- 6:15 pm Eastern – Dakota Dreamin’: Precipitation & Commutation in the Age of Empire, Live and Online

    I confess to a special interest in weather and weather history. This Lecture is a hybrid event. The in-person reception at the Massachusetts Historical Society on March 28 will begin at 4:30 pm. Lecture with Sara M. Gregg, Indiana University-Bloomington will begin at 5.

    In the tumultuous years of the early twentieth century, the Great Plains were at the heart of the U.S. population boom.  As Indigenous reservations were systematically dismantled and new immigrants from northern and eastern Europe piled onto boats headed for Ellis Island, policymakers and migrants identified vast swaths of the northern and southern Plains as the most promising “next-year country.”  These were years of generous precipitation, and the fertile soils appeared prime for the new crops and machines promoted by the growing infrastructure of U.S. agricultural programs.  Bottineau County, North Dakota, reached a pinnacle of successful homestead proofs during this period, as the weather, migratory patterns, state programs, and global economic conditions all coalesced to support a boom in settlement in this region during this dynamic period of national and regional growth.  Here, North Dakota boomed for the first time, foreshadowing the patterns that emerged a century later as the Bakken Formation yielded oil and gas for a very different boom in this often-overlooked corner of the nation.

    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.

    Purchasing the $25 seminar subscription gives you advance access to the seminar papers of all seven seminar series for the current academic year. Subscribe at www.masshist.org/research/seminars. Subscribers for the current year may login to view currently available essays. 

    Register to attend in person

    Register to attend online

  • Tuesday, December 13, 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm – Earthquakes and Endtimes: Global Disasters and Apocalyptical Predictions in the Early Modern English Atlantic, Live and Online

    Throughout early modern Europe and the Atlantic World, individuals recorded details of earthquakes in diaries and letters, contemplated meanings in sermons, and learned about distant disasters via broadsides and pamphlets. Highlighting the contemporary providential worldview, this paper, presented by Jennifer Egloff of NYU Shanghai on December 13 at 5 pm at 1154 Boylston Street, argues that numbers contained in earthquake reports were particularly significant. By recording precisely when earthquakes occurred—and making correlations with distant earthquakes—individuals interpreted God’s messages apocalyptically, arguing that particular earthquakes correlated with those described in Revelation. Some people combined this with additional chronological information to predict when Judgment Day would occur. This paper explores the extent to which New Englanders were unique in their providential and apocalyptical interpretations of global disasters, compared to their Atlantic counterparts.

    The Massachusetts Historical Society 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.

    Purchasing the $25 seminar subscription gives you advanced access to the seminar papers of all seven seminar series for the current academic year. Subscribe at www.masshist.org/research/seminars. Subscribers for the current year may login to view currently available essays. 

    Register to attend in person

    Register to attend online

  • Saturday, July 9, 12:00 noon – 4:30 pm – Parks as Platform: Fenway Porchfest in the Back Bay Fens

    Presented with Fenway Porchfest

    Fenway Porchfest is a collaborative partnership among three Fenway organizations —Fenway Community Development Organization, Fenway Civic Association, and the Fenway Alliance. It is a free music festival that takes place in a wide range of diverse outdoor spaces in the Fenway, ranging from the Verb Hotel and 401 Park to Massachusetts Historical Society to the Emerald Necklace and the MFA! For complete details visit https://www.fenwayporchfest.org/