I Now Pronounce You Lucy Stone

Challenging discrimination is not easy; Lucy Stone was never one to take the easy road. The first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree, Lucy was an ardent supporter of human rights. Always fierce, her belief that women and men be equal was evident in both her political and personal endeavors. Her message inspired thousands to join the suffrage movement; even Susan B. Anthony credits Lucy’s impassioned speeches for her involvement. As a scholar, Lucy studied Greek and Hebrew, insisting that ancient scriptures had been mistranslated to objectify women.

Rethinking the Tablescape: Indigenous Origins of New England Cuisine

From pumpkin pies to johnnycakes, maple syrup, roast turkey, and cornmeal cakes, the history of “traditional” New England cuisine is rooted in Indigenous knowledge and traditional foodways. Join us for a cooking demonstration and discussion that will place Indigenous ways of knowing and tradition-keeping into conversation with AAS archival materials to examine the lasting impact of settler colonialism in the Eastern Woodlands region.

Boneyarn: A Poetry Reading and Discussion about Slavery in New York City

In this program, poet David Mills will read from and reflect upon the research behind his recent collection, Boneyarn, the first-ever book of poems about slavery in New York City. The city holds the oldest and largest slave cemetery in the United States—the African Burial Ground—which was open from 1712 to 1795 and is located in Wall Street’s shadows. Fifteen thousand enslaved and free Blacks, some Native Americans, and poor whites are buried there. Mills creatively “excavates” the tragedies and triumphs of New York’s enslaved and free Black community.

Slave Rebellions in the Atlantic World

Beyond Britain’s North American mainland colonies, European colonies in the Caribbean and South America were also sites of imperial resistance movements in the Age of Revolutions. In this program, AAS President Scott Casper will moderate a conversation with Vincent Brown and Marjoleine Kars about slave rebellions in the larger Atlantic world, with a focus on Jamaica and the Dutch colony of Berbice. The discussion will cover stories of slavery, warfare, and rebellion and highlight the experiences of the enslaved people who participated in them.

Historically Hers: Revisiting American Girl Doll Stories through the AAS Collections

For thirty-five years, American Girl dolls have attempted to encourage girls to embrace their strength, be themselves, and engage with American history, while also, of course, providing countless hours of entertainment. For many girls—including some AAS staff members!—the historical worlds of the dolls have inspired a lifelong love of history, sometimes even a career path. But what is the real history behind these fictional characters?

Book Traces: Nineteenth-Century Readers and the Future of the Library

In most college and university libraries, materials published before 1800 have been moved into special collections, while the post-1923 books remain in general circulation. But books published between these dates are vulnerable to deaccessioning; often libraries clear out the duplicates, assuming that circulating copies of any given nineteenth-century edition are essentially identical to one another. When you look closely, however, you see that they are not.

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