2014 Spring Public Programs Now in Full Swing

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Now that the spring weather seems to have (finally) reached us here in Worcester, everyone is beginning to get out and partake in all of those activities they put off during the winter, including cultural events. We hope that our spring lineup of public programs at Antiquarian Hall—including the one tonight—will be among those that ...

Creating Historical Theater in an Afternoon

“…you sockdologizing old man-trap!” Stomp. Scream. Panic. “Good, good – now next time, keep the scream going longer and continue the dialogue over it. Let’s see how that works.” This was just one of many exchanges between the group of nine actors practicing a staged reading of the historically-based play Sockdology, and Jeffrey Hatcher, the playwright ...

Leaves among the Leaves

Shortly after their arrival, new AAS fellows give a talk to the staff about their project and the sorts of sources they’re hoping to find. In her talk, current fellow Jessica Linker, who is working on her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut, mentioned that as part of her work on women and science she ...

Video Modules Enliven AAS Website

Whenever you create a movie you always shoot more footage than you can actually use. When we created our new orientation film describing the Society as part of our bicentennial celebrations last year, we decided to put the extra footage we had created to good use by creating five short video modules and embedding them ...

Tribute to a Legendary AAS Staff Member

As a description of a professional trajectory in the research library world, it certainly makes for an impressive resume: Library Assistant, American Antiquarian Society Curator of Maps and Prints, American Antiquarian Society Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts, American Antiquarian Society Director, Center for Historic American Visual Culture, American Antiquarian Society At the same time, it’s not unheard of. ...

Public Program: “From Emancipation to Civil Rights and Beyond: Legacies of the Civil War at 150”

The last public program in our fall lineup will be delivered by one of the nation’s foremost historians of slavery and resistance, David Blight, next Thursday, November 1 at 7 p.m. In recent public programs we have discussed the bicentennial of AAS and the War of 1812. Now, Blight will shift focus to another current ...

Recent Books Based on Research at AAS

Looking for something new to read?  Listed below are some suggestions, just a sampling of the most recent books to come across our desk that were researched here at AAS. If you have recently published a work based on research at the Society, let us know so we can add it to our list.  Information on ...

Featured Fellow: Aston Gonzalez

Aston Gonzalez, Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship: "Kneeling and Fighting: African American Artists' Depiction of Black Humanity" My project at the American Antiquarian Society investigates how African American visual artists produced work that acted as counternarratives to the racist messages contained in popular literature, images printed in ...

Featured Fellow: Nicolas Barreyre, “Of Gold and Freedman”

This post has been long delayed (sorry Nicolas!), and although he has now returned to his native France, here is some information about the project Nicolas Barreyre worked on during his month in residence at AAS. Nicolas Barreyre, Assistant Professor in American History, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre and École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, ...

Featured Fellow: Carsten Junker

Carsten Junker, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies, University of Bremen, Germany Ebeling Fellowship Project: “Reading Affect in 18th-Century Abolitionist Debates” Professor Junker’s project examines late eighteenth-century texts that envisioned an end to the enslavement of African-diasporic people in the North American colonies and early republic. The struggle to overcome slavery was fought by many – ...

“Past is Present” in the Future

One of the greatest strengths of the AAS fellowship program is that researchers from around the globe, working in diverse disciplines (history, English, art, creative writing, archaeology, etc.), all live together just up the street from Antiquarian Hall. During their lunch hour and after being forced out of the reading room at 5 pm, ...

Book-Buying in Baltimore

Sarah Arndt, PhD Candidate in History at Trinity College, Dublin, describes one of the treasures she found during her recent fellowship at AAS. Have you ever wondered what your shopping receipts say about you?  What sort of conclusions would someone make about you by examining the sorts of food, clothing or books you purchased?  Recently, I ...

New Fellows’ Residence at AAS

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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 ...

“Who did it? The Maine Question”

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Returning the occasional game to the AAS graphic arts department does not usually result in discovering the explosives that blew up the USS Maine in 1898. Well, it never does, actually.  But when Jennifer Burek Pierce, Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa’s School of Library and Information Science and recent Jay and Deborah Last ...

Music Makes its Mark, and a Market

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Music religious thoughts inspires, And kindles in us pure desires; Gives pleasure to a well-tun’d mind, The most exalted and refin’d Music the coldest heart can warm, The hardest melt, the fiercest charm; Disarm the savage of his rage, Dispel our cares, and pains assuage: With joy it can our souls inspire, And tune our tempers to the lyre; Our passions like the notes agree, And ...