events
Louisa May Alcott
Read the Room Book Club: Work by Louisa May Alcott
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
6:00-7:30 p.m.
$12 per meeting, free for members
Virtual via Zoom
This semi-autobiographical story explores the changing experiences and expectations of women’s work within the nineteenth-century backdrop of the Civil War, industrialization, Transcendentalism, and the women’s rights movement.
In this meeting, we will discuss Louisa May Alcott’s life in parallel to this story, including her residences on Beacon Hill (around the corner the Nichols House) and comparisons to members of the Gibson and Nichols households. We’ll also touch on the filming of the 2019 "Little Women" at the Gibson House.
From Goodreads: “In this story of a woman’s search for a meaningful life, Alcott moves outside the family setting of her best known works. Work is both an exploration of Alcott’s personal conflicts and a social critique, examining women’s independence, the moral significance of labor, and the goals to which a woman can aspire.”
Purchase Work from your local bookstore or online through the local-bookstore network, Bookshop. A digital version is free through Project Gutenberg.
Hosts: Meghan Gelardi Holmes (Curator, Gibson House Museum) and Barbara Callahan (Public Engagement Manager, Nichols House Museum)
Space is limited, and advanced registration is required. Registration is free for Nichols House Museum and Gibson House Museum members and is $12 per meeting for non-members. We’re thrilled to offer a very special joint membership in conjunction with the book club: join both museums for $60 (a savings of $35) and receive free access to the book club as well as member benefits at both museums!
Register and sign up for membership here
6:00-7:30 p.m.
$12 per meeting, free for members
Virtual via Zoom
This semi-autobiographical story explores the changing experiences and expectations of women’s work within the nineteenth-century backdrop of the Civil War, industrialization, Transcendentalism, and the women’s rights movement.
In this meeting, we will discuss Louisa May Alcott’s life in parallel to this story, including her residences on Beacon Hill (around the corner the Nichols House) and comparisons to members of the Gibson and Nichols households. We’ll also touch on the filming of the 2019 "Little Women" at the Gibson House.
From Goodreads: “In this story of a woman’s search for a meaningful life, Alcott moves outside the family setting of her best known works. Work is both an exploration of Alcott’s personal conflicts and a social critique, examining women’s independence, the moral significance of labor, and the goals to which a woman can aspire.”
Purchase Work from your local bookstore or online through the local-bookstore network, Bookshop. A digital version is free through Project Gutenberg.
Hosts: Meghan Gelardi Holmes (Curator, Gibson House Museum) and Barbara Callahan (Public Engagement Manager, Nichols House Museum)
Space is limited, and advanced registration is required. Registration is free for Nichols House Museum and Gibson House Museum members and is $12 per meeting for non-members. We’re thrilled to offer a very special joint membership in conjunction with the book club: join both museums for $60 (a savings of $35) and receive free access to the book club as well as member benefits at both museums!
Register and sign up for membership here
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"Upstairs, Downstairs: Domestic Service at the Gibson House" Specialty Tour Launch Saturday, May 15 & Sunday, May 16 1:00 & 3:00 p.m. $15/$12 students & seniors; space is limited Pre-registration is required. Explore the lives of the young, Irish immigrant women who worked in domestic service in the Back Bay. On this tour, we invite you to view the Gibson House from a different perspective. We will start in the back alley and move from the working quarters through the rest of the house. Using census records, domestic advice manuals, and the architecture of the Gibson House, this tour explores the work of these women (and some men) and the community they created. Rarely seen spaces, including the coal shed (the last surviving one in Back Bay) and the fifth-floor servant bedrooms, will be on view. Additional dates are available this summer through the link below. *Please note that this tour includes walking up and down six flights of stairs, and that the Gibson House Museum is not air-conditioned. Register here! |
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Tuesday, May 18, 2021
6:00-7:30 p.m.
$10 suggested donation
Virtual via Zoom
Domestic servants made possible the lifestyles of many families in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but their stories often go untold. Why did they choose domestic service? What was their relationship with each other and the families they worked for? How did they experience the house? In this panel discussion, representatives from five historic house museums--the Gibson House, Waltham's Gore Place, Newport's Elms Mansion, New York's Merchant's House Museum, and Akron, Ohio's Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens--will explore the experiences of the domestic staff that lived and worked at our sites. Join us to examine these homes through the lens of the workers who kept them running.
