MA250

1776: Declaring Independence
2026-03-31 09:30 - 16:00, 2026-03-30 09:30 - 16:00, 2026-03-28 09:30 - 16:00, 2026-03-27 09:30 - 16:00, 2026-03-26 09:30 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Massachusetts Historical Society, Boylston Street 1154, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States
Featuring manuscripts, artifacts, and rarely seen treasures, this exhibition captures a monumental moment in American history.
In 1776, people grappled with ideas of liberty, loyalty, and the role of government in society. Private letters, intimate diaries, and newspaper accounts reveal how the Declaration of Independence grew from draft to founding document. 1776: Declaring Independence spotlights handwritten copies of the Declaration by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as well as multiple early printings, including a rare Dunlap broadside. On and off the page, we explore how it echoed across the commonwealth and around the world, reshaping the colonists’ chances of launching a new nation. How did the Declaration change Americans’ quest for liberty, then and now? We invite visitors to trace the Declaration’s complex legacy as a national beacon for celebration and protest.
Check here for closures and more admission information: https://www.masshist.org/visit/hours-and-admission

Washington Remembered, Washington Forgotten: Washington and Slavery
2026-03-30 18:00 - 19:30 | Cambridge Public Library, Broadway 449, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
To mark the 250th anniversaries of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, a coalition of local non-profits and government agencies will present Washington in American Memory, a seven-part speaker series.
Explore how Americans have remembered and forgotten Washington’s involvement with slavery over the past 250 years, featuring:
-Kelli Racine Barnes, ACE Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow
-John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (forthcoming) and Vice President of Research and Engagement at the American Association for State and Local History
-Kyera Singleton, Executive Director of the Royall House & Slave Quarters and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Tufts University Center for the Humanities

Founding Women: Ideas of Independence
2026-03-30 18:00 - 19:00 | Massachusetts Historical Society, Boylston Street 1154, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States
This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin 6:00 PM.
Please visit here to register: https://www.masshist.org/events/founding-women
From letters to plays and poetry to history, Mercy Otis Warren, Abigail Adams, and Phillis Wheatley communicated ideas about revolution, independence, and freedom. They engaged leading political figures, family members, and peers in conversations about women’s rights, slavery, and the future of American government. Join us to discover how Warren, Adams, and Wheatley wrote their way through the American Revolution and beyond.

AudaTours Stoneham Audio Tour: Timeless Tales of Historic Pride and Heritage
2026-03-30 12:00 - 14:00, 2026-03-29 12:00 - 14:00, 2026-03-28 12:00 - 14:00, 2026-03-27 12:00 - 14:00, 2026-03-26 12:00 - 14:00 | Nobility Hill Historic District, Stoneham, Massachusetts, 02180, United States
In Stoneham, the shadows of colonial fires and twentieth-century neon flicker side by side. Few realize how many secrets linger behind these iconic facades.
This self-guided audio tour leads straight through the city’s untold stories. Encounter corners and chapters that even locals walk past, and let carefully crafted tales reveal what hides beneath the ordinary.
Why did a quiet night at the Bernard Cogan House erupt into controversy that changed a neighborhood? Who vanished beneath the glowing beacon of Stoneham’s eerily beautiful gas station? What explains the perfectly preserved pencil marks under the Warren Sweetser House staircase?
Move between centuries as you cross storied main streets and hidden lanes. Each step peels back another layer of rebellion, ambition, and intrigue, letting Stoneham rise up around you as never before.
Tap play and see how deep Stoneham’s shadows can stretch. The secrets are waiting.

The Road to Revolution: Massachusetts and the Independence Movement
2026-03-30 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-03-29 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-03-28 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-03-27 10:00 - 17:00, 2026-03-26 10:00 - 17:00 | Old State House, 206 Washington St, Boston, MA, 02109, United States
Explore major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution at the Old State House, where protest turned into action and the momentum for independence accelerated. Created through a partnership between Revolutionary Spaces and the Massachusetts Historical Society, The Road to Revolution: Massachusetts and the Independence Movement invites visitors to step into 1775 and 1776—a moment defined by uncertainty, debate, and decisions that would reshape the world.

Eric Jay Dolin presents Rebels at Sea : Privateering in the American Revolution
2026-03-29 14:00 - 15:00 | Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Old Main Street 307, Yarmouth, MA, 02664, United States
Eric Jay Dolin is the award-winning best-selling author of fifteen books, including one with the same title as his talk. He will discuss the critical role of “the ragtag fleet of private vessels” that “tormented the British on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean” in determining the outcome of the American Revolution.

