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Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library (BPL) was the first large free municipal library in the United States. The present Copley Square location has been home to the Library since 1895, when architect Charles Follen McKim completed his "palace for the people." Between 1870 and 1900, twenty-two additional Branches began serving communities throughout Boston's diverse neighborhoods. In 1972 the Library expanded its Copley Square location with the opening of an addition designed by Philip Johnson. Today, the McKim building houses the BPL's vast research collection and the Johnson building holds the circulating collection of the general library and serves as headquarters for the Boston Public Library's 26 branch libraries. In addition to its 6.1 million books, the library boasts over 1.2 million rare books and manuscripts, a wealth of maps, musical scores and prints. Among its large collections, the BPL holds several first edition folios by William Shakespeare, original music scores from Mozart to Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf;" and, in its rare book collection, the personal library of John Adams. Over 2.2 million patrons visit the BPL each year, many in pursuit of research material, others looking for an afternoon's reading, still others for the magnificent and unique art and architecture.break

http://www.bpl.org/

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Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age by Henry Wiencek

6:00pm Mon, Jul 28, 2025

Join American Ancestors at the Boston Public Library for an illustrated tour of the Gilded Age, seen through the experiences and artistry of two of its celebrated artists: architect Stanford White and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Author Henry Wiencek and moderator Curt DiCamillo will take us behind the scenes to show how these two cultural trendsetters transcended scandal to enrich their times.

The creator of landmark buildings that elevated American architecture to new heights, Stanford White was a man-about-town and a canny cultural entrepreneur. Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s painstaking work brought emotional depth to American sculpture; he was the son of an immigrant shoemaker, a moody introvert, and a committed procrastinator. These two artists pursued their own careers in Italy and France, then came together again in New York, where they maintained an friendship and partnership that sustained them. White calmed Sant-Gaudens’s troubled spirits and vouched for him when he failed to complete projects. Saint-Gaudens challenged White to take his artistic gifts seriously and supported him even through the sordid debaucheries that led to White’s sensational murder. In Stan and Gus, the acclaimed historian Henry Wiencek sets these men’s relationship within the larger story of the American Renaissance, where millionaires’ commissions and delusions of grandeur collided with secret upper-class clubs, new aesthetic ideas.

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American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors Boston Public Library
The March to Freedom for All Americans, 1860-1920

Mon, Jun 23, 2025

In this unique panel American Ancestors' guest speakers will focus on the defining years of 1860-1920 and bring to life the experiences of a great variety of Americans, from the enslaved-then-free peoples and soldiers who marched with Union Civil War General Sherman to immigrants, workers, Native Americans, and women. Don’t miss learning more about Bennett Parten’s and Manisha Sinha’s groundbreaking research, new books, and insightful discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor.

In Somewhere Toward Freedom, Bennett Parten provides a full account of Sherman’s March to the Sea—the critical Civil War campaign that destroyed the Confederacy. For the first time, he tells this remarkable tale from perspective of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who fled to the Union lines and transformed Sherman’s march into the biggest liberation event in American history.

Manisha Sinha expands our view of the Reconstruction time period in The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic. Her startling original account opens in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln, that triggered the secession of the Deep South states, and take us all the way to 1920 and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote—and which Sinha calls the "last Reconstruction amendment."

Join for these historians’ unique and insightful presentations and for the discussion that follows facilitated by moderator Alan Taylor.

Books Featured: Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation by Bennett Parten; and The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 by Manisha Sinha.

Presented in partnership with 10 Million Names and Boston Public Library.

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American Ancestors Boston Public Library
Revolutionary Art with Dread Scott

Wed, Jun 18, 2025

Join the Boston Public Library in person or over Zoom Webinar as acclaimed interdisciplinary artist Dread Scott joins them for the June Lowell Lecture.

The moderator for this program will be Dr. Lizzy Cooper Davis, PhD, Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director, Theatre Education & Applied Theatre at Emerson College.

After the main program, in-person audience members can meet the artist in the Connector Space located just outside of Rabb Hall.

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Boston Public Library
Sasha Velour - The Revolutionary Art of Drag

Tue, May 13, 2025

Join the iconic Sasha Velour, season 9 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, author of "The Big Reveal", and visionary drag artist, in conversation with Giselle Byrd, Executive Director of The Theater Offensive.

Hosted at the Boston Public Library, this talk explores the transformative power of drag, and the revolutionary role of art in shaping inclusive futures.

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Boston Public Library
Revolutionary Art: Gender and Racial Inequality in the Art World

Tue, Mar 25, 2025

The Guerrilla Girls are anonymous artist activists who use disruptive headlines, outrageous visuals and killer statistics to expose gender and ethnic bias and corruption in art, film, politics, and pop culture. One of them spoke for the BPL's series on Revolutionary Art in 2025.

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Boston Public Library
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words with Michael Owen

Tue, Dec 3, 2024

Gain insight into the life of Ira Gershwin, the man behind some of the most memorable lyrics of the Great American Songbook. Biographer Michael Owen reveals the life of this remarkable American, the son of first-generation immigrants, who has often been in the shadow of his brother George Gershwin.

The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen draws on extensive archival sources to craft a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to such well-loved songs as “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” Owen’s book celebrates George and Ira Gershwin’s collaboration and Ira’s extensive work with other songwriters. Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words brings the publicity-shy lyricist into the spotlight he deserves.

