Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Mobile Printing is a Cinch … well, Princh … at the State Library of Massachusetts!

With our new Princh printing solution, you can now print easily and securely from your phone, tablet, or laptop using our remote printing service. Whether you’re at home or in the State Library, you can send print jobs from any location at any time. Simply pay at our print release terminal and print to our printer the same day during the State Library’s regular hours, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. No downloads or apps needed!

State Library patrons will need to make a one-time purchase of a copy card for $1.00 and add funds to print. This card is yours to keep and reuse. Printing prices are the same whether you use the library’s computers or your own device: $0.20 per page for black and white and $0.50 per page for color prints. When using the Mobile Print service, your login for the print release terminal will be your email address.

Printing from your mobile phone or a tablet
  1. When printing at the library: easily locate the print guide poster near the printer and simply scan the QR code to get started. Scanning the QR code will automatically select the State Library’s printer.
  2. OR When printing remotely: open your browser, go to print.princh.com and enter the 6-digit printer ID 109905 to select the State Library’s printer.
  3. Upload your document(s).
  4. Adjust the settings.
  5. Enter your email address. Go to the print release terminal to pay for and finalize your print job.
Printing from your laptop
  1. When printing remotely or at the library: open your browser, go to print.princh.com and enter the 6-digit printer ID 109905 to select the State Library’s printer.
  2. Upload your document(s).
  3. Adjust the settings.
  4. Enter your email address.
  5. Go to the print release terminal to pay for and finalize your print job.
If you need help, just ask at the Reference Desk! Our Reference Librarians are here to assist you.


Judy Carlstrom
Head of Technical Services

Friday, October 11, 2024

Author Talk with Linda Coombs

  • Colonization and the Wampanoag Story
  • Wednesday, October 30, 2024. 12pm - 1:00pm
  • In-person and Virtual event. No registration required.
  • State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House
  • Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/user/mastatelibrary

The State Library of Massachusetts Author Talks Series is hosting author Linda Coombs this October! Please join us on Wednesday, October 30th, at noon, in our historic reading room to hear Coombs discuss her book, Colonization and the Wampanoag Story (2023), a young adult story that is part of the ‘Race to the Truth’ series.

The event will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel courtesy of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Broadcast Services - tune in at noon!

Be sure to sign up for our Author Talks newsletter and follow our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, and X) for the latest information on our visiting authors.

About the book: Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is an educational tool geared towards young readers. Combining storytelling and historical facts, Coombs provides an accessible history of the Indigenous peoples of New England. Focusing on the Wampanoag and their experience with the First European settlers, the book chapters switch between the narrative of a young Wampanoag girl, entitled “When Life Was our Own” and chapters explaining the history, events, and colonization of Southern New England Tribes.

About the author:
Linda Coombs is an author, historian, museum curator, and member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah. Coombs worked 30 years for the Wampanoag Indigenous Program (WIP) of Plimoth Plantation - 15 years as Associate Director and served 9 years as Program Director for the Aquinnah Cultural Center. Based in Mashpee, Linda continues to write and educate on Native American history and experience.

If you join us in person for this talk, attendees will be able to participate in a question-and-answer session with the author as well as purchase a copy of the book. Cash or check accepted.

As always, this author talk is free and open to all. Assisted listening devices will be made available upon request. Any questions or concerns, please email us at AuthorTalks.StateLibrary@mass.gov.

For more information on the State Library Author talks series, please visit our site.



Author Talks Working Group

Thursday, October 10, 2024

A Vulture Lurks in the Library . . .

This October, the California Vulture (plate 426) perches in the library! The Audubon Society describes this rare bird as huge and notes that it was headed towards extinction in the 1980s, before efforts were undertaken to breed it in captivity for later release into the wild. The vulture shown here is described as an "old male" and their lifespan ranges from from 45 to 80 years, with an average being 60 years. 

Also known as the California Condor, this large bird is a scavenger, soaring about 2000+ feet above ground and up to 250 miles per day in pursuit of dead animals to feed on. They are recognizable by their bald heads that are pink or orange in color, along with their impressive wingspan that reaches 9.5 feet! Read more about these birds on the National Park Service website.

