In this episode, we continue our conversation with Prof. Matthew Dennis, author of the book American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory. Prof. Dennis discussed corporeal relics with us in Part 1 of this discussion. In Part 2, we talk about natural specimens as well as objects that are given significance by the connection they have to an historic event or figure. MHS Curator of Art & Artifacts Emerita, Anne Bentley, and Chief Historian & Stephen T. Riley Librarian, Peter Drummey, also return to help us look at the remains of a Blackburnian warbler and a pair of epaulets that belonged to General George Washington.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-6-relics-one-of-a-kind 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guest:

Matthew Dennis is Professor of History and Environmental Studies Emeritus at the University of Oregon and now lives in New York City. His books include Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: Iroquois-European Encounters in 17th-Century America; Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar; Riot and Revelry in Early America; Encyclopedia of Holidays and Celebrations, 3 vols.; Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic; and American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory.

This episode uses materials from:

Yellow-rumped Warbler by Chad Crouch (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)        Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)        Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In this episode, we speak with historian Matthew Dennis about his book, which looks at relics in American memory. With Peter Drummey, the Chief Historian & Stephen T. Riley Librarian, and Anne Bentley, the Curator of Art & Artifacts Emerita at the MHS, we examine two pieces of a blood-soaked towel and a fishhook made from human bone.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-5-relics-corporeal-remains 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guest:

Matthew Dennis is Professor of History and Environmental Studies Emeritus at the University of Oregon and now lives in New York City. His books include Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: Iroquois-European Encounters in 17th-Century America; Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar; Riot and Revelry in Early America; Encyclopedia of Holidays and Celebrations, 3 vols.; Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic; and American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory.

This episode uses materials from:

Monday by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)   Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)        Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

On this episode, we are investigating the phenomenon of Egyptomania, a "fascination with the style of Egypt, but also the people, and the landscape, and antiquity". We sit down with Lea Stephenson, a PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware, to examine Egyptomania's second wave during the Gilded Age. Lea helps us examine two collections by Americans who documented their travels to Egypt through various media. We also discuss these American travelers and their relationship with the landscape.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-4-egyptomania

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guest:

Lea Stephenson is a PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware, where her dissertation considers Euro-American artists and collectors in Egypt during the Gilded Age. Currently, she is the Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow in American Paintings & Works on Paper at Historic Deerfield.

This episode uses materials from:

Box Canyon by Chad Crouch (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)        Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)        Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

On this episode, learn more about abolitionist Jonathan Walker, known as the “Branded Hand”, because of a punishment he received for attempting to rescue 7 enslaved laborers in 1844. Hannah Elder, the Associate Reference Librarian for Rights and Reproductions at the MHS, and Katherine Fein, a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History & Archaeology at Columbia University, join us as we discuss how abolitionists harnessed the new technology of photography to showcase the brutality of the system of slavery.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-3-branded-hand 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Katherine Fein is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History & Archaeology at Columbia University. Her article about the daguerreotype of Jonathan Walker's branded hand was published in Oxford Art Journal.

Hannah Elder, Associate Reference Librarian for Rights and Reproductions, has been with the MHS since 2018. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Maine and an MLIS from Simmons University. Her historical interests include the history of the book, queer history, and the lived experiences of ordinary women.

This episode uses materials from:

Belted Kingfisher by Chad Crouch (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)       Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)       Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In this episode, we discuss the field of Disability History and how it relates to several items at the MHS. Jenny Reiss, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Pennsylvania, introduces us to Gouverneur Morris, a founding father of the United States who lived with disabilities. We then take a look at several 19th and 20th century objects in the collection that relate to the history of disability.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-2-gouverneur-morris-and-history-disability 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Jennifer W. Reiss is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is working on a dissertation, tentatively titled "Undone Bodies: Women and Disability in Early America", exploring the relationship between gender and disability in colonial America and the early Republic. She holds a B.A. in History and Political Science, also from Penn, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and two Master's degrees, in Law and in History, from the University of Cambridge.

Mary Yacovone, Curator of Rare Books & Visual Materials, has been at the MHS since 1994, after beginning her library career at the Essex Institute in Salem, Mass. She holds a B.A. in English from Tufts University and a Masters in Library Science from Simmons College.