The following sites and speakers will be featured. Serving as moderator will be Jennifer Pustz, author of Voices from the Back Stairs: Interpreting Servants’ Lives at Historic House Museums. :
The Elms, with Leslie Jones (Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator, The Preservation Society of Newport County)
The Elms was the summer residence of Edward Berwind and his wife Sarah Torrey of Philadelphia and New York. Edward Berwind made his fortune in the coal industry. The house was modeled on a French chateau and finished in 1901, and served as one of the most fashionable homes in Newport.
Gibson House Museum, with Meghan Gelardi Holmes (Curator)
The Gibson House is a historic house museum located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. Now a National Historic Landmark, it was home to three generations of Gibson family members and their household staff between 1859 and 1954 and now serves as a time capsule of domestic life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Meghan Gelardi Holmes, Curator, is spearheading a Mass Humanities Project Grant to develop a new house tour about the domestic staff at the Gibson House, including original research about the large community of domestic workers in the Back Bay in the 1880s and 1920s.
Gore Place, with Thom Roach (Director of Interpretation and Programs) and Diann Strausberg (Museum Historian)
Gore Place is a National Historic Landmark located in Waltham, Massachusetts. The fifty-acre country estate of Christopher Gore (1758-1827) and Rebecca Gore (1759-1834) features an 1806 mansion house, a 1793 coach house and stables, and a circa-1835 farm cottage. The farm raises a rare breed of English sheep, the Leicester Longwool. Owned by the Gore Place Society since 1935, Gore Place was the workplace of Robert Roberts, author, abolitionist, and personal servant to the Gores.
Merchant's House Museum, with Emily Hill-Wright (Director of Operations)
The Merchant’s House Museum is New York City’s only family home preserved intact–inside and out–from the nineteenth century. Built in 1832, the landmark brick-and-marble rowhouse was the home of a wealthy merchant-class family and their Irish servants for nearly 100 years. Complete with the family’s original furnishings and personal possessions, the house provides an intimate and authentic glimpse of domestic life in the mid-nineteenth century, during the period when New York transformed from a mercantile seaport into a booming metropolis.
Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, with Julie Frey (Curator)
Stan Hywet Hall, a Tudor Revival estate, was the home of F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling and their family from 1915 until 1955. The home served as a gathering place for the couple’s extended family as well as acting as a community center for the Seiberlings’ philanthropic and civic activities. That tradition has continued since 1957, when Stan Hywet Hall opened to the public as a museum.
6:00-7:30 p.m.
$10 suggested donation
Virtual via Zoom
Domestic servants made possible the lifestyles of many families in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but their stories often go untold. Why did they choose domestic service? What was their relationship with each other and the families they worked for? How did they experience the house? In this panel discussion, representatives from five historic house museums--the Gibson House, Waltham's Gore Place, Newport's Elms Mansion, New York's Merchant's House Museum, and Akron, Ohio's Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens--will explore the experiences of the domestic staff that lived and worked at our sites. Join us to examine these homes through the lens of the workers who kept them running.
The following sites and speakers will be featured. Serving as moderator will be Jennifer Pustz, author of Voices from the Back Stairs: Interpreting Servants’ Lives at Historic House Museums. :
The Elms, with Leslie Jones (Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator, The Preservation Society of Newport County)
The Elms was the summer residence of Edward Berwind and his wife Sarah Torrey of Philadelphia and New York. Edward Berwind made his fortune in the coal industry. The house was modeled on a French chateau and finished in 1901, and served as one of the most fashionable homes in Newport.
Gibson House Museum, with Meghan Gelardi Holmes (Curator)
The Gibson House is a historic house museum located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. Now a National Historic Landmark, it was home to three generations of Gibson family members and their household staff between 1859 and 1954 and now serves as a time capsule of domestic life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Meghan Gelardi Holmes, Curator, is spearheading a Mass Humanities Project Grant to develop a new house tour about the domestic staff at the Gibson House, including original research about the large community of domestic workers in the Back Bay in the 1880s and 1920s.
Gore Place, with Thom Roach (Director of Interpretation and Programs) and Diann Strausberg (Museum Historian)
Gore Place is a National Historic Landmark located in Waltham, Massachusetts. The fifty-acre country estate of Christopher Gore (1758-1827) and Rebecca Gore (1759-1834) features an 1806 mansion house, a 1793 coach house and stables, and a circa-1835 farm cottage. The farm raises a rare breed of English sheep, the Leicester Longwool. Owned by the Gore Place Society since 1935, Gore Place was the workplace of Robert Roberts, author, abolitionist, and personal servant to the Gores.
