Join us for our new exhibit “1776 and Beyond”
Open Sundays 1-4 PM.
See some of our upcoming fall programs below.
SEPTEMBER
The Intrigue and Brevity of the Filmland City Movie Industry in Medford.
Speaker: Kyna Hamill, Faculty, Boston University
September 10, at 7:00 PM
Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford Public Library
In early 1917, 30 acres around Wright’s Pond was leased by the City of Medford to the Society Players Film Corporation run by F. Eugene Farnsworth. Soon, ads showed up in the Boston Herald looking for investors for what was promised would be a second Hollywood. Eventually a studio was built for $100,000, but it lasted only 3 years. In this talk by Kyna Hamill with never before seen images of the studio, learn of the intrigue, fraud, bankruptcy, and connections to the Ku Klux Klan, that made this short-lived industry worthy of a film itself.
Kyna Hamill is a reference volunteer at MHSM and faculty at Boston University. She has unearthed surprising histories of Medford including unknown stories about Jingle Bells, early Medford robots, and the WPA mural in the Post Office.
Register Here.
Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood
Speaker: William J. Mann, Author and Adjunct Professor of History, Central Connecticut State University.
September 30, at 7:00 PM
Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford Public Library
William J. Mann’s Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood has been praised by reviewers for offering the first account of the notorious crime that’s more focused on the victim than her killer. Critics lauded Mann’s ability to reconstruct the life of Elizabeth Short without exploiting her tragic death. The Wall Street Journal highlighted his skill in capturing the “historical environment that surrounded the crime… Mr. Mann conveys the era’s disillusionment and its rising tide of violence and misogyny.” Such context, the Journal noted, “is crucial to an understanding of Short’s life—which [Mann] reconstructs with compassionate acuity.”
Previous chroniclers have been more interested in the killer than the victim, boasting of solving the case but putting forward unsatisfying or unsupported evidence. Mann suggests a couple possible solutions to the crime and presents compelling evidence to support his theories. “But solving the crime wasn’t my goal,” Mann says. “Understanding it, and understanding Elizabeth, was my goal.” Short’s death was gruesome and sensational and her short life ordinary and unremarkable. “But her life,” Mann says, “is still more important than her death.”
William J. Mann will discuss his process in researching and writing his book and provide a portrait of the young Medford woman at the heart of one of America’s most notorious unsolved crimes.
Register here.
OCTOBER
MHSM Historical Book Group
Bound for Gold
Book Club Leader: Jay Stott, MHSM Board Member
Thursday, October 15, at 7:00 PM., 10 Governors Avenue
Would you have joined the greatest migration in US history, leaving family and friends to travel thousands of miles to Gold Mountain (Gum Saan), where gold was said to be free for the taking? The next MHSM Book Club will focus on the history that underlies William Martin’s spell-binding novel of the 1848 California Gold Rush: Bound for Gold. Whether you have read the book, are thinking of doing so, or are just interested in learning about an event that transformed our country (and Medford’s ship-building industry), please join us!
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Thanks to the Medford Arts Council for supporting MHSM
“These programs are supported in part by a grant from the Medford Arts Council, a local commission that is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the City of Medford.”
The Power of Truth: Early Diversity in Medford, February 2024
Murder at the Harvard Medical School, April 2023
Black Heritage Trail Virtual Tour, February 2022