In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Lydia Burleson. She discusses her research into the Massachusetts state seal, tracing how its Indigenous imagery has persisted and shifted since the colony's 1629 charter. Drawing upon variety of archival records, Lydia focuses on the seal's brief disappearance during the Revolutionary period, when it was replaced from 1775 to 1780 by an "English American" design bearing a sword, before an Indigenous design returned as the war continued. She also explores what that change, and its reversal, reveals about how colonists used Indigenous imagery to construct an American identity, even as Native nations were largely excluded from the decision-making.

Lydia Burleson is a recipient of the Samuel Victor Constant Fellowship from the Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts, administered by the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-40-Burleson

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Megan Baker, a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware. Megan discusses her dissertation, "Crayon Rebellion: The Material Politics of North American Pastels, 1758-1814," which traces how the fragile and fashionable medium of pastel came to represent both people and ideas in the years surrounding the American Revolution. She explores how artists sourced their materials through Atlantic trade networks, how pastel portraiture materialized ideas about race, and how the medium was eventually used in early natural history illustration before giving way to more durable printed media.

Megan Baker is a recipient of the Andrew Oliver Research Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-39-Baker

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Chloe Kauffman discusses her dissertation research on how young, unmarried women in the Anglo-Atlantic world acquired and shared knowledge about sexuality between 1690 and 1820, with a particular focus on women-to-women relationships and mentorship. Chloe examines the everyday, often overlooked ways this knowledge circulated from family letters and diaries to the surprising presence of suggestive phrases tucked into a 12-year-old's penmanship exercises. At the MHS, she has been working extensively with family papers collections to trace how eroticized knowledge moved across generations of women.

Chloe Kauffman is a recipient of the Alyson R. Miller Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-38-Kauffman

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Prof. Andrew Schocket discusses his current research into what the founders actually meant when they wrote "We the People," examining how early Americans counted one another for taxation and political representation from the 1770s through the 1790s. At the MHS, he has been working with the papers of Jonathan Jackson, the federal marshal who administered the first federal census in Massachusetts in 1790. We also hear about Prof. Schocket's two previous books, including Founding Corporate Power in Early National Philadelphia and Fighting Over the Founders, and his broader interest in "denaturalizing" the American founding.

Prof. Schocket is a recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Short-Term Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-37-Schocket

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Rachel Wiedman. She discusses her dissertation research on gender and political culture in the Civil War era North, tracing a shift in how Northerners evaluated political leadership from an ideal of restrained manhood that valued moderation and compromise to one of martial manhood that prized principle, moral courage, and confrontation. At the MHS, Rachel has been working with letters written by constituents to figures such as John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, revealing how ordinary Northerners used the language of manhood to praise and condemn their political representatives.

Rachel Wiedman is a recipient of the Marc Friedlaender Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-36-Wiedman

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Prof. Christopher Willoughby discusses his research on racial science and medicine in antebellum America, tracing how northern medical schools, including Harvard Medical School, taught and institutionalized theories of biological racial difference. At the MHS, he has been working with the papers of John Collins Warren, examining how this notable Harvard surgeon assembled a skull collection drawn largely from enslaved people and Indigenous communities.

Prof. Willoughby is a recipient of the Elizabeth Woodman Wright Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-35-Willoughby

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Prof. Chelsi Arellano discusses her research on the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and its ripple effects across the British Empire, with a particular focus on the Bostonian Revolt of 1689. She explores how colonists in Massachusetts Bay, frustrated by the dissolution of their charter under James II and the creation of the Dominion of New England, were inspired by events in England to depose their own royal governor. Prof. Arellano also examines the largely overlooked role that women, people of color, and the poor played in that revolt.

Prof. Arellano is a recipient of the Samuel Victor Constant Fellowship from the Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts administered by the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-34-Arellano

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Prof. Marcus Nevius discusses his current book project, titled "Fear of a Maroon Republic: Atlantic Slave War and the Problem of Archival Absence," which builds on his earlier work on marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp to explore how maroons appear and disappear in the historical record with a particular focus on Jamaica. He also reflects on the evolving scholarly understanding of marronage and the challenges of recovering maroon voices from archives that were largely created by enslavers and colonial administrators.

Prof. Nevius is a recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-33-Nevius

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Prof. Peter Messer discusses his research on early American political culture, focusing specifically on the local complexities of revolutionary-era events in Massachusetts. He shares how his work re-evaluates the 1773 "salvaged tea" controversy in Wellfleet, Massachusetts and the 1768 Liberty Riot, exploring the frequent disconnect between immediate local grievances and the broader Whig Republican rhetoric often associated with the American Revolution.

Prof. Messer is a recipient of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-32-Messer

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Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Boone Ayala. He discusses his research on chartered corporations as instruments of imperial rule and his work at the MHS on the 1684 revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Company's charter, which he situates within a broader assault on corporate autonomy happening simultaneously across England. We also hear about his path from computer science major to historian and some objects he encountered in the MHS collections, including a musket from the 1689 siege of Fort Hill and Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Leverett's blood-stained buff coat from the English Civil Wars.

Boone J. Ayala is a recipient of the W.B.H. Dowse Fellowship from the MHS.

To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.

Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-31-Ayala

This episode uses materials from:

Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)