Posted February 14, 2025
-- Dr. Lizabeth Cohen and Rubenstein will discuss Rubenstein’s "How to Invest: Masters on the Craft" for the inaugural John B. Paine Lecture. -- Recorded 11 February 2025 at Massachusetts Historical Society' Join us for the inaugural John B. Paine, Jr. Annual Lecture on the History of Business and Innovation with a very special guest. David Rubenstein is the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Board of Carlyle Group Inc., a global investment firm and leader in private equity. Rubenstein will be in conversation with Dr. Lizabeth Cohen, the Howard Mumford Jones Research Professor of American Studies at Harvard University. Together, they will discuss Rubenstein’s New York Times bestseller How to Invest: Masters on the Craft. David Rubenstein is one of the most trusted voices in the investment world. He is the CEO of the Major League Baseball team the Baltimore Orioles and the Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago, among other philanthropic endeavors. In How to Invest: Masters on the Craft, Rubenstein interviews the biggest names in finance to discover the time-tested principles, hard-earned wisdom, and indispensable tools that guide their practice. Dr. Lizabeth Cohen is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of History at Harvard. From 2011–18 she was the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Among many awards and honors, Cohen has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. John B. Paine, Jr. (1901-1976) was an investment advisor and served as a Trustee of the Massachusetts Historical Society, where he was the Treasurer from 1957 to 1970. His papers are held at the MHS. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted December 10, 2024
-- Strouse in conversation with Natalie Dykstra about Sargent and his subjects and about the art of biography. -- Recorded 5 December 2024 at Massachusetts Historical Society. The New England Biography Series is proud to present a conversation with the renowned biographer Jean Strouse about her newly published group portrait of painter John Singer Sargent and the twelve subjects of his largest commission, the Wertheimers of London. Brisk, deft, and as stylish as any Sargent likeness, Family Romance offers what her previous books on Alice James and J.P. Morgan so effectively provide—an intimate account of individual lives that also evokes a panoramic social milieu. In these pages, a restless age comes to vivid life. Join Jean Strouse in conversation with Natalie Dykstra about Sargent and his subjects and about the art of biography. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted December 10, 2024
--Tesiero details Elizabeth Freeman's life and the far-reaching influence of her battle for freedom. -- Recorded 4 December 2024 on Zoom. At the end of the American Revolution, Elizabeth Freeman was an enslaved widow and mother living in Massachusetts. Hearing the words of the new Mass. state constitution which declared liberty and equality for all, she sought the help of a young lawyer named Theodore Sedgwick, later Speaker of the House and one of America's leading Federalist politicians. The lawsuit that she and Sedgwick pursued would bring freedom to her and her daughter, as well as thousands of other enslaved people. Freeman left her enslaver to be employed by Sedgwick. After Sedgwick's wife, Pamela, became a chronic invalid, Freeman effectively became the foster mother to his seven children, enabling him to pursue a political career. Join us online as author Donna Tesiero details Elizabeth Freeman's life and the far-reaching influence of her battle for freedom. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted May 23, 2018
An overview of the mission and scope of the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society featuring David McCullough, Nathaniel Philbrick, Megan Marshall, and Cokie Roberts.
Posted November 20, 2024
-- Schiff receives the Prescott Award followed by a conversation with Schiff and Marshall on the process of writing biographies, and the importance of archives such as the MHS. -- Recorded 18 November 2024 at Massachusetts Historical Society In recognition of her career as an essayist and award-winning author, Stacy Schiff was presented with the William Hickling Prescott Award for Excellence in Historical Writing by the The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Historical Society. In a conversation following the award presentation, Schiff and interlocutor Megan Marshall discuss how authors approach wide-ranging subject matter, the process of writing biographies, and the importance of archives such as the MHS. In her most recent book, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Stacy Schiff brings her masterful storytelling skills to Adams’s improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies. Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for her book Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), Schiff has also brought figures like Benjamin Franklin, Cleopatra, and the alleged witches of Salem to life in bestselling, widely acclaimed biographies. American scholar, writer, and biographer Megan Marshall won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Margaret Fuller: A New American Life. A past president of the Society of American Historians, she teaches nonfiction writing and archival research in the MFA creative writing program at Emerson College where she was named the first Charles Wesley Emerson College Professor. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted October 12, 2024
-- Chervinsky & Louisa Thomas, reflect on using MHS collections to inform their works on the Adamses. -- Recorded 9 October 2024 at Massachusetts Historical Society. Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and author of "Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic" in conversation with Louisa Thomas, author of "Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams". Following an introduction by MHS Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers Sara Martin, the historians reflect on using MHS collections to inform their works on the Adamses. "Making the Presidency" is a captivating and authoritative account of John Adams’s presidency, exploring how Adams shaped the highest office and ensured the survival of the American republic. The quixotic and stubborn Adams would rely on his ideas about executive power, the Constitution, politics, and the state of the world to navigate the hurdles of the position. He defended the presidency from his own obstructionist cabinet, protected the nation from foreign attacks, and forged trust and dedication to election integrity…at the cost of his political future. In "Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams", published in 2016, Louisa Thomas creates an intimate portrait of Louisa Catherine Adams and her extraordinary life. Using historical context along with letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts written by Adams, Thomas captures the remarkable life of a woman with a thirst for knowledge, who suffered loss, endured a complicated marriage, lived through a pivotal historical moment, and found her voice. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted September 26, 2024