Visit us from October 8 through November 5 to see the vulture on display in our reading room! Each October, we try to display a bird that has a spooky connotation, so if you missed any of our previous displays, you can find them here: Raven and Crow.


Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

Monday, October 7, 2024

The New England Vampire Panic

Move over witches, there’s another hysteria-inducing superstition in town – and just in time for Halloween! We may be known for the Salem Witch Trials, but did you know that Massachusetts was part of a more recent hysteria known as the New England Vampire Panic?

The panic was caused by a health crisis that plagued New England in the 18th and 19th century (Bell, 2006, p. 124). The real culprit: consumption – i.e., tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that can attack different parts of the body but is most well-known for wreaking havoc on the lungs (pulmonary tuberculosis), which can cause the infected person to cough blood – thanks to modern medicine, TB is both curable and preventable (Massachusetts Department of Public Health).

While a respiratory condition might not scream “vampire!” to any of us, the other symptoms of the disease such as weight-loss, fatigue, and loss of appetite align more with the mainstays of vampire lore. In lieu of a better explanation, these symptoms suggested that something was feeding on the infected person and draining them of life. 

Not everyone actually believed vampires were the cause, as you can read from this excerpt in “Analysis of a Correspondence on Some of the Causes of Antecedents of Consumption” which is part of a larger report to the Massachusetts State Board of Health in 1873:


I picked this example because it features in one of the government documents in our collection (you can view and download a copy of the full report from our Digital Repository); however, there are many more instances that occurred in other regions of New England and go into greater detail. Based on these accounts, a common course of action for eradicating vampires seems to have been to burn the organs – particularly the heart – of the suspected vampire (Bell, 2006, p. 125).

While the author of the above report clearly thinks this family’s actions were absurd, it is important to acknowledge that the larger context of this passage is in answer to whether drinking alcohol is a legitimate means of preventing the disease (spoiler: it’s not). The first TB vaccine would not be developed until 1921 and the first antibiotics to treat the disease would not be created until 1943, prior to that your only other option (if you had the resources) was to convalesce in a sanatorium and hope for the best (Division of Tuberculosis Elimination). 

You can read more about the New England Vampire Panic and tuberculosis in the source list below; however, if you prefer your vampire lore to stay in the realm of fiction, the State Library has plenty of books to keep you up at night! Because the State Library is part of the CW MARS library network, our patrons have access to hundreds of vampire-related books, eBooks, and audiobooks. Whether you’re interested in the classics or something more modern, there’s bound to be a vampire book to suit your taste.

Use our online catalog to do a subject search for “vampire” – you can access eBooks and audiobooks through the Libby app. If you need assistance setting up and navigating, we have this tutorial video to get you started.

Happy reading!


Maryellen Larkin, Government Documents & Reference Librarian

 

Sources:

Bell, M. (2006). “Vampires and Death in New England, 1784 to 1892,” Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 31, Issue 2, pp 124–140.

Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. “History of World TB Day.” Tuberculosis (TB), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 Oct. 2023, www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htm.  

Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, January 1873. Boston, Massachusetts: Wright & Potter. 1873. pp. 338–339.

Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “Tuberculosis.” www.mass.gov/tuberculosis.  

Muise, Peter. “The Plymouth Vampire of 1807.” New England Folklore, 11 Nov. 2021, https://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-plymouth-vampire-of-1807.html. Accessed 2024.  

Tucker, Abigail. “The Great New England Vampire Panic.” Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Oct. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/.  




Thursday, October 3, 2024

State Library Newsletter - October Issue

Hello October! Catch up on all State Library happenings in this month's newsletter. Read about our upcoming events, displayed items, new horror books on our shelves, and more!

Pictured here is a preview, but the full issue can be accessed by clicking here. And you can also sign up for our mailing list to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox.




Monday, September 30, 2024

250 Years Ago This Month: The Convening of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress

In September, the Commonwealth kicked off Massachusetts 250, an initiative to commemorate the state's revolutionary history in the lead-up to the country's semi-quincentennial. We are joining in on the celebration by displaying a revolutionary-period broadside that was issued in October 1774 – 250 years ago this month. The broadside was distributed by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress soon after it was established.

