The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is a major historical archive specializing in early

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and

New England New England is a region consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...

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, and its western suburbs. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown, Boston, Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Public Garden (Boston) ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, and is the oldest

historical society A historical society is non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and promoting the history of a particular place, group of people, or topic. They play a crucial role in promoting historical awareness and understan ...

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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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 in 1975. History Urban renewal in the United States started with the Housing Act of 1949, part of Pres ...

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 b ...

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 William Baylies (September 15, 1776 – September 27, 1865) was an American lawyer and politician who served four non-consecutive terms as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts in the early to mid-19th ...

, Alden Bradford, Peleg Coffin,

Manasseh Cutler Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American Congregational clergyman involved in the American Revolutionary War. He was influential in the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and wrote the section prohibiting sla ...

, 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. One of his most noted books on theology was ''The Natural History of the Bible'' first published in Boston in ...

, Isaac Lothrop, George Richards Minot, John Mellen Jr., Thomas Pemberton,

William Dandridge Peck William Dandridge Peck (May 8, 1763 – October 8, 1822) was an American naturalist, the first native-born entomologist and a pioneer in the field of economic entomology. In 1806 he became the first professor of natural history at Harvard, a pos ...

, John Prince, Ezekiel Price, James Sullivan,

David Sewall David Sewall (October 7, 1735 – October 22, 1825) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine. Education and career Born on October 7, 1735, in York, in that area of the Province of Massachu ...

Peter Thacher Peter Oxenbridge Thacher (1752–1802) was a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts. Biography Peter Thacher was born in Milton, Massachusetts on March 21, 1752. His brother was Thomas Thatcher. He served as pastor in Malden, Massachusett ...

William Tudor William Tudor (March 28, 1750 – July 8, 1819) was an American politician, military officer and lawyer from Boston. His eldest son William Tudor (1779–1830), William became a leading literary figure in Boston. Another son, Frederic Tudor, ...

, Samuel Turell, Dudley Atkins Tyng, James Winthrop, Thomas Wallcut,

Redford Webster __NOTOC__ Redford Webster (June 18, 1761 – August 31, 1833) was an apothecary, town official, and state legislator in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a founding member of the American Antiquarian Society, and helped establish the Boston Library S ...

, 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 (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...

(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 genealogy, genealogist, the author of histories of New London, Connecticut and Norwich, Connecticut. Through her father, she was descendant of Hugh Caul ...

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 near the waterfront and Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches ...

; 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 Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on Land reclamation, reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the ...

was built in 1899; it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

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 a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

(1735–1826) and First Lady

Abigail Adams Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. She was a founder o ...

(1744–1818), as well as other family members including Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886), President

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...

(1767–1848), First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams (1775–1852), Charles Francis Adams (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 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 the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

. *

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

- 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 residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

records including account books and journals, and more than 400 of Jefferson's

architectural drawing An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building (or building project) that falls within the definition of architecture. Architectural drawings are used by architects and others for a number of purposes: to deve ...

s. * 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 John Dunlap (21 August 1746 – 27 November 1812) was an Early American publishers and printers, early American printer who emigrated from Ulster, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and who printed the first copies of the United States Declaration of ...

's July 4–5, 1776,

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

printing of the

. Other notable manuscripts include

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1588 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the fir ...

'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, military officer and industrialist who played a major role during the opening months of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, ...

'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 Francophone Canadians or French-speaking Canadians are citizens of Canada who speak French, and sometimes refers only to those who speak it as their first language. In 2021, 10,669,575 people in Canada or 29.2% of the total population spoke Fren ...

. * 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 believed to be born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley ...

(1738–1815), Sarah Goodridge (1788–1853), Chester Harding (1792–1866), Alonzo Hartwell (1805–1873), Samuel Stillman Osgood (1808–1885),

John Smibert John Smibert (24 March 1688 – 2 April 1751) was a Scottish-born painter who was the first academically trained artist to work in British America. Career Smibert was born in Edinburgh on 24 March 1688, the second youngest of six children of Ali ...

(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 Richard Saltonstall Greenough (April 19, 1819 – 1904) was an American sculptor and younger brother to Neoclassical sculptor Horatio Greenough. Greenough was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest child of Elizabeth (Bender) and David Gre ...

, 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 title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

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

Ben Bagdikian Ben-hur Haig Bagdikian (January 30, 1920 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist, news media critic and commentator, and university professor. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to the United States as an infant and began a journalis ...

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 films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...

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 Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote '' The Power Bro ...

* James Carroll * Jill Ker Conway *

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

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 Founding Fathers of the United States. His book '' American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson'' won a Nation ...

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

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. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950), popularly known by his childhood nickname "Skip", is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of t ...

Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalism, sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of numerous U.S. presidents. Goodwin's book ''No Ordinary ...

* David D. Hall *

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (born 1945) is an American academic who is professor of African-American studies, Afro-American Studies, African American Religion and the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard Un ...

Maya Jasanoff Maya R. Jasanoff (born 1974) is an American scholar of history studies who serves as Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University, where she focuses on the history of Britain and the British Empire. Early life Jasanoff grew up in Ithaca ...

Justin Kaplan Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925– March 2, 2014) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best known as a biographer, particularly of Samuel Clemens, Linc ...

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 h ...

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

* 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 Council ...

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African Americans, African-American Governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic Pa ...

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 D ...

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

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, PBS, ...

* Larry Ruttman *

Jonathan Sarna Jonathan D. Sarna (born 10 January 1955) is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and director othe Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis Universit ...

Jonathan Sarna Elected Massachusetts Historical Society Fellow
Brandeis NOW, retrieved November 16, 2013 *

Merritt Roe Smith Merritt Roe Smith (born 1940) is an American historian. He is the Leverett and William Cutten Professor of the History of Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Life Smith graduated from Georgetown University, and Pennsylvania ...

Richard Norton Smith Richard Norton Smith (born October 2, 1953) is an American historian and author, specializing in United States presidents and other political figures. In the past, he worked as a freelance writer for ''The Washington Post'', and worked with U. ...

David Souter David Hackett Souter ( ; September 17, 1939 – May 8, 2025) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H ...

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 to ...

Garry Wills Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Gener ...

Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation ...

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 television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

'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 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