Longfellow Speaker Series"The Past and Present Here Unite..."From November through April, a series of conversations with scholars, poets, and community leaders will explore the ways in which the histories of this 265-year-old house resonate today. The Longfellow Speaker Series (formerly Fall Lecture Series) takes place annually and is free and open to the public. 
Thursday, November 7 | 6:00-7:30 PM The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect UnionHybrid event: Register to attend in-person or online Speaker: Stephen Puleo Acclaimed author and historian Stephen Puleo will discuss his newest book, The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union (St. Martin’s Press, 2024), the groundbreaking biography of a forgotten civil rights hero and close friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In the tempestuous mid-19th century, as slavery consumed Congressional debate and America careened toward civil war and split apart–when the very future of the nation hung in the balance–Charles Sumner’s voice rang strongest, bravest, and most unwavering. Where others preached compromise and moderation, he denounced slavery’s evils to all who would listen and demanded that it be wiped out of existence.Before and during the Civil War, at great personal sacrifice, Sumner was the conscience of the North and the most influential politician fighting for abolition. Through the force of his words and his will, he moved America toward the twin goals of abolitionism and equal rights, which he fought for literally until the day he died. He laid the cornerstone arguments that civil rights advocates would build upon over the next century as the country strove to achieve equality among the races. The Great Abolitionist is the first major biography of Charles Sumner to be published in over 50 years. Acclaimed historian Stephen Puleo relates the story of one of the most influential political figures in American history with evocative and accessible prose, transporting readers back to an era when our leaders exhibited true courage and authenticity in the face of unprecedented challenges. This talk will be followed by a Q&A and book signing (books available to purchase). 
Thursday, December 12 | 6:00-7:30 PM Bostonian Poetry Before Longfellow: Adventures in Literary ArchaeologyHybrid event: Register to attend in-person or online In this program, two Boston College English professors will discuss American poetry published in Boston during the Revolutionary and Early National periods. Christy Pottroff will construct a rich contextual analysis of several artifacts that appear in surviving records related to Phillis Wheatley Peters and her husband John Peters, and consider what a nose ring, eight old coats, four silver spoons, and a neighborhood park in Boston can teach us about their lives. Paul Lewis will discuss forgotten works he and Boston College English majors recovered when they read through the 4,500 poems included in the fifty-nine magazines published in Boston between 1789 and 1820. Taken together, their work is replete with moments of discovery that have brought literary history and specific poems to life. Paul Lewis is a professor emeritus at Boston College, past president of the Poe Studies Association, the curator of exhibitions on literary Boston, and the neologist who coined the word “Frankenfood.” The author of books and articles on humor, American literature, gothic fiction, and literary Boston, Lewis edited The Citizen Poets of Boston: A Collection of Forgotten Poems, 1789-1820, for the University Press of New England. He is now writing a book on the first responses to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." 