This episode uses materials from:

Across The River by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In this episode of The Object of History, we closely examine a portrait of George Washington in which he does not resemble the familiar face on the one-dollar bill. We discuss how this might be related to President Washington’s longtime struggle with his dental health and the cultural significance of teeth in the 18th century.

Episode transcript

Learn more about episode object here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-1-washingtons-teeth 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Lucy Smith is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan in the joint History and Women & Gender Studies program. Her dissertation examines the cultural history of human teeth in the early American Republic and has taken her to 34 archives in 21 cities nationwide. Prior to graduate school, Smith worked nearly a decade in the museum field, most recently as the Education Specialist at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

This episode uses materials from:

Lens Flare by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In 1860, a historically-minded donor presented the MHS with tree roots, which he claimed belonged to Boston’s famous Liberty Tree. The tree, an American elm, served as a rallying point and important symbol for protesters and rebels in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Were the roots actually from that hallowed tree? Are they even from an American elm? In this episode, we set out to solve the mystery.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-2-episode-9-roots-liberty-mhs-mystery 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Dr. William (Ned) Friedman is the eighth director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard.  He is deeply interested in the evolutionary history of plants as well as the intellectual history of evolutionary thought.

Dr. Jacqueline Reynoso is a historian of Early America whose research explores processes of geopolitical imagining in eighteenth-century North America. She is an Assistant Professor of History at CSU Channel Islands.

This episode uses materials from:

Peas Corps by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In this episode, we are taking a close look at some of the oldest items in the Society's collection. W. Dean Eastman Undergraduate Resident, Erin Olding, takes us along as she examines manuscripts from the Middle Ages that are illuminated with gold and silver. 

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-2-episode-8-illuminated-manuscripts

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Erin Olding was one of the two interns for the MHS's innagural W. Dean Eastman Undergraduate Library Residency, working with the Library and Research departments. She is going on to study History at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Dr. Agnieszka Rec is the Early Materials Cataloger at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. She is working on the collecting habits of Boston bibliophile Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston.

This episode uses materials from:

All the Ways by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In this episode, we find out what it takes to live like a historical figure and how collections like the Adams Papers can help us rethink daily life in both the past and the present. We sit down with Gwen Fries, the Production Editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society, to discuss an experiment she conducted during the lockdown of 2020. Gwen spent a week of her life living like John Quincy Adams. We discuss what daily life was like for the sixth president of the United States and what it was like to emulate him. 

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-2-episode-7-to-live-like-john-quincy-adams

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Gwen Fries is the Production Editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Fries holds degrees in history and corporate communications from Elizabethtown College and has been with the Adams Papers since 2016.

Neal Millikan is the Series Editor for Digital Editions with the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. She is currently editing the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, part of the Mellon-sponsored Primary Source Cooperative at the MHS.

Laura Rocklyn is an award winning actress, writer, and first person historical interpreter who has performed with regional theaters across the country and worked at museums up and down the East Coast. She is currently an Acting Company Member with the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company and a museum educator at the Paul Revere House Museum.

This episode uses materials from:

Cases to Rest by Blue Dot Session (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

In this episode, Danny Bottino, a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University, explains the importance of studying wax seals, objects that accompany but are often overlooked when historians focus on the text of historical documents. As key components of deeds, letters, and other types of papers, wax seals tell important stories that we are just beginning to understand. Dr. Sara Georgini, the Series Editor of The Papers of John Adams, also shows us one of the most remarkable documents in the entire MHS collection.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-2-episode-6-stories-told-in-wax

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Daniel Bottino is a doctoral candidate in early American and early modern European history at Rutgers University. His dissertation analyzes the interaction of oral and literate culture in the creation of landscapes of colonization in seventeenth-century Maine.

Dr. Sara Georgini is the series editor for The Papers of John Adams, part of the Adams Papers editorial project based at the Massachusetts Historical Society. She is the author of Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family and Our Library in Paris, coming soon from Oxford University Press.

This episode uses materials from:

Retrograde by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)