The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, and

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...

history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154

Boylston Street Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, runs through Back Bay, an ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, Massachusetts, and is the oldest

historical society A historical society (sometimes also preservation society) is an organization dedicated to preserving, collecting, researching, and interpreting historical information or items. Originally, these societies were created as a way to help future ge ...

in the United States. The society's building was constructed in 1899 and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1966. In 2016, the

Boston Landmarks Commission The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) is the historic preservation agency for the City of Boston. The commission was created by state legislation i1975 History Urban renewal in the United States started with the Housing Act of 1949, part of Presid ...

designated it a

Boston Landmark A Boston Landmark is a designation by the Boston Landmarks Commission for historic buildings and sites throughout the city of Boston based on the grounds that it has historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance to New Engla ...

History

The society was founded on January 24, 1791, by Reverend

Jeremy Belknap Jeremy Belknap (June 4, 1744 – June 20, 1798) was an American clergyman and historian. His great achievement was the ''History of New Hampshire'', published in three volumes between 1784 and 1792. This work is the first modern history written ...

to collect, preserve, and document items of American history. He and the nine other founding members donated family papers, books, and artifacts to the society to form its initial collection. Its first manuscript was published in 1792, becoming the first historical society publication in the United States. The society incorporated in 1794; signatories included William Baylies,

, Alden Bradford, Peleg Coffin,

Manasseh Cutler Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American clergyman involved in the American Revolutionary War. He was influential in the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and wrote the section prohibiting slavery in the No ...

, John Davis, Daniel Davis, Aaron Dexter, John Eliot, Nathaniel Freeman, James Freeman,

Thaddeus Mason Harris Thaddeus Mason Harris (July 7, 1768– April 3, 1842) was a Harvard librarian, Unitarian minister and author in the early 19th Century. His most noted book was ''The Natural History of the Bible'' first published in Boston in 1793. Harris was na ...

, Isaac Lothrop, George Richards Minot, John Mellen Jr., Thomas Pemberton, William Dandridge Peck, John Prince, Ezekiel Price, James Sullivan, David Sewall, Peter Thacher,

William Tudor William Tudor (March 28, 1750 – July 8, 1819) was a wealthy lawyer and leading citizen of Boston, Massachusetts. His eldest son William Tudor (1779–1830) became a leading literary figure in Boston. Another son, Frederic Tudor, founded the ...

, Samuel Turell, Dudley Atkins Tyng, James Winthrop, Thomas Wallcut, Redford Webster, and William Wetmore. Indeed, the society claims to have been the only historical collection in the United States until establishment of the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

(1804) and the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

(1812), after which time the society's collecting activities began to focus primarily on

and

. In 1849,

Frances Manwaring Caulkins Frances Manwaring Caulkins (April 26, 1795 – 1869) was a 19th-century American historian and genealogist, the author of histories of New London, Connecticut and Norwich, Connecticut. Through her father, she was descendant of Hugh Caulkins, who ...

became the first woman elected to the society's membership. "The society, for several years after its organization, met in the attic of

Faneuil Hall Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others ...

; afterwards rooms were occupied in Hamilton Place, and then in Franklin Street. In 1833 ... quarters on Tremont Street were occupied" in the building of the Provident bank through the 1890s. The society's current building in the

Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and ...

was built in 1899; it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1965 in recognition of the society's distinctive contribution to historic preservation.

Collections

Today the society continues to collect, preserve, and communicate historical information about Massachusetts and the United States. It is now organized in five departments: Library, Publications, Education and Public Programs, Research Programs, the Adams Family Papers, and Administration. Major collections include: * Adams Family Papers (1639–1889) - material relating to President

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

(1735–1826) and First Lady

Abigail Adams Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; November 22, [ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, an ...

(1744–1818), as well as other family members including

Charles Francis Adams Charles Francis Adams may refer to: * Charles Francis Adams Sr. (1807–1886), grandson of John Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, U.S. congressman, ambassador * Charles Francis Adams Jr. (1835–1915), son of above, American Civil War general and p ...

(1807–1886), President

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...

(1767–1848), First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams (1775–1852),

(1835–1915), and

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fran ...

(1838–1918). Among other papers, the collection includes correspondence, diaries, literary manuscripts, speeches, legal and business papers, and John Adams' handwritten copy of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of ...

. *

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the nati ...

- the library holds Jefferson's handwritten copy of the

and the Coolidge Collection, a collection of "Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts" containing thousands of pages of Jefferson's correspondence, manuscripts of writings,

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

records including account books and journals, and more than 400 of Jefferson's architectural drawings. * Other manuscripts and printed texts - approximately 12,000 biographies and more than 10,000 local histories, as well as newspapers and broadsides including John Dunlap's July 4–5, 1776,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

printing of the

. Other notable manuscripts include

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led ...

's manuscripts on the early settlement of

;

Paul Revere Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to al ...

's account of his ride; and the

Francis Parkman Francis Parkman Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian, best known as author of '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life'' and his monumental seven-volume ''France and England in North Ame ...

manuscripts dealing with

French Canada French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

. * Artwork - paintings by

John Singleton Copley John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. Afte ...

(1738–1815), Sarah Goodridge (1788–1853), Chester Harding (1792–1866), Alonzo Hartwell (1805–1873),

Samuel Stillman Osgood Samuel Stillman Osgood (June 9, 1808 – 1885) was a 19th-century American portrait painter. Biography Osgood was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to James Osgood and Elizabeth Badger. He studied painting in Boston, Massachusetts. After his ...

