The State Library Turns 200: A New Exhibit and Collection Spotlight

We are excited to announce the opening of our new exhibit The State of Our Library: 200 Years of Serving the Commonwealth coinciding with our 200th birthday this month! As we celebrate this milestone, the exhibit showcases both the Library's impressive history and its current offerings. Using published documents, historical photographs and artifacts, and archival materials from the Library’s institutional records, the exhibit highlights our various services, resources, and technologies, as well as the changes and expansions to its physical space that have occurred over the last 200 years.

Complementing our new exhibit is the 1856 edition of Ballou's Pictorial and a copy of Library Journal from March 1926, both on display this month in our Collection Spotlight case. Ballou’s Pictorial was a weekly periodical published in Boston from 1851 through 1859 (though up until 1855 it was published as Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion). We’ve written about this periodical in a previous blog post, but in a nutshell, it was full of interesting information to read or discuss, along with illustrations to examine. One of those illustrations is this full-page print of the “Interior View of the Massachusetts State Library” found in the May 31, 1856 issue. 

Illustration of the interior of the State Library
from Ballou's Pictorial, May 31, 1856

This image shows the Library, which at the time was only thirty years old, in its second location within the State House. Only one year prior, an addition to the building was completed that moved the Library to a central location and included two floors – a reading room and a balcony, as depicted in this image. The Library remained in this space for forty years, until another addition was completed in 1895 that moved the Library to its current location.

The same image was reproduced in the March 1, 1926 issue of Library Journal, a publication founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey (of Dewey Decimal fame) and still in existence today. Included in this issue is a feature on the State Library as it celebrated its 100th birthday. The article, titled “A Century of the Massachusetts State Library” gives information about the founding and a synopsis of the State Librarians up to 1926. The article ends with a note on the collections, stating “its collection of statute law is said to be unsurpassed except by that of the Library of Congress. Perhaps its most interesting original manuscript is that of Governor William Bradford’s “History of Plimoth Plantation,” otherwise known as “The Log of the Mayflower.” One hundred years after the publishing of this article, the Of Plimoth Plantation remains one of the treasures of our collection and we are excited to share that it will be on display during our upcoming Open House on March 25.

While Ballou’s Pictorial and Library Journal will only be on display in our Collection Spotlight case from March 2 through March 31, The State of Our Library is on view in the display cases outside of the Library through 2026. If these items piqued your interest in the State Library's history, there is even more to be found in the full exhibit, so be sure to visit us Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 5:00 to check it out!

Elizabeth Roscio, Preservation Librarian

Exhibits Working Group

Special Speaker Event: Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (Retired)

• 
  Thursday, March 12, 2026. 12pm - 1:00pm
• In-person and Virtual event
• State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House
• Livestream on YouTube

Celebrate the library’s 200th birthday by joining us for this special speaker event! We have events scheduled throughout the month to celebrate this milestone. The Author Talks Series is excited to host former Justice Stephen Breyer in honor of the library serving the Commonwealth for 200 years.

This is an in-person and virtual event. The livestream available 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 Stephen Breyer: The Honorable Stephen Breyer is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born in San Francisco in 1938, he is a graduate of Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He taught law for many years as a professor at Harvard Law School and at the Kennedy School of Government. He has also worked as a Supreme Court law clerk (for Justice Arthur Goldberg), a Justice Department lawyer (antitrust division), an Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor, and Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1980, he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Carter, becoming Chief Judge in 1990. In 1994, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton. He has written books and articles about a range of legal topics, including administrative law, economic regulation, and the U.S. Constitution. His books include Active Liberty (2005), Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View (2010), The Court and the World (2015), The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (2021), and Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (2024). His wife, Joanna, was born in Great Britain and is a retired clinical psychologist. They have three children—Chloe, Nell, and Michael—and six grandchildren.

State employees can use their State Library Cards to check out any of the following books by Stephen Breyer:

• Reading the Constitution: Why I chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism
• The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics
• Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution
• Economic Reasoning and Judicial Review
• The Legal Profession and Public Service
• More books by Breyer; browse here.

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. If you cannot make it to the event in person, the recording will be made available on our YouTube channel; watch previous author talks here!

April Pascucci
On behalf of the Author Talks Working Group

A Closer Look at the Freedom Trail Tapestry

The State Library boasts many art pieces that decorate its reading room and balcony level. One piece we get asked about frequently is the Freedom Trail Tapestry.

