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May 2021
Confronting Racial Injustice: The War On Drugs
The Royall House & Slave Quarters is co-sponsoring the Confronting Racial Injustice Series of five monthly programs hosted by the Massachusetts Historical Society and Northeastern University Law School's Criminal Justice Task Force. Today's topic is "The War on Drugs in Massachusetts: The Racial Impact of the School Zone Law and Other Mandatory Minimum Sentences." In the 1980s, Massachusetts embraced the War on Drugs, enacting harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. It took decades to confront the reality that,…
Find out more »MHSM Annual Meeting/Medford Library History Talk
The Medford Historical Society & Museum will likely conduct a Virtual Annual Meeting again this year, due to the continuing COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings. The program will include a presentation on the history of the Medford Public Library by Barbara Kerr, the library's director and the former director of collections for the MHSM. The public library has been the heart of Medford since 1855. Kerr will talk about library's past, present and future, which includes the forthcoming opening of…
Find out more »June 2021
Confronting Racial Injustice: Charles Stuart Story
The Royall House & Slave Quarters is co-sponsoring the Confronting Racial Injustice Series of five monthly programs hosted by the Massachusetts Historical Society and Northeastern University Law School's Criminal Justice Task Force. For today's event, which concludes the series, the topic is "The Charles Stuart Story." Charles Stuart, a white man, murdered his wife and unborn child in Boston in 1989 and falsely blamed the attack on a nonexistent Black man. Believing Stuart’s lie, the police engaged in a massive…
Find out more »September 2021
Tufts Civic Life Lunch: The Salem Witch Trials
The Tisch College of Civic Life begins its 2021-22 season of Civic Life Lunches with a virtual program titled "The Salem Witch Trials: Hauntings from our Civic Past." Join a conversation with author, illustrator and researcher Marilynne K. Roach, and Director of Education of the Salem Witch Museum Rachel Christ, as they look at what occurred in Salem. Could the real cause of the hysteria be more complex than we realize? By examining the social, cultural and civic structures, we…
Find out more »October 2021
Sarah Bradlee Fulton Day
Medford is celebrating its first Sarah Bradlee Fulton Day in tribute to the heroine of the American Revolution from Medford, sometimes referred to as "The Mother of the Boston Tea Party." There will be fife and drum music, a historical walk around Revolutionary Medford led by historian Dee Morris, and Sarah herself portrayed by Laura Duggan, creator of the one-woman performance "The Story of Sarah Bradlee Fulton." Also on hand will be Fulton's great-great-great-great granddaughter, Brenda Ely Albus, author of…
Find out more »Tufts Art Galleries Tour: Land History
What is our relationship to the land we occupy? How do we interact with our natural environments? How do artists and archivists present counternarratives and possibilities for change via alternate landscapes? Join Tufts University Art Galleries for a special tour of TUAG’s fall exhibitions through the lens of land where we will begin to grapple with these questions. With special guest Dr. Ninian Stein from the Tufts Environmental Studies Program. The fall exhibitions include "Unsettling the Archive: Exploring Tufts’ Relationships…
Find out more »The Changing Voice of the Mystic River
The Medford Historical and Society & Museum invites you to "The Changing Voice of the Mystic River," presented by historian Dee Morris. Medford’s serpentine waterway quietly shaped the lives of many diverse people who settled on its banks. Exploring the river’s evolving viewpoint over time offers fresh insight into the historical events that occurred along the shores of the Mystic River. View the program live on Medford Community Media (Ch. 3 on Comcast and Ch. 43 on Verizon).
Find out more »Slavery at Shirley Place – A Working Report
The Royall House & Slave Quarters and the Shirley-Eustis House Association are co-sponsoring the online program "Slavery at Roxbury's Shirley Place - A Working Report." Shirley Place in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston was built in 1747 by Massachusetts Royal Governor William Shirley as his seasonal country estate. It was recently designated a Boston Landmark. Aabid Allibhai, PhD candidate in Harvard University's African and African-American Studies Program, will discuss his research into the enslaved people who served Governor Shirley and…
Find out more »History Book Group: Collector of Lives
The Medford Historical Society & Museum and the Medford Public Library have chosen "Lives Lived" as the fall theme for their History Book Group, which will take place via Zoom. This evening's topic is the book "The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Collection of Art" by Ingrid Rowland and Noah Charney. Learn about the achievements of Vasari (1511–1574), a sculptor, painter, architect, writer and scholar, best known for his new genre of artist biography entitled the "Lives of…
Find out more »Royall House & Slave Quarters Virtual Tour
The Medford Historical Society is sponsoring a virtual tour of the Royall House & Slave Quarters as part of its fall series, "Crossroads in Community: What 'Then' Says to Us 'Now.' " The tour and discussion that follows will give viewers an opportunity to look, listen, and learn about an important piece of Medford's Black history that still resonates today. The program will feature a 40-minute guided tour of the Royall mansion and the only known freestanding Slave Quarters in the…
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