The Massachusetts Historical Society Presents Free and Open to the Public Exhibition About Russian-American Relations September 27, 2007

Who: The Massachusetts Historical Society

What: "'Moments of Destiny: Two Centuries of Russian-American Diplomatic Relations from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society"

This exhibition concentrates on eyewitness accounts in letters and diaries of men and women from Massachusetts present at momentous events in modern Russian history, and their role in Russian-American diplomatic relations. The exhibition will feature John Quincy Adams’ diary as a teenage diplomat in Russia during the American Revolution; his wife, Louisa Catherine Adams' account of her epic passage across war-torn Russia thirty years later at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, while her husband served as the first American minister at the court of the Czars; the celebrated visit of the Russian fleet to Boston in 1864 in support of the Union cause during the American Civil War; vivid descriptions of the Russian imperial court in the tumultuous years leading up to the Russian Revolution in the personal papers of Ambassadors George Meyer and Curtis Guild; Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.'s behind-the-scenes role in the Khrushchev visit to the United States in 1959 (Khrushchev insisted on visiting Disneyland); and Senator Leverett Saltonstall as witness to the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in Moscow in 1963.

Why: The exhibition commemorates the bicentennial of formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia.

When: September 27, 2007-October 31, 2007, every day, from 1:00 PM-4:00 PM

Where: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
The closest T stop is Hynes Convention Center on the green line

Admission: Entrance to the Society as well as the exhibition is FREE.

For more information contact:
Anne Bentley, Curator of Art
Tel: 617-646-0508
Email: [email protected]

About Massachusetts Historical Society:

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS), founded in 1791, is an independent research library that collects manuscripts of the personal papers (unpublished letters and diaries) of individuals and families from Massachusetts over the entire course of American history. The MHS holds millions of unique documents central to the study of American history, as well as book, photographs, works of art and artifacts that support research in its manuscript collections. Among the Historical Society's irreplaceable national treasures are: John Winthrop's journal of the founding of Massachusetts Bay in 1630; the extraordinary correspondence between John and Abigail Adams, including her eloquent appeal for him to "Remember the Ladies" in drafting the Declaration of Independence, as well as his account of the writing of the Declaration; Thomas Jefferson's personal papers (his descendents lived here in Massachusetts) including his architectural drawings for Monticello; letters exchanged by Abraham Lincoln and Edward Everett of Massachusetts after they delivered their respective speeches at Gettysburg; the records of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry, the first Afro-American regiment raised in the North during the Civil War; as well as thousands of collections of personal papers of men and women from all walks of life.

As part of its continued community involvement, each year the Society host more than forty public programs including almost a dozen public lectures and seminar series on early American, urban and immigration, and environmental history, as well as other special events.

For More Information go to www.masshist.org

Official Website: http://boston.zebratickets.com/event/6410/boston