Redware and the Revolution!
2026-03-28 14:00 - 16:30 | Smith Barn, 38 Felton St., Peabody, MA, 01960, United States
Family day to celebrate local pottery history: Redware pottery demonstration, author talk, pinch pot activity, and tour of the museum’s collections! Peabody was at the heart of the Colonial red earthenware industry roughly between 1770-1850. Potters from around New England used to come here to train and to source the high quality clay from the North River. “Danvers-ware” and “Danvers China” are just some of the names associated with this region’s pottery heritage. Join redware potter Rick Hamelin and archaeologist Justin Thomas on this fun and informative afternoon!
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Rick Hamelin will present a pottery demonstration along with a discussion of specific potters from our Revolutionary War history. | Smith Barn Carriage Room
3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Rick will facilitate a pinch pot activity open to all ages at the cost of $1. ATM on-site. | Smith Barn Carriage Room
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Justin Thomas, an archaeologist, will be doing an author talk on his forthcoming book on Peabody pottery, and will provide a guided tour of our collection of redware pottery. | Nathaniel Felton Jr. House

“Spinning Toward Revolution: Growing Flax & Processing Linen in New England, 1765-1776”
2026-03-28 13:00 - 14:30 | Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA, 02421, United States
On Saturday, March 28, Dr. Kimberly Alexander, Director of Museum Studies and Senior Lecturer in the History Department of the University of New Hampshire, will speak about women’s textile production and political protest in the 18th century. She will present her research and show tactile components of flax production from her work with the UNH Flax to Linen project.
After Dr. Alexander’s talk, learn more about the 1769 Lexington spinning protest in our exhibition, Protest & Promise: The American Revolution in Lexington. This program is co-hosted by the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library and LexSeeHer for Women’s History Month.

Printing Revolution Lecture with Andy Volpe
2026-03-28 13:00 - 14:00 | Museum of Printing, 15 Thornton Ave, Haverhill, MA, 01832, United States
Join us at the Museum of Printing for Andy Volpe’s “Printing Revolution” lecture —press freedom and colonial resistance before Independence.
Andy Volpe’s “Printing Revolution” presentation, takes a look not only at the printing press and printing technology being considered “revolutionary”, but also looking at what was printed.
Including the idea of Freedom of the Press, laws and acts passed to control the press, and the rebellious printing done against those laws, with an emphasis in the American Colonies leading up to the Declaration of Independence.
Andy will have several examples and replicas of documents on display after the presentation.Program is apx. 1 hour, and is free with Museum admission.

Revolutionary Women Tours
2026-03-28 10:45 - 12:15 | Boston Common, 139 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02111, United States
This March, the Freedom Trail® Foundation will honor Women’s History Month with the return of the Revolutionary Women Tours. The tours will help residents and visitors discover the indomitable women who took part in the American Revolution, and the generations of women that followed, inaugurating their own struggles for freedom and equality.
The Freedom Trail Revolutionary Women Tours invites people of all ages to walk the Freedom Trail and explore four centuries of revolutionary women who changed history. These 90-minute tours feature tales of the early religious rebellions of Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, abolitionist movements of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, landmark achievements of Black pioneers Phillis Wheatley and Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, prolific writings of Abigail Adams and Louisa May Alcott, dynamic speeches of Margaret Sanger and Susan B. Anthony, and more. Walk the paths these influential women treaded, while visiting the places where their voices were heard, works published, and were laid to rest.
The tours also feature official Freedom Trail historic sites from the site of the Great Elm on Boston Common, where women paid the ultimate price for refusing to conform to puritanical values, to the Granary Burying Ground, where those who fought fiercely for independence are remembered alongside their revolutionary male counterparts, the Old Corner Bookstore and Old South Meeting House, where women made change through the power of literature and the spoken word. Revolutionary Women Tours culminate at Faneuil Hall, the Cradle of Liberty, which played a prominent role in both the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements.

Revolutionary Newton
2026-03-28 10:00 - 16:00 | Durant-Kenrick House and Grounds, 286 Waverley Avenue, Newton, 02458, United States
Historic Newton celebrates the 250th anniversary of the founding of America! Join us on Saturday, March 28th from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM and explore what life was like in the Revolutionary era. Engage with reenactors, drink Patriot and Loyalist tea, do hands-on crafts, participate in a scavenger hunt, and more! You’ll be truly immersed in 18th-century New England at one of Newton’s oldest houses. Located at the Durant-Kenrick House and Grounds, 286 Waverley Ave, Newton, MA. Free and open to the public. Fun for the whole family!