-- Wilson and Jackie Jenkins-Scott (of Dimock Center), discuss Susan Dimock’s place in medical, women's, and world history. -- Recorded 25 September 2024. A young North Carolinian who dreamed of becoming a physician, Susan Dimock was not the first American woman to battle the patriarchal medical establishment. But in the 1870s, she was arguably the best-educated, most-skilled woman surgeon in the nation. Dimock studied medicine in Zurich and Vienna, executed complex surgeries, and trained America's first professional nurses, ultimately inspiring a new generation of female surgeons. Author Susan Wilson and Jackie Jenkins-Scott, former president of the Dimock Community Health Center, discuss Susan Dimock’s place in medical, women's, and world history. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted September 20, 2024
-- Catherine McNeur tells the story of Margaretta Hare Morris and Elizabeth Carrington Morris, two women who transformed American science in the nineteenth century but were forgotten to history -- Recorded 17 September 17, 2024 at MHS Catherine McNeur, Portland State University In conversation with Andrew Robichaud, Boston University Mischievous Creatures (Basic Books, 2023) is the story of Margaretta Hare Morris and Elizabeth Carrington Morris, two women who transformed American science in the nineteenth century. Famous for her work with seventeen-year cicadas, Margaretta was an entomologist whose discoveries of insects and their impacts on farms and orchards led to her becoming one of the first women elected to both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Margaretta’s older sister Elizabeth was a botanist who preferred anonymity to accolades. Even still, she became a trusted expert of Philadelphia’s flora who supplied the country’s leading botanists with plants, while also illustrating scientific books and articles, and authoring articles in popular science journals. Despite the important roles they played in their fields, despite being pathbreakers, both Margaretta and Elizabeth have been forgotten. Mischievous Creatures is not only about remembering their lives and work, but also about probing into why they have been forgotten, tracing the multiple ways that their legacies were lost. Their erasure becomes a larger story about the transformation of American science and the ways narratives and memorialization honored some while forgetting others. This event is sponsored by the Environmental History Seminar and New England Biography Series at the MHS with support from BU History, American Studies, and APHI. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted July 18, 2024
Recorded 11 July 2024 at Massachusetts Historical Society Panelists: - Maurice Crandall, Arizona State University - Samantha Seeley, University of Richmond - Kunal M. Parker, University of Miami - Moderator: Sunu Kodumthara, Southwestern Oklahoma State University The Conrad E. Wright Conference series was endowed by The Honorable Levin H. Campbell in honor of Conrad Edick Wright, former Director of Research and Sibley Editor. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted May 24, 2024
-- The author of the Gooderidge case that legalized equal marriage in Massachusetts and others review the case and lts legacy 20th years on -- The Hon. Margaret Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Nancy Cott, Harvard University, and Mary Bonauto, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), in conversation with Catherine Allgor, MHS President Twenty years ago, in May 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling in Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts took effect. The ruling made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage. Mary Buonato, a civil rights advocate who has been working with GLAD since 1990, will discuss her role representing the couples in the Goodridge case. Professor Nancy Cott will explain the part that a historians’ amicus brief played in this case and others. Former Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall will discuss the import of Goodridge, as well as the reaction to it. In conversation with MHS President Catherine Allgor, our speakers will reflect upon this landmark case, and the role historians may play in legal cases.
Posted May 17, 2024
-- Historic New England and the Peabody Essex Museum and MHS staff discuss how their institutions have used exhibitions to facilitate discussion around difficult histories.-- Erica Lome, Curator, Historic New England & Karina Corrigan, Associate Director-Collections & H. A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art, Peabody Essex Museum in conversation with Catherine Allgor, President, Massachusetts Historical Society Cultural shifts and updated curatorial standards have influenced current ideas about what is appropriate to discuss and display in museums and historical organizations. Increasingly, journalists, critics, scholars, and the public are approaching museum exhibitions with a more critical eye as to which stories organizations choose to interpret as well as those that are absent. Join us as MHS President Catherine Allgor moderates a conversation among representatives from Historic New England and the Peabody Essex Museum, about the curatorial decision-making process on how to tell difficult histories. Speakers will touch on debates about displaying controversial objects and speak to how their institutions use exhibitions as a tool to facilitate discussion. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook
Posted May 8, 2024
-- Historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy in "Democracy Awakening".-- In Democracy Awakening, historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, revealing how the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” can be traced back through the earliest days of the republic. She examines the historical forces that have led to the current political climate, showing how modern conservatism has consolidated power. Richardson pivots from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Nixon to the January 6 insurrection, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus, and the birth of “movement conservatism.” In conversation with MHS President, Catherine Allgor, Richardson considers how we can take the lessons of the past to address today’s challenges and secure a more just and equitable future for our nation. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of new videos: @MHS1791 Follow us! @MHS1791 on Instagram & X; @MassHistoricalSociety on Facebook