To put this broadside in historical context, we need to go a little further back in time and provide an abridged run-down of what was happening in Boston and throughout Massachusetts in 1773 and 1774. The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773 and in the months following, British Parliament enacted four acts, knowns as the Intolerable or Coercive Acts, that were meant to punish residents of Massachusetts for the destruction of the tea. The Acts revoked the Massachusetts Charter and with that, changed the nature of the Governor’s Council, the governing body which had previously been elected by assembly and would now be appointed by the King. The Acts also closed the port of Boston, allowed for the quartering of British soldiers, and allowed royal officials who had been accused of crimes to have their trials moved to Great Britain if they felt they could not receive a fair trial in Massachusetts. Throughout 1774, the Intolerable Acts created a heightened sense of tension between the colonists and Great Britain, as colonists felt they had lost their right to self-government. On October 5 through 7, representatives of the now disbanded General Court met in Salem and organized as the Provincial Congress, with John Hancock as its chair, and became the de facto government, with authority to govern the area (including collecting taxes and raising a militia). The Provincial Congress met again in Concord from October 11 through the 14, where they focused on organizing committees to bring order to their cause during this time of revolt and political crisis, and it was during this meeting that Committees of Safety were established. The Provincial Congress met again in Cambridge on October 26, and the broadside in our collection was published following that meeting.

The primary resolution established at the October 26 meeting was to urge towns to establish their militias, the “minutemen” that we so often hear about in Revolutionary history. The text printed on the broadside begins by describing the current state of British troops stationed in Boston, stating “Whereas in Consequence of the present unhappy Disputes between Great-Britain and the Colonies, a formidable Body of Troops with warlike Preparations of every Sort are already arrived at, and others destined for the Metropolis of this Province, and the expressed Design of their being sent is to execute Acts of the British Parliament.” The text goes on to describe a situation where the colonists would not antagonize the British, but as a measure of protecting themselves, that militias throughout Massachusetts should be organized. Militias should ensure that a slate of officers are be appointed and elected, and furthermore, individuals should equip themselves with arms and perfect their military skill to safeguard their “lives, liberties, and properties.” It is noted at the bottom of the broadside that this is “A true Extract from the Minutes” and handwritten on the back of our copy is the town name Rutland, so we know where this broadside was sent after it was issued. You can see a copy of this broadside in our digital repository, and a version with a transcription is available on the Library of Congress’s website

The Provincial Congress continued to meet throughout the fall, during which time they issued a number of grievances against Royal Governor Thomas Gage. They adjourned in December, but convened again as the Second Provincial Congress in February 1775.  

The convening of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was a pivotal moment in Massachusetts and American history, as colonists established their own governing structure in response to escalating frustrations with the King and  British Parliament. We are thrilled to have a broadside from one of these early meetings as part of our holdings, and we hope that you will mark the 250th anniversary of the first convening of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress by visiting us from October 1 through the 29th to see it on display in our reading room. A number of broadsides from our collection that date to the 1760s-1780s have recently been conserved by the Northeast Document Conservation Center, and we are excited to share more of them as the Commonwealth celebrates Massachusetts 250. To read more about Massachusetts 250 check out their website and Governor Healey’s press release.


Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

Monday, September 23, 2024

Compiling a Legislative History

A common research request that our reference librarians receive involves tracking down legislative histories of specific laws. If you have ever reached out for assistance with that task, then you have definitely been directed to the Library's Guide to Compiling a Massachusetts Legislative History

Last spring, our Government Documents & Reference Librarian supplemented that tutorial by writing two detailed blog posts where she used the the steps and advice in the guide to compile a legislative history for M.G.L. ch.6 §39B. Both of those links are conveniently presented here:

Compiling a Legislative History: M.G.L. ch.6 §39B (Part 1)

Compiling a Legislative History: M.G.L. ch.6 §39B (Part 2)

Be sure to reference these posts the next time you're compiling a legislative history, and happy researching!