Stay engaged with the MHS this year.
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“Our main object however was to visit the ruins of the castle of Denhigh. The site is high and imposing, which marks the edifice as originally of Welsh construction... We found it used as a place of amusement for parties on picnic excursions. The view from the highest point is very pretty. The return drive was pretty by another and a very pretty road.”
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Letter from Charles Bowers to Lydia Bowers, 28 April 1861
In this eight-page letter written to his wife Lydia, Charles offers a detailed description of his journey from Concord, Massachusetts, to Washington, DC, as a member of the Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in response to Abraham Lincoln’s first call for troops to save the Union. He describes all facets of the journey: departing Concord for Boston on 19 April 1861; travel by train from Boston to New York City and by ship from New York to Annapolis, Maryland, where he sees the USS Constitution at sea traveling north to the safety of the harbor in Newport, Rhode Island; a 20-mile overnight march from Annapolis to Annapolis Junction; and finally his arrival by train in the “beautiful Federal Capital of the nation” on 27 April.
According to notes made by his daughter Francis in 1923, Charles was forty-eight years old and the father of six children when he volunteered to serve as the third lieutenant in Company G of the Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, also referred to as the Concord Artillery. When his three-month term expired he returned home to Concord and began actively recruiting a company of his own. In June 1862 Charles once again departed Concord as captain of Company G of the Thirty-Second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He served with this company until after the end of the war.
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Presented by the Massachusetts Civic Learning Coalition (MCLC)
TODAY! Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 3:15–4:00PM
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Want to learn more about the impact of civic education on students in Massachusetts? Join us for the inaugural Civic Learning Week, 26–30 April, organized by the MHS and partner organizations belonging to the Massachusetts Civic Education Coalition.
On Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 3:15–4:00 PM, award-winning National History Day participant Morgan Gibson will join several other student speakers on a panel of Massachusetts legislators who have championed civic education in the state. Sen. Harriette Chandler, Rep. Linda Dean Campbell, and Rep. Andy Vargas will speak about past and present legislation to improve civic education in the Commonwealth, including the 2018 Act to Promote and Enhance Civic Engagement, which made Massachusetts a national leader in civic education reform.
Student speakers will share their past and current experiences of leading civic action projects within their own communities. Following their individual presentations, the legislators and students will engage in dialogue to discuss what the future of civic education in Massachusetts should look like.
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MHS’s online programs are held on the video conference platform Zoom. Registrants will receive an e-mail with a link to join the program.
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The “Other” Illegals: Unauthorized European Immigration to New York City and Boston in the 20th Century
Since 1965, US political and social discourse about immigration has been dominated by concerns over undocumented immigration, a legal and social category understood to apply almost exclusively to non-white immigrants. This panel will examine a now obscure part of twentieth-century immigration history: the migration of unauthorized white Europeans. The session will complicate current understandings of the period to demonstrate that early in the twentieth century southern and eastern European immigrants were in fact stigmatized as “criminals” and “illegals.” However by mid-century, southern and eastern Europeans were able to draw upon their social and political capital to change public perceptions and state policies. Legal status provided relief from the threat of deportation or exclusion—and reinforced the racialized category of undocumented immigrant. These papers will bring the stories to light of these “other” illegal immigrants and reinsert them into the conversations and policy debates surrounding unauthorized immigration.
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Spill the Tea—Young Patrons Committee
Join the Young Patrons Committee on Wednesday, 28 April, at 5:30 PM, for a riveting hour with MHS President Catherine Allgor. Sip your favorite cocktail or mocktail at this virtual event and hear new plans for the first historical society in America. Share your thoughts as stakeholders helping to craft a fresh future. Show off your MHS face mask out in public (a mask will be sent to attendees following the event). This event is free and exclusively for patrons under 40.
Join the ongoing MHS Young Patrons conversation with events and networking opportunities for young professionals under the age of 40. Membership for this vibrant group of patrons is discounted to $40 per year. Visit www.masshist.org/members or contact [email protected] for more info.
If this event isn’t for you, but you know someone who may be interested, please pass it along!
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Fashioning a Life: How Style Matters in Biography
Is fashion art or commerce? Frivolous or full of meaning? Is fashion evidence? This panel brings together Caroline Weber, author of Queen of Fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution and Proust’s Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris, and Channing Joseph, whose forthcoming book recovers the untold story of formerly enslaved William Dorsey Swann, who became, in the 1880s, a progenitor of ballroom and drag culture. They will join moderator Natalie Dykstra, author of Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, and now at work on a biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, in a conversation about the ways biographers use fashion to decode lives and historical contexts.
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Interested in Viewing Past Programs? |
If you missed a program or would like to revisit the material presented, please visit www.masshist.org/video or our YouTube channel. A selection of past programs is just a click away.
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Share Your COVID-19 Experience(s) |
The MHS invites you to contribute your COVID-19 experience(s) to our collection. Record your experiences on a daily, weekly, or intermittent basis. You can contribute your thoughts and images online. Visit our COVID-19 web display to learn more and to share your thoughts. Or you can keep a journal and donate it to the MHS. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Thank you to everyone who has shared so far. If you have not yet done so or would like to contribute again, please visit www.masshist.org/projects/covid/index.php. You can also read what others have shared.
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Our Members are the heart of the MHS community and an integral part of the MHS story. Become a Member to help make possible the Society’s mission to promote the study of American history. Receive benefits including invitations to enhanced Member-only events; free or discounted admission to special programs; and access to publications such as our calendar of events, newsletter, and Annual Report.
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