Past Events
Video recordings of past events can be viewed at this link.
Upcoming Events
Open Houses
Starting in October, The Colonial Society of Massachusetts will hold open houses at its headquarters at 87 Mount Vernon Street in Boston on the first Sunday of each month, from 1 to 3 p. m.
In 2024 the dates are Oct. 6, Nov. 3, and Dec. 1, and in 2025, January 5*, March 2, April 6, May 4, and June 1.
*depends upon staffing and weather. Check with CSM at [email protected] before coming on that date.
December 19, 2024
Stated Meeting, 3 p.m. Fellow Member Len Travers, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, will speak on “Piracy's ‘Golden Age’ Reconsidered.” In his recent book, The Notorious Edward Low: Pursuing the Last Great Villain of Piracy’s Golden Age, Travers draws on previously unpublished Admiralty records and both contemporary and modern accounts to reexamine the career of Low, a Boston-based laborer turned pirate, and how British authorities used new anti-piracy laws to reclaim a measure of authority over their fractious North American colonies in the early eighteenth century.
February 13, 2025
Stated Meeting, 3 p.m. Blake Grindon, 2023-2025 Patrick Henry Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University, will speak on “The Death of Jane McCrea: Sovereignty and Violence in the Northeastern Borderlands of the American Revolution.”
March 20, 2025
Special Event, 6 p.m. Fellow Members Robert A. Gross, James L. and Shirley A. Draper Professor of Early American History Emeritus, University of Connecticut, and Robert J. Allison, Professor of History, Suffolk University, will discuss the American Revolution from the opposing viewpoints of the Patriots and the Loyalists. Refreshments available at 5:30 p.m.
April 17, 2025
Stated Meeting, 3 p.m. Fellow Member J. L. Bell will speak on “The Mystery of Joseph Warren’s Informants.”
May 8, 2025
Donald R. Friary Symposium, 6 p.m. “Archives and Revolution.” A conversation led by Fellow Member Karin Wulf, Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, Professor of History, Brown University, with Fellow Members Scott E. Casper, President, American Antiquarian Society, and Paul Erickson, Director, Clements Library, University of Michigan. Refreshments available at 5:30 p.m.
All in-person events take place at 87 Mount Vernon St., Boston Ma 02108 and are free and open to the public. They can also be joined online at https://bit.ly/ColSocEvent. To participate in an online-only event, use the Zoom link posted on this website next to the listing for that event.