MHS Blog Feed
4 weeks ago
by Hannah Elder, Associate Reference Librarian for Rights & Reproductions Long time readers of the blog may recall a series of posts that ran from 2015 to 2019, transcribing a line-a-day diary from exactly one century before. This series was run by Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, who at the time of her passing in 2023 was the […]
Heather Rockwood
4 weeks 1 day ago
by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist In previous Beehive posts, I’ve introduced you to several members of the Clarke family. Well, the Clarkes were related by marriage to the illustrious Boston Lowells, so the Perry-Clarke additions at the MHS also include papers from members of that family. If there were prizes for the most prevalent […]
Heather Rockwood
4 weeks 2 days ago
by Sarah Hume, Editorial Assistant, Adams Papers On 7 September 1842, John Quincy Adams took his seat on the 6 o’clock A.M. train from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. The weather was warm, with more than thirty people crowding onto the train. Among them were Robert Tyler and John Tyler Jr., sons of President John Tyler. […]
Heather Rockwood
1 month ago
by Alexandra Moleski, NHD Program Coordinator kkʷey! In part 1, we explored the life of Pial Pol Osunkhirhine, author of the 1830 Wo̲banaki kimzowi awighigan that is held in the MHS archives. Now we are back with part 2 because it turns out that Osunkhirhine’s learning book is not quite written in the language we […]
Heather Rockwood
1 month ago
by Thomas A. Rider II, PhD Candidate: University of Wisconsin-Madison As darkness fell on August 16th, 1775, 143 New England soldiers, of the colonial army besieging British-occupied Boston, quietly left their fortifications outside Cambridge and advanced into the mile-wide, no-man’s-land that separated the opposing lines. This ad hoc force included officers and men from […]
Heather Rockwood
1 month 1 week ago
by Heather Rockwood, Communications Manager I was recently thinking about Hamilton, the Broadway-hit musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and first performed in 2015, and wondered what MHS collection and archive pieces we have that connect to Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804), one of our Founding Fathers. To my delight, I found two letters from him to his […]
Heather Rockwood
1 month 3 weeks ago
by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist I’m returning today to one of my favorite collections here at the MHS, the Perry-Clarke additions. One of the reasons I enjoyed processing this collection so much was because of all the fascinating people it introduced me to. One of them was Cora Huidekoper Clarke (1851-1916). Cora was a […]
Heather Rockwood
1 month 3 weeks ago
By Alexandra Moleski, NHD Program Coordinator Kwaï! Welcome to National History Day in MA 2025! Here at the Massachusetts Historical Society, the NHD in MA team is getting excited for contest season. In preparation, we have been brainstorming topic ideas that relate to this year’s NHD theme, Rights and Responsibilities, to share with students as […]
Heather Rockwood
2 months ago
by Gwen Fries, Adams Papers Dear Reader, How did you enjoy the “rich mental feast” of Anne MacVicar Grant’s Letters from the Mountains? (Not ringing a bell? You have a bonus blog post to read!) I so enjoyed getting to know Mrs. Grant. It’s easy to fall in love with someone through their letters—what merits […]
Heather Rockwood
2 months 1 week ago
by Heather Rockwood, Communications Manager On 22 April 1790, John Adams and Congress learned of Benjamin Franklin’s death due to pleurisy, a lung condition. Upon learning of his friend’s death, Adams wrote an imagined conversation between four historical figures, as they waited for Franklin’s arrival in the afterlife. Adams then filed it away and more […]
Heather Rockwood
2 months 1 week ago
by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist In honor of Election Day tomorrow, I searched the MHS stacks for material related to elections. Unsurprisingly we have a lot! One collection I discovered tells the fascinating story of Charles N. Richards of Quincy, Massachusetts, who, in November 1864, traveled all the way home from Washington, D.C. to […]
Heather Rockwood
2 months 2 weeks ago
by Jordan T. Watkins, Associate Professor, Brigham Young University The archive inevitably opens unseen roads of research, luring even the most focused historical travelers from their set paths of inquiry. In April of this year, when I again entered the Massachusetts Historical Society, and passed those columns that feel like portals to the past, I […]
Heather Rockwood
3 months ago
by Elaine Heavey, Director of the Library The MHS houses hundreds of photograph collections, mostly family photographs containing posed portraits and candid photos like this one. In some cases, a family member meticulously labeled every photo, letting us know whose images have been captured for future generations to see. Other collections are not so well […]
Heather Rockwood
3 months ago
by Samantha Couture, MHS Nora Saltonstall Conservator & Preservation Librarian Welcome to Part 3 of our series on conservation at the MHS. Here, we will discuss a few of the conservation treatments that Samantha performs in our lab. The purpose of any conservation work is to reverse or repair damage to extend the useability and […]
Heather Rockwood
3 months 1 week ago
by Heather Rockwood, Communications Manager I sometimes say, “my art history degree did not teach me the history of art, it taught me how to look.” And by “look,” I mean that I have a background knowledge in symbolism, period, style, medium, subject, color, and composition. When I visit museums with friends, I try not […]
Heather Rockwood
3 months 1 week ago
by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist Since July, I’ve been introducing you to individual members of the remarkable Clarke family of Boston, whose papers I recently processed. Next up is Alice de Vermandois (Sohier) Clarke. Alice was the daughter of lawyer William Sohier and Susan Cabot (Lowell) Sohier. In 1878, she married Eliot Channing Clarke, […]
Heather Rockwood
3 months 2 weeks ago
by Meg Szydlik, Visitor Services Coordinator In my previous blog posts here and here, I examined Massachusetts Congressman Gerry E. Studds as a gay man and environmental activist. In this post, I want to look at his antiwar stance, which focused on the violence in Vietnam, and later in South and Central America. While there […]
Heather Rockwood
3 months 2 weeks ago
by Sara Georgini, Series Editor, The Papers of John Adams John Adams was nervous. Readying for his 4 March 1797 presidential inauguration, Adams flashed back to his days as a suburban schoolteacher, revolutionary lawyer, and self-taught statesman. The United States, born in the “Minds and Hearts of the People,” did not exist when Adams started […]
Heather Rockwood
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3 hours 27 minutes ago
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