Calling All Kids, Patriots And Sailors: Revolutionary Summer Saturdays
2026-03-28 10:00 - 13:00 | Custom House Maritime Museum, Water Street 25, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 01950, United States
FREE outdoor and indoor activities for kids all summer long
Building on the success of the Road to Revolution partnership programs, each Saturday from now until the end of September, the museum will host children’s outdoor and indoor programming. The hugely successful Discovery Center experience will extend out onto the lawn with 15 new activity stations. Rolling River Printmakers of New England will partner this week with an activity station to make prints. A rideable dolphin and elephant, courtesy of local sculptor Jeff Briggs, along with a bouncy castle, pirate boat with water guns, plus water, sand and craft tables await.
This free program runs from 10 am to 1 pm thanks to generous sponsorship from the Institution for Savings and the Local Cultural Council.
Looking ahead, in September, the museum is pleased to partner with Imagine Studios on a fascinating project to burn and carve out of a pine log and shape into a 20 foot long mishoon (dugout canoe) using traditional methods. Led by Imagine Studios, Darius Coombs of the Mashpee Wampanoag and Jonathan Petty of the Aquinnah Wampanoag will carve over successive weekends. Sponsored by the New England Foundation for the Arts, and with in-kind support from New England Development, the goal is to launch on Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 11.
We hope you can join us.–James

Remember the Ladies 250
2026-03-28 - 2026-03-29 | Adams National Historical Park Visitor Center, Hancock Street 1250, Quincy, Massachusetts, 02169, United States
Join Adams National Historical Park Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29 for a premier 250th anniversary event commemorating the American Revolution experiences of Abigail Adams and the legacy of her famous “Remember the Ladies” letter to John Adams.

Daughters of the American Revolution & celebrate a Local Heroine
2026-03-26 18:30 - 20:30 | Upton Community Center, 9 Milford St, Upton, Upton, 01568, United States
Join us Thursday, March 26th @ 6:30PM at the Upton Community Center to honor
Daughters of the American Revolution & celebrate a local heroine. In honor of our Nation’s 250th anniversary, we will be hosting a special presentation on the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) by Millie Williams, President of the Deborah Wheelock Chapter.
A highlight of the evening will be the tribute to Polly Dean Bradish, an Upton abolitionist recognized for her courageous role in the Underground Railroad. Bradish, who risked her life to harbor fugitive slaves in Upton, exemplifies the spirit of bravery and compassion that the DAR seeks to honor. We will remember Polly Dean Bradish not just as a figure of history but as a beacon of hope and humanity. Attendees are sure to be moved by the stories of Bradish’s selflessness and the impact of her actions on those seeking freedom.
Participants are expected to leave with a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices of past generations and a renewed commitment to preserving their legacy. The event will remind attendees that the stories of individuals like Polly Dean Bradish continue to inspire and shape the future. Let us never forget the sacrifice of life from the Revolutionary War to present day that gave us our freedom.

The Battle of Falmouth
2026-03-26 16:00 - 17:30 | Falmouth Museums on the Green, Palmer Avenue 55, Falmouth, MA, 02540, United States
The Battle of Falmouth—An important Revolutionary War encounter between the Colonial Militia and British Troops occurred in April of 1779 in our town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. Faced with imminent attack by British troops and the threat of the town being burned, the local Militia stepped up in a fascinating series of events and saved the Town. The amusing story of the gravestone “saga” of a Falmouth Revolutionary Veteran who was in the battle, buried in the Old Burying Ground, will be included.
Presented in memory of John F. Swope (1938-2025), lifelong Falmouth summer resident and lover of history.
Tickets: $10 Museums on the Green members, $20 non-member, or donation-based ticket
David S. Martin, Ph.D. bio:
David S. Martin, Ph.D., is Professor/Dean Emeritus from Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, the world’s only university for deaf students. Previously a teacher, school administrator, and curriculum developer, he holds a B.A. from Yale, an Ed.M. from Harvard, the Certificate of Advanced Study from Harvard, and a Ph.D. from Boston College.
In retirement, he is President of the Marstons Mills (Cape Cod) Historical Society, Treasurer of the Yale Club of Cape Cod, and active in the leadership of the Cape Cod Genealogical Society. He teaches part-time in the Master’s Program in Critical and Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He and his wife Susan reside in Marstons Mills.