Merchant's House Museum, with Emily Hill-Wright (Director of Operations)
The Merchant’s House Museum is New York City’s only family home preserved intact–inside and out–from the nineteenth century. Built in 1832, the landmark brick-and-marble rowhouse was the home of a wealthy merchant-class family and their Irish servants for nearly 100 years. Complete with the family’s original furnishings and personal possessions, the house provides an intimate and authentic glimpse of domestic life in the mid-nineteenth century, during the period when New York transformed from a mercantile seaport into a booming metropolis.
Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, with Julie Frey (Curator)
Stan Hywet Hall, a Tudor Revival estate, was the home of F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling and their family from 1915 until 1955. The home served as a gathering place for the couple’s extended family as well as acting as a community center for the Seiberlings’ philanthropic and civic activities. That tradition has continued since 1957, when Stan Hywet Hall opened to the public as a museum.
Babe Ruth
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
6:00-7:00 p.m.
$10 members, $12 nonmembers
Virtual via Zoom
The decade 1910-1920 was a time of tremendous turmoil, with a "War to End All Wars" and the deadliest pandemic in recent history. The war and pandemic had significant implications for all areas of American life, including Major League Baseball and the future of the Boston Red Sox. Bob Goodof, former GHM board member and longtime baseball history buff, will build on Skip Desjardin's masterpiece September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series to discuss events leading to, through, and after this critical period, including a host of other characters, anecdotes, and "fake news."
6:00-7:00 p.m.
$10 members, $12 nonmembers
Virtual via Zoom
The decade 1910-1920 was a time of tremendous turmoil, with a "War to End All Wars" and the deadliest pandemic in recent history. The war and pandemic had significant implications for all areas of American life, including Major League Baseball and the future of the Boston Red Sox. Bob Goodof, former GHM board member and longtime baseball history buff, will build on Skip Desjardin's masterpiece September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series to discuss events leading to, through, and after this critical period, including a host of other characters, anecdotes, and "fake news."
Thursday, May 27, 2021
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Virtual program; sliding-scale admission
Most Historic House Museums have a history of interpretation and preservation that has predominantly viewed history through the lens of the dominant white culture. Though progress has been made over the last several years, the preservation movement hit a pivotal moment in 2020 when renewed calls for equity enlightened all of us, as stewards of cultural institutions, to become more inclusive and aware of our collective past.
Join the House Museum Alliance of Downtown Boston for this evocative and enlightening program as Alison Frazee, Assistant Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, considers how historic sites continue to change their practices to be more inclusive, accessible, and intentional so that they can tell the story of everyone’s history through preservation.
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Virtual program; sliding-scale admission
Most Historic House Museums have a history of interpretation and preservation that has predominantly viewed history through the lens of the dominant white culture. Though progress has been made over the last several years, the preservation movement hit a pivotal moment in 2020 when renewed calls for equity enlightened all of us, as stewards of cultural institutions, to become more inclusive and aware of our collective past.
Join the House Museum Alliance of Downtown Boston for this evocative and enlightening program as Alison Frazee, Assistant Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, considers how historic sites continue to change their practices to be more inclusive, accessible, and intentional so that they can tell the story of everyone’s history through preservation.
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
6:00-7:00 p.m.
$10 members, $12 nonmembers
Time weighed heavily on Boston “Brahmins” Ogden Codman, Jr. (1863-1951) and Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. (1874-1954). Each represented the last of the male line within his family, and both felt somehow displaced in the twentieth century. Join Tripp Evans, professor of American art and architecture, Wheaton College, to explore how these men turned back the hands of time--both by preserving their childhood homes for posterity and, as recent discoveries demonstrate, through Codman's early romantic interest in Gibson.
6:00-7:00 p.m.
$10 members, $12 nonmembers
Time weighed heavily on Boston “Brahmins” Ogden Codman, Jr. (1863-1951) and Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. (1874-1954). Each represented the last of the male line within his family, and both felt somehow displaced in the twentieth century. Join Tripp Evans, professor of American art and architecture, Wheaton College, to explore how these men turned back the hands of time--both by preserving their childhood homes for posterity and, as recent discoveries demonstrate, through Codman's early romantic interest in Gibson.
R. Tripp Evans is a professor of American art and architecture at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in architectural history from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. in the history of art from Yale University. His 2010 biography of the painter Grant Wood won the National Award for Arts Writing, and his current book project examines four New England house museums created by bachelor-collectors, including the Codman Estate and Gibson House.