2023 Mass History Conference Call for Ideas, Suggestions & Proposals

2023 Mass History Conference Call for Ideas, Suggestions & Proposals

Yoga in the museum, collecting community history, bringing history to school in a suitcase, collaborating with community organizations, organizing poetry slams. Around the Commonwealth, local and regional historical organizations are working hard to expand the boundaries of collecting, engaging, and connecting with different, new, and more diverse audiences. In leaving our buildings to become part of the community, we are inviting the community to be part of us. Exhibits are happening online or with guest curators, programs take a hike to the nearest park or pub.

Conversations on the Commons: Collecting for the 21st Century

Conversations on the Commons: Collecting for the 21st Century

Carolyn Goldstein coordinates the Mass. Memories Road Show and teaches public history at UMass Boston. Together with Andrew Elder, she is the co-developer of RoPA, the Roadmap for Participatory Archiving. RoPA is an online resource that guides libraries and cultural organizations through the process of collaborating with community members to plan engaging and inclusive participatory archiving events and to create digital collections.
As historical organizations increasingly take on the role of relevance to a wider audience, we need to collect different “stuff” from a more diverse population. Perhaps your town has changed over the past century and your collections do not reflect the local histories of people and groups who are now a vital part of your community. How do you go about enriching your collections with their stories and connecting them to older histories? What are the obstacles and successes you have met with? How have you partnered with different individuals and groups to make sure your collections do not only speak to the distant past? Join us on Dec. 9, 12:00-1:30 for a conversation on the art of proactive collecting of community history in the twenty-first century. 

History Studio: Ten Footer Shoe Shops

History Studio: Ten Footer Shoe Shops

Bootmaker and Artist Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin presents her work as an artisanal Keeper of Tradition in Massachusetts and a working artist. With a thorough knowledge of traditional Western bootmaking, Sarah researches and analyses the connections between evolving methods of footwear making craft of the 1800s in Massachusetts – with an architectural focus on vernacular Ten Footer Shoe Shops – to the stability of a contemporary art practice heavily based in handmade footwear techniques and skills.

History Studio: Screening and discussion of ‘Contradictory Place’

History Studio: Screening and discussion of ‘Contradictory Place’

From the 1830s through the Civil War, many Lowellians from all walks of life engaged in concerted efforts to block the expansion of slavery and helped freedom seekers even when this meant defying federal law. “A Contradictory Place” offers viewers a way to learn about an important, but too often neglected, chapter of our history. The forty-minute film was written by Robert Forrant and Maritza Grooms, produced by former Lowell Telecommunications Executive Director Wendy Blom, and edited by former Lowell Telecommunications News Director Caroline Gallagher.

About Publick Occurences, the MHA newsletter

Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was the first multi-page newspaper published in the Americas, Boston, September 25, 1690. It was shut down immediately by the government. We’ll take that as a lesson. Image courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Contributions

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Please make out your check to the Massachusetts History Alliance and send it to:

Jenna Ware, Treasurer, Mass History Alliance
c/o Earl Taylor,
123 Ashmont Street
Dorchester, MA, 02124

Thank you!