Remembering the Revolution — The Siege of Boston
2026-03-26 14:45 - 18:00 | Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard University, Kirkland Street 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026
Time: 2:45–6:00 p.m. (doors open at 2:30 p.m.)
Location: Harvard University, Boylston Hall, Fong Auditorium
Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138
Cost: Free and open to the public; advance registration required for in-person attendance
This afternoon mini-symposium examines the Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) and considers how the Revolution has been preserved, interpreted, and remembered through documents, objects, scholarship, and public memory.
Panel One (3:00–4:05 p.m.)
“Hands On the Revolution: Documents, Objects, and Methods”
Scholars and public historians from the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and The Royall House & Slave Quarters discuss how original records and artifacts shape our understanding of the Revolutionary era.
Speakers:
Scott Casper (American Antiquarian Society)
Sara Martin (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Kyera Singleton (The Royall House & Slave Quarters)
Panel Two (4:15–5:55 p.m.)
“The Decisive Day is Come”: Boston on the Brink of Siege
Inspired by Abigail Adams’s 1775 letter describing “the decisive Day…on which the fate of America depends,” this panel explores Boston during the early months of war, with attention to urban life, political upheaval, and Indigenous and Black experiences.
Speakers:
Benjamin Carp (CUNY Graduate Center)
Brendan McConville (Boston University)
Jacqueline Jones (University of Texas at Austin, Emerita)
Cedric Woods (University of Massachusetts Boston)
Reception
6:00–7:00 p.m.
Robinson Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138
Registration (required for in-person attendance):
https://1776.history.fas.harvard.edu/

Author Book Talk Eric Jay Dolin, Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution (W.W. Norton, 2022)
2026-03-26 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual Program, North Washington Square 19 1/2, Salem, MA, 01970, United States
About the Author: Eric Jay Dolin is the author of seventeen books, including Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America; A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes; Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates; and Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution. His forthcoming book (June 2, 2026), is The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail. Dolin’s books have won many awards including the John Lyman Award for U.S. Maritime History; Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award; National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Excellence in American History Book Award for Adult Nonfiction; Samuel Eliot Morison Book Award for Naval Literature; L. Byrne Waterman Book Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research and Pedagogy in the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences; James P. Hanlan Book Award; and the Outdoor Writers Association of America Book Award. Many of his books have been chosen as “must reads” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Other honors include being chosen as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and as one of the best books of the year by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, the Library Journal, and Booklist. Dolin lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his family. For more information, please see www.ericjaydolin.com.
About the Book: The best-selling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary War in Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told before, yet missing from most maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels, from 20-foot whaleboats to 40-cannon men-of-war, that truly revealed the new nation’s character―above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. In Rebels at Sea, Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, though often seen as profiteers at best and pirates at worst, were in fact critical to the Revolution’s outcome. Armed with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes―as well as government documents granting them the right to seize enemy ships―thousands of privateers tormented the British on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean. Abounding with tales of daring maneuvers and deadly encounters, Rebels at Sea presents the American Revolution as we have rarely seen it before.
Winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award | A Massachusetts Center for the Book “Must-Read” | Finalist for the New England Society Book Award | Finalist for the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Book Award

In the Margins: Women Printers in the 18th Century
2026-03-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Reading Public Library, Middlesex Avenue 64, Reading, Massachusetts, 01867, United States
18th century newspapers and pamphlets were essential to the dissemination of information and were instrumental in fanning the flames of discord on both sides of the revolutionary conflict. While the job of printing was largely considered a masculine activity, widows, wives, and daughters took up the mantle of a free press. Not only did women printers set the type that would be read and shared by readers and subscribers, but in some cases even ran and owned their own printing operations. In this lecture, learn about the indispensable role that women in printing played in the pivotal events leading up to the American Revolution.
Michele Gabrielson, MA Ed, is a local history teacher and historic interpreter of the 18th century and was recently acknowledged with a Rising Star Award by the Massachusetts History Alliance for public history programming. She specializes in interpreting the history of colonial women printers, 18th century chocolate production, and of course, the revolutionary playwright and poet Mercy Otis Warren. Gabrielson additionally serves on several historical committees dedicated to helping preserve the history of colonial America, is a member of the Authenticity Standards Committee for Minuteman National Historic Park, and is the coordinator for the Battle Road Guides for the annual reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
