Each year we present a Baron Lecture as part of the festivities surrounding the Society’s annual meeting. The series is named after Robert C. Baron, president of Fulcrum Publishing and long time AAS member and Council Chairman from 1993-2003. These lectures provide a wonderful opportunity for an AAS member who has written a significant and [...]
At 6:30 PM on Friday, September 23, the American Antiquarian Society will take visitors back to the late 1840s, as Jay DiPrima recreates Henry David Thoreau’s lecture “Economy.” Thoreau originally delivered his lecture, drawn from his early writings on his year at Walden Pond, on Friday, April 20, 1849 at Worcester City Hall. A review [...]
Ever wonder if you were born in the wrong century? If so, imagine it is still those halcyon early days when AAS was a new institution. A time when lyceums were considered viable forms of entertainment. When you could subscribe to attend a series of lectures on a topic and feel your brain expand with [...]
On September 23-24, 2011, the American Antiquarian Society will host a symposium titled “The Cosmopolitan Lyceum: Globalism & Lecture Culture in Nineteenth-Century America.” This conference was organized by Dr. Tom Wright, of the University of Oxford. So what’s a lyceum, anyway? Throughout the nineteenth century, the lyceum—a scheduled public lecture that was intended to be [...]
Please join us tomorrow evening, Tuesday, May 24th, at 7:30 p.m. for “Igniting the War: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Antislavery Politics, and the Rise of Lincoln.” Dr. David S. Reynolds, Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, will draw on materials from [...]
This Thursday, May 12, at 7:30 p.m., James O. and Lois E. Horton will present “Liberty and Justice for All: The Civil War as Blacks’ Second American Revolution.” Directions to AAS and further information about this and other public programs are available on the AAS website. Describing the scope of their lecture, Professor Horton commented: [...]
An annual rite of spring for AAS curators is the Boston Book & Paper Exposition and Sale, one of two fairs sponsored annually by the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Antiquarian Booksellers (MARIAB). This spring’s fair will be held on Saturday, May 7, 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Shriner’s Auditorium, 99 Fordham [...]
Don’t forget to join us tonight at 7:30 to hear Joshua Kendall discuss his new book, The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture. Noah Webster was not only America’s greatest lexicographer; he also helped to define American culture through his dictionaries and spelling books. A search of the [...]
On the evening of December 16, 1773, a group of disguised Bostonians boarded three merchant ships and dumped more than forty-six tons of tea into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party, as it later came to be known, was an audacious and revolutionary act. It electrified Massachusetts, set the stage for war, and cemented certain [...]
Tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 6 pm, the American Antiquarian Society’s long anticipated Adopt-a-Book event will be held at Antiquarian Hall (185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA). While we hope you have enjoyed our recent series of posts previewing some of the items available for adoption, the actual event will be full of extra [...]
This Tuesday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m., John B. Hench will be presenting the twenty-seventh Annual James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the Program in the History of the Book in American Culture at the American Antiquarian Society. John B. Hench is the retired vice president for collections and programs at AAS. His talk, “Random Notes [...]
Thursday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. Reflections on A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich The Seventh Annual Robert C. Baron Lecture The book A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 quickly became a model of social history when it was published in 1990. The book examines the life [...]
Tuesday, September 28 – 7:30 p.m. Discovering the Great Divorce by Ilyon Woo In 1814, Eunice Chapman’s estranged husband stole away her three children and took them to live among the Shakers. At a time when wives and mothers had few rights to speak of, Eunice Chapman waged a colossal campaign for her children’s return, [...]
Many of us begin a new academic or fiscal year this week. In the spirit of new beginnings and renewed vows of organization, AAS has added an RSS feed to our website. Those who have visited the AAS website recently have no doubt noticed how much content has been added, events promoted, books published, etc. [...]
Last month, the American Antiquarian Society entered a new era. Since 1981, fellows and visiting scholars have been housed at the Goddard-Daniels House, an elegant turn-of-the-century mansion located across Salisbury Street from the library building. On May 25, with Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray leading the proceedings, the ribbon was cut to officially open the Society’s [...]
Tomorrow evening, Tuesday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m. Lori D. Ginzberg will be giving a lecture at AAS on “‘A very radical proposition’: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Meanings of the Vote.” Brilliant, self-righteous, charismatic, intimidating, and charming, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the founding philosopher of the American movement for woman’s rights. To many she [...]
Ever wish you could turn common, everyday household objects into gold? Well, now you can! This pitch may sound eerily similar, if in reverse, to the “Cash for Gold” ads flooding our TV airwaves today. In the early modern world, alchemists were the ones pursuing methods to turn common elements into gold. When Europeans settled [...]
Today you can check out a new issue of Common-place.org, an early American online journal AAS co-sponsors. If you want to understand today’s economic woes, you could do a lot worse than explore hard times in early America. That’s the message in “Hard Times,” the latest edition of Common-place.org, guest edited by historian Michael Zakim. [...]
If you thought the tension and incivility between political parties in America couldn’t get any worse than it has been recently, then you haven’t spent enough time with nineteenth century political cartoons. Today I don’t think you could get away with publishing an image like “The Philosophic Cock” (in the new fully illustrated online inventory [...]
Just a reminder that the best way to escape the dreary weather (besides a tropical vacation) is a relaxing evening with a glass of wine, delicious food, and some good books. If you agree, please join us tonight at the American Antiquarian Society for our annual Adopt-a-Book event beginning at 6pm. You may also attend [...]
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