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American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors Boston Public Library
The Legacy of Desegregation and Busing: Success or Failure

Sat, Sep 28, 2024

On this 50th anniversary of busing, how do we take stock of this legacy and what needs to be done now with the Boston Public Schools?

The movement began in the 1960's to improve education for Black students in Boston, but the Boston School Committee refused to make changes and denied Black students were being short changed. The federal court in 1974 found Boston's schools were illegally segregated and then ordered desegregation with busing. There then followed deep racial divisions, turmoil, and white flight from the schools and from the city of Boston.

We hear also about what ways desegregation expanded opportunities for students, teachers, and administrators and the many court orders on hiring of diverse staff, establishing parent councils, bilingual education, university and business partnerships. But the big question is, were the aspirations for high quality education met?

The make-up of Boston schools in 1974 was 60% White, 30% Black, 10% other. The Boston Indicators Project says it is now 45% Latino, 29% Black, 8% Asian, 14% White. So it went from majority white to predominantly students of color school system. The Boston Public Schools were last year not rated well on a whole battery of educational benchmarks by the state's education department. BPS has many challenges to meet now with a more diverse student body, with significant numbers of students who are homeless, those with learning disabilities, and large numbers of recent immigrants whose first language is not English. We will begin to talk about further reforms needed now.

This forum is a collaboration between the BPL and the Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative

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Busing Crisis in Boston , Boston Busing at 50

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Boston Public Library
What Happened in the Schools and Neighborhoods When Desegregation and Busing Began

Sat, Sep 28, 2024
These amongst the most important in Boston’s history forever impacted Boston’s reputation to its residents and to the whole country. It was a cauldron of divisions by race and class and this obscured steps forward that were taken...
Boston’s Black community with leaders like Ruth Batson, Ellen Jackson, and Tom Atkins did a 10-year campaign starting in 1963 to try to address severe educational inequities. The Boston School Committee headed by Louise Day Hicks disputed, delayed, denigrated, and rejected all these proposals.

Finally in 1972, the NAACP filed a case in federal court on behalf of 14 parents and 43 children that became the Tallullah Morgan vs. James Hennigan case. Judge Garrity ruled on June 21,1974 that the Boston School Committee had segregated the schools and ordered them desegregated.

Busing began on September 12,1974. It was met with fierce resistance from white anti-busing organizations for the next 4 years. This included demonstrations, motorcades, rallies, and electing more anti-busing politicians to office.

Black students integrating white high schools in South Boston, Hyde Park, Charlestown, and Roslindale faced racial epithets, rocks thrown at school buses, and fights started in the schools. This spilled over into the neighborhoods with a number of violent attacks and some retaliations.

Most of the schools did open and remain peaceful. Judge Garrity also ordered many notable education reforms.

Some change started to come when 3 anti-busing politicians lost their elections and the first Black person was elected to the Boston School Committee in 1977.

This is part of a program hosted by the Boston Public Library and the Boston Busing & Desegregation Initiative commemorating the 50th anniversary of Boston desegregation and busing.
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Busing Crisis in Boston , Boston Busing at 50

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Boston Public Library
“Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History” with co-author Gregory P. Downs & historian Vincent Brown

Mon, Oct 7, 2024

Join American Ancestors featured author and a guest historian-expert for an insightful discussion of Nat Turner, Black Prophet, a bold reinterpretation of the causes and legacy of Nat Turner's rebellion. This new, definitive account offers a fresh look at Black history.

In August 1831, a group of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, rose up to fight for their freedom. They attacked the plantations on which their enslavers lived and attempted to march on the county seat of Jerusalem, from which they planned to launch an uprising across the South. After the rebellion was suppressed, well over a hundred people, Black and white, lay dead or were hanged. The uprising was the idea of a single man: Nat Turner. An enslaved preacher, he was as enigmatic as he was brilliant. He was also something more—a prophet, one who claimed to have received visions from the Spirit urging him to act.

With co-author Gregory P. Downs and moderator-historian Vincent Brown of Harvard, we’ll unpack how and why Nat Turner inspired the largest enslaved people’s rebellion in the US between 1811 and 1861 and became an enduring icon of resistance. Nat Turner, Black Prophet, a narrative history by the late historian Anthony E. Kaye and Downs, his collaborator, provides a new understanding of one of the nineteenth century's most decisive events.

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American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors Boston Public Library Ford Hall Forum
Jeffrey Rosen with The Pursuit of Happiness

Mon, Jul 8, 2024

In celebration of the July 4 holiday, watch this fascinating presentation and discussion of one phrase from the Declaration of Independence, “the pursuit of happiness.” With Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center and host of the We the People weekly podcast, we look at what this unalienable right meant to our nation’s Founders, how it defined their lives and became the foundation of our democracy.

In profiles six of our country’s most influential founders—Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton—this new, thought-filled book shows what pursuing happiness meant in their lives. It was a quest for being good, not feeling good, demonstrating a pursuit of lifelong virtue, not short-term pleasure. Among those virtues were the habits of industry, temperance, moderation, and sincerity. Their views were inspired by readings of the classical Greek and Roman moral philosophers. More than an elucidation of the Declaration’s famous phrase; The Pursuit of Happiness is a revelatory journey into the minds of the Founders. Join us to hear from Jeffrey Rosen and gain a deep, rich, and fresh understanding of the foundation of our democracy.

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American Inspiration Author Series

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Boston Public Library American Ancestors

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