HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

I’m pleased to share a recent talk called “Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved” that was part of the Congregational Library and Archive’s Valentines Day celebration. Helen Gelinas spoke about Cotton Mather and the women he was closest to: his three wives, his daughters, and his sisters, as well as his lifelong mission to understand the biblical Eve, the prototype for all women in his universe. Helen examined who he was behind closed doors, as a husband and father, and she challenged us to reconsider our assumptions that Cotton Mather would have been a tyrant over his wife and a strong disciplinarian who ruled his children with a rod. She also shared the surprising insight that between wives, Cotton Mather was one of Boston’s most eligible widowers, who was pursued aggressively by suitors.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/296/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

Presenter Helen K. Gelinas is the Director of Transcription for New England’s Hidden Histories. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Hartt School in Connecticut, and a BA in English and an MA in American Studies from the University of Tübingen, Germany. In Tübingen, she was selected by The Mather Project to be a research and editorial assistant for Volume 5 of Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana. Following the presentation and publication of her essay, “Regaining Paradise: Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana and the Daughters of Eve,” she earned a Research Fellowship to the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale Divinity School. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Early American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, completing her dissertation entitled, “‘The Spirit and the Bride’: Female Parity, Prophecy, and the Power of the Pen in the Works of Cotton Mather.”

• Find out more about the Congregational Library and Archives

Date: Friday, April 4, 2024
Time: 10 am – 2 pm EDT
Format: In-person at 14 Beacon Street, Boston
Registration Cost: $40 for CLA members / $50 for non-members
RSVP Deadline: Friday, March 29, 2024

Does your family history include puritans or ancestors who lived in early New England (1620-1850)? Join us for an in-person workshop on Friday, March 29 from 10:00am – 2:00pm at the Congregational Library & Archives with New England’s Hidden Histories Project Director Dr. Tricia Peone and CLA Archivist Billy McCarthy.

Participants will learn how to use the New England’s Hidden Histories digital archive and other resources at the CLA to research family histories and fill in context for understanding the lives of people in the past.

The workshop will include time to conduct your own family history research at the CLA. Participants are encouraged to send requests for specific items they wish to look at in advance. You do not need to be a historian to attend. Anyone interested in learning how to work with and interpret historical records is welcome. However, space is limited.

The cost to attend includes lunch. Email tpeone@14beacon.org with questions about the workshop.