Freedom Trail Tapestry, 1976

Fifty years ago, the U.S. celebrated its bicentennial. In honor of this occasion, the members of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild constructed a tapestry commemorating points of historic significance to Massachusetts and our nation.

As the tapestry’s name suggests, these scenes derive inspiration from popular stops on the Freedom Trail which runs throughout the city of Boston.

The historic scenes depicted are:

• Old North Church
• King’s Chapel
• Old State House
• The Boston Tea Party
• Bunker Hill Monument
• Faneuil Hall
• Old South Meeting House
• State House
• Corner Bookstore
• Paul Revere House
• U.S.S. Constitution

The Guild permanently loaned this tapestry to the State Library where it is on display in our conference room. The tapestry was designed by N. Philip Strause III and made by 28 stitchers! Their names are commemorated on a plaque which is displayed next to the tapestry.

More information on the Freedom Trail can be found on the National Parks website: Walk the Freedom Trail (U.S. National Park Service).

More information on the American Needlepoint Guild and its chapters can be found on their website: American Needlepoint Guild, Inc.

You can also read our past blog post about the Freedom Trail Tapestry!

Maryellen Larkin

Government Documents Librarian

Our Northern Neighbor on Display: The New Hampshire State Bird

Our celebration of state birds continues with the Purple Finch, the official state bird of our northern neighbor, New Hampshire. In this print (Audubon plate 4), the more subdued female is shown with two males, both with vibrant red-purple plumage. Their color palette is fitting for display in February, with the Valentine's Day holiday! The Audubon Society writes that Purple Finches are common in the north and east, and will readily come to birdfeeders, so you might see one outside your window.

The Purple Finch became New Hampshire's state bird on April 25, 1957. Its proposal had the backing of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs, and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Visit the library from February 10 through March 10 to see the Purple Finch on display. And if you missed last month's display of Massachusetts' Black-capped chickadee, you can check it out here.

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian  

A Birthday Celebration!

Mark your calendars for our 200th birthday celebration! All are welcome to join us on Tuesday, March 3 from 11:00 to 1:00 as we celebrate 200 years of serving the Commonwealth. We hope to see you then in our historic reading room, Room 341 of the State House.

Stay up-to-date on all announcements and see all of our celebratory 200th content by following our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, and X).

Author Talk with Dr. Anthony Jack

• Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price by Dr. Anthony Jack
• Wednesday, February 25, 2026. 12pm - 1:00pm
• In-person and Virtual event. No registration required.
• State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House
• Livestream on YouTube

The State Library of Massachusetts Author Talks Series welcomes Dr. Anthony Jack as our February speaker. In 2019, Dr. Jack spoke at the State Library on his award winning title The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students.

This is an in-person and virtual event. The livestream available 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: Class Dismissed is a groundbreaking look at higher education and diversity in the post-COVID19 world. In recent times, universities and elite colleges have been champions of diversity as seen through their student populations. However, Dr. Anthony Jack sheds light on the fact that these universities are undeserving their minority populations. Class Dismissed draws on real interviews with real students (Asian, Black, Latino, Native and White undergrads from Harvard) to express the inequalities they experience on campus. Dr. Jack also offers ways in which students can navigate college life in context of the recent racial tensions and unrest felt on campuses and nationwide.

About the author: Dr. Anthony Abraham Jack is an author, Associate Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Boston University, and the Inaugural Faculty Director of the Boston University Newbury Center. Dr. Jack’s research is focused on diversity in undergraduates, specifically low-income students. His scholarship and commentary have appeared in numerous publications. In 2016, he was named an Emerging Diversity Scholar by the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan. In May 2020, he received an honorary doctorate from Muhlenberg College. For a full list of Dr. Jack’s literary awards, publications, and more visit: https://anthonyabrahamjack.com/.

As always, this author talk is free and open to all. Assisted listening devices will be made available upon request. If you are able to join us in person for this talk, attendees will be able to participate in a question-and-answer session with the author.

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.


April Pascucci
On behalf of the Author Talks Working Group

State Library Newsletter - February Issue

Our February newsletter is out now and full of information about our upcoming events, our current displays, and a fun Valentine's Day themed treat in our library!

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.