emerged from a conversation w/ @kawulf.bsky.social about spreading the word to register for this incredible event on the Friday of #SHEAR2025 www.simpletix.com/e/shear-ten-...

Thank you @theotherrbg.bsky.social for my second fav pic of my book cover (left, obv), amazing in front of the @jcblibrary.bsky.social! And no, #DailyMargaret really should not be on that table.

Excited to start my new read, especially after hearing Zara Anishanslin speak at @dublinseminar.bsky.social this weekend! She was gracious enough to sign her book for my fangirl self 😉 #nerdalert

The 2026 Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife will take place on June 26–27 here at Historic Deerfield. That will be the seminar’s 50th year, so there will be celebrations and reminiscences. The topic will be how New Englanders have envisioned and shaped the future.

#DubSum2025 concludes with Phil Zea diving deep into the story of one object: Israel Putnam’s Nov 10, 1756, powder horn. Probably made by a soldier in Robert’s Rangers for new captain Putnam. Decorated with fortified sites. Putnam might have carried it to Carillon, Havana, and Detroit.

Stephen O’Neill surveys “Drums in the Revolution & Early Republic” thru a material-culture lens. #DubSem2025 Cabinetmaker Robert Crossman of Taunton made two surviving drums, 1739 and 1740.

Our last #DubSem2025 panel, “Objects of Memory,” starts with Cindy Falk on how artist William Murray fashioned family records for people in the Mohawk Valley, records later submitted with pension applications. Murray also painted icons of Continental soldiers into those records.

"Public forgetting, like public memorialization, can have a swift and easy outcome if the forces intent on causing the loss of memory have enough power and put enough effort into the project."

After lunch at the Deerfield Inn, #DubSem2025 resumes with Tim Hastings speaking on African-Americans in New Hampshire invoking the memory of the Revolution to promote contemporary freedom/equality. Case study: Pomp Spring (d. 1807), called “President of the African society” in Portsmouth.

Alexandra Cade shows that the first sheet music celebrating the Bunker Hill Monument in 1836 depicted the obelisk complete, though it wasn’t done till 1843. #DubSem2025 “The Freemen’s Quick Step” from 1840 pictured the tower still in progress at a rally and translated brass band to piano.

Jim Bennett traces the public readings of the Declaration of Independence in Boston. From the 1880s to 1971 the readers became high schoolers, many from immigrant families. Press coverage celebrated patriotic assimilation. In 1910 the ceremony became a reenactment, barring girls. #DubSem2025

Kate Criscitiello now speaks of Lexington’s historical pageants in 1915 and 1925. The first was even filmed. The first commemorated a century of peace with Britain (then at war) while the second was Sesquicentennial. #DubSem2025

At #DubSem2025 Ben Haley reveals there was hardly any interest in Henry Knox’s trek in 1776 until around 1920. A Massachusetts commission started to research the route using other sources on typical travel of the time. Knox’s own diary has sparse info.

#DubSem2025 starts today’s session with Gerry Ward of the Portsmouth Historical Society on the man, the myth that was Capt. John Paul Jones. Once he was a household name called the founder of the American navy. Now not even Led Zeppelin keeps his name alive for some young people.

Had a wonderful day yesterday at the @dublinseminar.bsky.social - so many smart, thoughtful folks doing such great work. Looking forward to Day 2!

We’re back after dinner to hear John Davis of Historic Deerfield introduce Zara Anishanslin, whose #DubSem2025 keynote address will introduce her new book “The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists who Championed the American Revolution.”

Sarah J. Purcell speaks at #DubSem2025 about women’s crucial financial contribution to the building of the Bunker Hill Monument and the sale of souvenirs in the mid-1900s.

#DubSem2025 resumes with Mariah Kupfner’s analysis of Sophia Buell’s scrapbook and other collections of fragments deemed meaningful because of their Revolutionary connections.

Beth Folsom of History Cambridge completes the “Institutions of Memory” panel at #DubSem2025 by discussing how Cambridge commemorated the Centennial in 1876. (She’d planned to cover other anniversaries, but there was so much to explore in just one.)

#DubSem2025 continues with Elizabeth Pangburn’s examination of Dr. Henry Huntington’s conversion of his ancestral home into a historic museum. In the mid-1900s he hosted family reunions in where everyone dressed in colonial garb. But simultaneously he remade the house nearly unrecognizably.

#DubSem2025 begins “Recalling the Revolution” with David Wood of the Concord Museum on “Misremembering April 19th.” Efforts to cement the memory of that day started only a few days later in 1775, but were shaped by shifting contemporary priorities.

Touring Revolutionary sites at Historic Deerfield. Here we are at the Liberty Pole with a Liberty and Union flag at the top. Deerfield’s original pole was chopped down one night. A witness stone recognizes chattel slavery at the same site. Part of our “Recalling the Revolution” conference.

Doorways at Historic Deerfield from this morning’s walking tour.

The authoritarian assault on higher education continues - UVA and Harvard have to hold the line www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/u...

In this anniversary year, military reenactments are a common way of “Recalling the Revolution in New England,” as the title of our June 27–28 conference puts it. When was the earliest recorded reenactment of the first fight of the Revolutionary War in Lexington? (Answer coming in a reply.)

