Massachusetts Historical Society

Before photography, how did loved ones remember their deceased family and friends? Find out in this Beehive blog. https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/mourning-in-miniature

It’s time for Trivia Tuesday. Which of these houses pictured here was built three centuries ago in 1724?

A. The Thomas Dowse House
B. The Paul Revere House
C. Ancient House in Medfield
D. The Hartt House

The MHS has a giant problem. Find out what that is in this Beehive blog. https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/a-giant-problem-at-the-mhs.

Here are the results from the third set of brackets and moving on to the last level! Each pair needs a winner, choose your favorite in each pair by commenting the matching emoji. Voting will close at the end of this week!

https://www.masshist.org/database/4113
https://www.masshist.org/database/1697

Does Abraham Lincoln have the greatest love story almost told, or were the papers a hoax so well constructed it fooled the editor of a well-reputed magazine? Find out in this Beehive blog. https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/the-lincoln-love-letters-wilma-frances-minor-ellery-sedgwick-the-greatest-literary-hoax/

On this day in history, 19 July 1848, the first Seneca Falls Convention for discussions on women’s right to vote in the United States was opened. Read more about how Massachusetts debated women’s right to vote here: https://www.masshist.org/features/suffrage/antislavery.

In September 1866, 14-year-old Sarah Gooll Putnam was on a trip to Switzerland when she witnessed a wonderous light show by the Geissbach Falls. She describes it as such; “...After patient waiting, little lights, came twinkling, along in the darkness, on the other side of the gorge between the cliffs, and then we watched their progress nearer and nearer to the falls, and then, as more and more appeared, ... We saw the little lights crossing the bridges. The illuminations were magnificent. The different colored lights shed such a lovely tint on the falling water, and the trees which grew around. It was so perfectly lovely, and fairylike.” She then goes on to say that she would, “advise people by all means, to go and see the illumination.” If only we had a time machine!

Sarah Gooll Putnam’s diaries are part of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s public crowdsourcing transcription project. Sign up for free and try your hand at unravelling her 19th century cursive at https://www.masshist.org/mymhs/

For World Listening Day revisit a season one episode of The Object of History podcast or listen to one for the first time. With three seasons of episodes, you’ll find something that interests you. https://www.masshist.org/podcast

Do you prefer A. a willow tree sixpence, 1653-1660, https://www.masshist.org/database/1992, or B. a Massachusetts oak shilling, 1666, https://www.masshist.org/database/1991.

For World Emoji Day, take a look at this photograph and comment what emojis you see in the faces. https://www.masshist.org/database/6358

You may know that the MHS holds the papers of the Adams Family, but what does an Adams Papers staff member do? Read this Beehive blog to find out. https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-adams-papers-editor/

It’s time for Trivia Tuesday! On this day in history John Adams graduated from Harvard, but in what year?
A. 1756
B. 1765
C. 1755
D. None of the above.

Season 3, Bonus Episode of The Object of History Podcast "Eben Horsford's Nordic Nostalgia" is out today! In this bonus episode, MHS Library Assistant Hannah Goeselt discusses Boston's statue of Leif Erikson and Eben Horsford's efforts to commemorate Norse discoverers of America.

Listen to it here https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-bonus-episode-eben-horsfords-nordic-nostalgia or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.

Here are the results from the second set of brackets and moving on to the next level! Each pair needs a winner, choose your favorite in each pair by commenting the matching emoji. Voting will close when the next set is posted.

👍https://www.masshist.org/database/4113
❤https://www.masshist.org/database/6443

😆 https://www.masshist.org/database/451
🥰 https://www.masshist.org/database/1697

Here are the results from the first two brackets and moving on to the next level! Each pair needs a winner, choose your favorite in each pair by commenting the matching emoji. Voting will close when the next set is posted.