Thursday, February 27 | 6:00-8:00 pm BeeFound: Washington & Wheatley Write!Speakers: Toni Bee and Prof. Nicole AljoeThursday February 27, 6:00-8:00 pm Free and open to all: register here Join us for a historical lecture and poetry writing session where poet Toni Bee and Professor Nicole Aljoe discuss the unique relationship between General George Washington and Poet Phillis Wheatley Peters. They will attempt to answer lingering questions such as: what were the general’s views on enslavement, and did the poet’s international fame influence the politics of our nation’s first president? Poetry prompts will be given/ Writing is encouraged / Open Mic for participants to share / Dinner Served / Free to the public. Toni Bee is a poet, educator, workshop facilitator, and Cambridge Poetry Ambassador. Nicole Aljoe is a Professor of English and Africana Studies at Northeastern University. They are co-authors of the article "Reading and Teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters in Boston," published in the journal Early American Literature. The BeeFound Series: where history, imagination and poetry merge / founded by Toni Bee in 2023.Saturday, March 1 | 10:00 am-12:00 pm Longfellow Birthday Celebration: A Community Reading at the 250th Anniversary of the American RevolutionAt Mount Auburn Cemetery, Story Chapel; register here Commemorate the 218th anniversary of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's birth and the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution with a special community reading. We're inviting the public to read Longfellow's best-loved poems reflecting on the Revolutionary period and the power of historical memory. After a brief overview of Longfellow's historical works by staff from Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS, enjoy a unique reading of these powerful poems - from Paul Revere's Ride to A Psalm of Life. Sign up to read a poem, or just come to enjoy these classic works and reflect on the anniversary. The reading will be followed by birthday cake and, weather permitting, a visit to the Longfellow family tomb for a brief wreath laying ceremony. This program is presented by Mount Auburn Cemetery and Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. Annual Evacuation Day Lecture Thursday, March 13 | 6:00-7:30 pm Choosing a Commander: Myths & Realities Behind the Continental Congress’s Decision to Make George Washington the GeneralHybrid Event: Register to attend in-person or onlineSpeaker: J.L. Bell This July brings the 250th anniversary of General George Washington’s arrival in Cambridge, the result of momentous decisions by the Continental Congress. More than a quarter-century later, John Adams wrote a dramatic account of that choice, which became the standard source on the event. But Adams’s version is not supported by contemporaneous documents, and people pushed back against it at the time. In this talk, Bell sifts the evidence to explore the real politicking behind the Congress’s choice. J. L. Bell maintains Boston1775.net. He is the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War and a book-length study for the National Park Service of Gen. Washington’s work in Cambridge. This annual event is made possible by the Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters. 
Thursday, April 10 | 6:00-7:30 PM A Fan and A Shared History: The Longfellow Family and the Ties between China and 19th-Century BostonHybrid Event: Register to attend in-person or online In 1865, the renowned American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow hosted a special dinner at his house in celebration of receiving a gift from China: an elegant paper fan with his poem “A Psalm of Life” inscribed in Chinese (one of the first English poems translated into Chinese) by a Chinese official named Dong Xun. Among the guests at the dinner was Longfellow’s close friend, Anson Burlingame, who was then the American minister in China and brought the fan to Longfellow. A few years later, Burlingame would serve as China’s Envoy Extraordinary and High Minister Plenipotentiary and lead a Chinese delegation to the West to sign China’s first equal treaty after the Opium Wars. Another friend at the dinner was Senator Charles Sumner, the staunch abolitionist and unwavering defender of Chinese migrants against the surging anti-Chinese violence in the nation. The Longfellow family’s connections with China later would be represented by Longfellow’s oldest son, Charles, who was an avid world traveler and visited Asia several times (including his trips to China in 1873-1874 and again in 1891). His life and his large collection of Chinese artifacts reflected the broad patterns of American interest in China and Asia in the late 19th century. This talk will draw on the Longfellow family papers and tell the stories not just about the prominent American poet and his family and friends but also about American society and about the shared history of the United States and China. With the rising tensions in U.S.-China relations in our current time and with political leaders and public media often focusing on geopolitics and trade war, it is important to understand the deep historical ties between the two nations and the rich personal and cultural interactions that bind them together. Lisong Liu is professor of history at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and specializes in Chinese migration, Asian American history, and U.S.-China relations. He is also an associate in research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Chinese Heritage Center at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is currently working on a book on the history of Chinese cultural presence and migrant experience in Boston. Recorded Past Lectures2023Preserving LGBTQ+ History in Our Communities, Ben Garcia and Joan Ilacqua 2022Not Just Roommates: Queer Historic Preservation, Ken Turino and Danielle Bennett Unearthing the Past at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters, Joel Dukes 2021Fanny Longfellow's "Etheral Baby" and Her Moment in the History of Medicine, Tegan Kehoe in conversation with Kate Hanson Plass |
Last updated: February 5, 2025