(1808–1885),

John Smibert John Smibert (rarely spelled Smybert; ; 24 March 1688 – 2 April 1751) was a Scottish-born painter, regarded as the first academically trained artist to live and work regularly in British America. Career Born in Edinburgh on 24 March 1688, Smi ...

(1688–1751), and

Richard Morrell Staigg Richard Morrell Staigg (7 September 1817 Leeds, England - 11 October 1881 Newport, Rhode Island) or R.M. Staigg was a portrait painter in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. Biography When he was about thirteen years of age he was placed ...

(1817–1881), as well as sculptures by Thomas Ball, Richard Saltonstall Greenough, Henry Dexter, and

Hiram Powers Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture '' The Greek Slave'' ...

. The society continues to produce scholarly books, but now augments these publications with digital editions available through its website and other online resources. The ''Massachusetts Historical Review'' has been published annually since 1999.

Notable fellows

The

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

s of the Massachusetts Historical Society are elected and serve as the society's legal governing body. Notable fellows include: * Ben Bagdikian *

Bernard Bailyn Bernard Bailyn (September 10, 1922 – August 7, 2020) was an American historian, author, and academic specializing in U.S. Colonial and Revolutionary-era History. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1953. Bailyn won the Pulitzer Pr ...

* Lawrence Buell *

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...

Robert Caro Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote '' The Power ...

* James Carroll *

Jill Ker Conway Jill Ker Conway (9 October 1934 – 1 June 2018) was an Australian-American scholar and author. Well known for her autobiographies, in particular her first memoir, ''The Road from Coorain'', she also was Smith College's first woman president (1 ...

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

Joseph Ellis Joseph John-Michael Ellis III (born July 18, 1943) is an American historian whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders of the United States of America. '' American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson'' won a National Boo ...

Drew Gilpin Faust Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18, 1947) is an American historian and was the 28th president of Harvard University, the first woman to serve in that role. She was Harvard's first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or gradu ...

David Hackett Fischer David Hackett Fischer (born December 2, 1935) is University Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have covered topics ranging from large macroeconomic and cultural trends (''Albion's Seed,'' ''The Great Wave'' ...

* Henry Louis Gates Jr. *

Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of several U.S. presidents, including ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Drea ...

David D. Hall David Drisko Hall (born 1936) is an American historian, and was Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, at Harvard Divinity School. Life Hall was born on July 8, 1936. He graduated from Harvard University, and from Yale University with ...

* Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham * Maya Jasanoff * Justin Kaplan *

Jill Lepore Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American ...

David McCullough David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United Stat ...

* James M. McPherson *

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

Jaroslav Pelikan Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. (December 17, 1923 – May 13, 2006) was an American scholar of the history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history at Yale University. Early years Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. was born on ...

Nathaniel Philbrick Nathaniel Philbrick (born June 11, 1956) is an American author of history, winner of the National Book Award, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His maritime history, ''In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,'' which tells ...

Cokie Roberts Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne "Cokie" Roberts (née Boggs; December 27, 1943 – September 17, 2019) was an American journalist and author. Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio, PB ...

Larry Ruttman Lawrence Allen "Larry" Ruttman (born February 8, 1931) is an American attorney, author, and historian. He is best known for his two books of biographical cultural history, ''Voices of Brookline'' and ''American Jews and America's Game'', and for ...

* Jonathan SarnaJonathan Sarna Elected Massachusetts Historical Society Fellow
Brandeis NOW, retrieved November 16, 2013 * Merritt Roe Smith * Richard Norton Smith *

David Souter David Hackett Souter ( ; born September 17, 1939) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat ...

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (born July 11, 1938) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian specializing in early America and the history of women, and a professor at Harvard University. Her approach to history has been described as a tribute t ...

* Garry Wills * Gordon S. Wood

References

Notes Bibliography * Further reading
A short account of the Massachusetts Historical Society
originally prepared by Charles Card Smith, together with the act of incorporation, additional acts and by-laws and a list of officers and members. January 1791-June 1918.
The act of incorporation
with the additional acts and by-laws of the Massachusetts Historical Society: with a list of officers and resident members. Boston: printed for the society, 1882. * Thomas Boylston Adams. "Here We Have Lived: The Houses of the Massachusetts Historical Society". ''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society'', Third Series, Vol. 78 (1966)

External links

- 7 series, Vol. 10 of each series is an index for the series
Series 1 indexSeries 2 indexSeries 3 index

Series 4 Index (Vol. 1-10)Series 5 index, p.331

Massachusetts Historical Society

Review
of "Adams Family Papers" website
Teachinghistory.org

"Life Portrait of John Quincy Adams"
from

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United Stat ...

's '' American Presidents: Life Portraits'', broadcast from the Massachusetts Historical Society, April 18, 1999 * {{Authority control State historical societies of the United States 1791 establishments in Massachusetts History of Boston History of Massachusetts History of New England History organizations based in the United States Historical societies in Massachusetts Organizations based in Boston Back Bay, Boston Libraries in Back Bay, Boston Buildings and structures completed in 1899 National Historic Landmarks in Boston Buildings and structures in Boston Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston Research libraries in the United States

History

Collections

Notable fellows

See also

References

External links