What do the origin stories of the Bunker Hill Monument, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum in Hadley, and the Henry Knox Trail reveal about how we remember our national origin story? Join us in Deerfield on June 27–28 to discuss “Recalling the Revolution”: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Just checking the weather forecast for June 27–28, the days of our conference. Highs in the 70s! Good for meeting in Historic Deerfield’s community center and visiting the historic buildings. And on Friday there are optional walking tours of the Revolutionary town. dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Gravestone of Jeremiah Wilson, 1743, at Old Common Burial Ground in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Carved by Jonathan Worcester.

I've been in this racket for a while. One of the most enjoyable experiences I've had was an afternoon discussing the American Revolution with @pattonoswalt.bsky.social & @gregjenner.bsky.social for an episode of You're Dead to Me which will air on Radio 4 at 10:00 on July 5 (+ a longer podcast).

I am laughing so hard because when does a scholar think they’ve earned the right to call him “Tom Paine,” when so many still go with “Thomas.”

J. L. Bell, co-chair of our conference program committee this year, is getting into the “Recalling the Revolution” theme with an online presentation for Old North Church called “The Ghost of Major John Pitcairn” on Tuesday, June 24, at 7pm: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-ghost-...

So excited that Seminar week is here! If you can’t be with us in Deerfield this weekend, note that recordings for registrants are available on demand for the month following the Seminar! #AmRev250 #Publichistory

Still time to register for the @dublinseminar.bsky.social this Friday/Saturday! Come hear me speak about the “real” Knox Trail. What’s that? Come find out. www.historic-deerfield.org/dublinseminar/

Thanks to generous donors, we have a limited number of free registrations available for university students. If you’re researching the memory of the American Revolution, check out the program for our June 27–28 conference in Deerfield and online: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Register for our “Recalling the Revolution in New England” conference at Historic Deerfield next weekend, either online or in person, and you’ll have access to all the presentations for a month, from Anishanslin (keynote) to Zea (Putnam powder horn). dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Pomegranates, honey and roses...all given in 1785 as cures for 'Women's Longing' (same cure used for worms)

The photo below shows a parade float sponsored by the telephone company as a tribute to Paul Revere’s Ride. Doesn’t it look festive? Explore ways New Englanders have remembered the Revolution—museums, markers, music, massive obelisks—at our June 27–28 conference: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Folks arriving early for our “Remembering the Revolution” conference on Friday morning, June 27, can sign up for a walking tour of Revolutionary sites around Historic Deerfield and a special viewing of Revolutionary materials in the Memorial Libraries – dublin-seminar.org/2025-dublin-...

Our keynote speaker on June 27 will be Zara Anishanslin, who’ll introduce her new book, “The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution.” Why do we remember some Revolutionary artists and not others? dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

This week we commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill in Charlestown. There’s a reenactment in Gloucester on Saturday & Sunday. battleofbunkerhill250.com Explore New England’s long history of remembering (and forgetting) the Revolution at our conference in Deerfield: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

What are the origin stories of such landmarks as the Bunker Hill Monument, Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, and Knox Trail? What do they say about remembering our nation’s origin story? Join us in Deerfield on June 27–28 to discuss “Recalling the Revolution”: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

For any of my friends who will be attending the @dublinseminar.bsky.social in Deerfield at the end of June, please join me for a happy hour at Treehouse Brewing on Friday, June 27 to geek out about all things Revolutionary! All are welcome, and please feel free to share!

Local pageants, house museums, historical markers, sheet music, drums, student orations, powder horns, massive stone obelisks & more! Explore the many ways New Englanders have remembered the Revolution over the centuries at our June 27–28 conference: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

How have New England communities like Lexington, Cambridge, and Exeter told and revised their Revolutionary stories over the decades? Expert speakers explore that history at our “Remembering the Revolution” conference in Deerfield, June 27–28. dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

How have New England communities like Lexington, Cambridge, and Exeter told and revised their Revolutionary stories over the decades? Expert speakers explore that history at our “Remembering the Revolution” conference in Deerfield, June 27–28. dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Concord Museum curator David Wood leads a tour of the “Whose Revolution?” exhibit on Friday, June 13: concordmuseum.org/event/whose-... And at our conference on June 27–28, he’ll speak on “Misremembering April 19th”. Register to attend in person or online! dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

Michael D. Hattem, author of “The Memory of ’76,” was on our conference program committee this year. He’ll discuss Americans’ emotional connection to the memory of the Revolution at the Newport Historical Society on Thursday, June 12: newporthistory.org/event/why-we...

Founders Online, an important resource of primary source materials of the founding generation, has been having trouble for the last month & is practically unusable now because of “website crawling” of AI content “scooping”. 🤬🤬🤬So done with AI.

New England is dotted with stones marking the “Knox Trail” from Fort Ticonderoga to greater Boston. Some even mark the route that Henry Knox took in 1776. At our June 27–28 conference in Deerfield, Ben Haley will dig into the history of this commemoration: dublin-seminar.org/our-2025-con...

True stories about objects add dimension to the narrative of the Revolutionary War. Untrue tales reveal more about the people who told them. Concord Museum curator David Wood speaks on “Misremembering April 19th” at our June 27–28 conference. Register today! dublin-seminar.org/2025-dublin-...