👍https://www.masshist.org/database/4113
❤https://www.masshist.org/database/5869

🥰https://www.masshist.org/database/4311
😆https://www.masshist.org/database/6443

😮https://www.masshist.org/database/2224
🥲https://www.masshist.org/database/451

😡https://www.masshist.org/database/4874
😍https://www.masshist.org/database/1697

Which gold medal do you like more? A. a gold medal presented to John Adams by the States of Holland on his taking leave as minister on 6 March 1788, https://www.masshist.org/database/82, or B. a gold medal presented to W. T. G. Morton and Charles T. Jackson by the National Institute of France for their co-discovery of the anesthetic properties of ether? https://www.masshist.org/database/3298.

How did one mysterious image of a “hedge theater” in the Arthur A. Shurcliff collection send an MHS staff person on a quest to find out more? Read about her journey through the archives to Baroque Italy here: https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/hedge-theaters-gardens-as-a-stage/

Reminder that the Conrad E. Wright Research Conference on Citizenship starts today and continues tomorrow, with a Teacher’s Workshop on Saturday. To learn more and register visit https://www.masshist.org/research/conferences.

What were a few of the Founding Fathers doing when they weren’t founding? Find out in this Beehive blog. https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/newspaper-roundup/

The right to vote was hotly debated in the past. Take a look at how Mass. women debated their right to vote through cartoons, flyers, and graphs in the MHS archives. https://www.masshist.org/learn/history-source-sets/suffrage

It’s time for Trivia Tuesday! Happy July Birthday, Abraham Lincoln, according to this broadside printed in Boston in 1865. But that’s not right, which month was Abraham Lincoln actually born?

A. June
B. April
C. February
D. September

What happened to King Edward IV’s sons who disappeared during the reign of his younger brother, King Richard III, in 1480’s England, and could the answers lie in the archives of the MHS? Find out in this Beehive blog.

https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2024/07/the-missing-princes-project-a-research-challenge/

It’s time to vote on your favorite MHS summer image bracket! Each pair needs a winner, choose your favorite in each pair by commenting the matching emoji. Voting will close when the next set is posted.

👍https://www.masshist.org/database/2224
❤https://www.masshist.org/database/2236

🥰https://www.masshist.org/database/451
😆https://www.masshist.org/database/6599

😮https://www.masshist.org/database/4389
🥲https://www.masshist.org/database/4874

😡https://www.masshist.org/database/1697
😍https://www.masshist.org/database/1696

If you watched Jeopardy last Friday night, you may have noticed this question, which of course, you all know the answer!

Jeopardy!

Where is this in Boston?

If you are interested in attending the Conrad A. Wright Research Conference on Citizenship, now is the time to register! Day 1 virtual, Day 2 in person, and the Saturday Teacher’s Workshop have registrations open. Learn more about the conference here: https://www.masshist.org/research/conferences.

What was author, playwright, and historian Mercy Otis Warren writing letters about in the 1760s and 1770s? You could find out by transcribing her letters!

Find the project here: https://www.masshist.org/mymhs/projecthub/project/7 #. Signing up to transcribe is free and can be done from your home at any time of day.

To honor the Fourth of July Boston Pops playing of the 1812 Overture with cannon fire, which portrait painting with a cannon do you prefer? A. A portrait of Benjamin Lincoln, by Henry Sargent, 1806, Lincoln was a farmer and major general in the Revolutionary War, https://www.masshist.org/database/3471, or B. a portrait of George Washington, by Mr. Vivian, 1873-1874, https://www.masshist.org/database/232.

Boston Pops

John Quincy Adams had some thoughts on the Declaration of Independence. During a speech he made in Washington DC in 1821, he affirmed it “stands and must forever stand alone, a beacon on the summit of the Mountain, to which all the Inhabitants of the Earth may turn their eyes for a genial and saving light, till Time shall be lost in Eternity and this Globe itself dissolve nor leave a wreck behind.— It stands forever, a light of admonition to the rulers of men; a light of salvation and redemption to the oppressed.” Read more here: https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2012/06/an-independence-day-message-for-the-world/