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.

A Trailblazing Politician: Edward W. Brooke

Cover of Brooke's Birthday Ball souvenir

This February, our Collection Spotlight case features materials related to Edward W. Brooke. Brooke (1919-2015) served as Massachusetts' Attorney General from 1963-1967, earning the distinction as the first African American elected as attorney general in any state. He then went on to serve as Massachusetts' U.S. Senator from 1967-1979, earning more "firsts" as the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote and the first African American elected to two Senate terms.

Three items that document Brooke's career in the 1960s are on display. The first is a photograph from the library’s own institutional records. Our institutional photographs record past exhibits and events held at the State Library, and this one, dated February 1963, shows Brooke (center, holding an item) with three unidentified men at an exhibit on Black History. The commemoration was known at the time of this photograph as Negro History Week, but beginning in 1970 was celebrated in communities and educational institutions as Black History Month, before receiving an official federal designation in 1976. While we cannot determine every item that is part of the display in the photograph, there are few that are identifiable. At the top center of the display is the program from the Thirty-Eighth Annual Celebration of Negro History Week (1963) for Proud American Day, on February 14. Directly below that is Brooke’s own portrait, displayed next to the cover of Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP by Langston Hughes. And just below that looks to be a publication related to the memorial to Crispus Attucks on Boston Common. The rest of the display includes other publications, books, photographs, and an official Commonwealth of Massachusetts publication (maybe a proclamation?). Having a display of this nature is something that continues in the library each February, as our reference staff selects books and resources from our collection to celebrate Black history.

 

Moving further into Brooke’s career as attorney general, we are also sharing a souvenir booklet published in conjunction with a celebration ball held for his birthday on October 26, 1965 at the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Boston Hotel. With the heading of "Lawyer for Five Million Citizens,” the souvenir begins with four pages of career highlights, including investigating air and water pollution, improving policy surrounding eminent domain, and establishment of the Highway Laws Study Commission. Also included are photographs of Brooke with family, friends, and constituents. Additional pages include birthday wishes and sponsorship notices from groups and individuals throughout the Commonwealth. For our in-library display, we've opened the booklet to the page  with birthday greetings from individuals in Barnstable County. Adorning the cover is an artist’s rendering of Brooke, shown in the first image above.

Rounding out the display is the 1967 edition of Public Officers of the Commonwealth, also known as Bird Books, which provide photographs and biographical information for Massachusetts’ elected officials. The displayed edition is from Brooke’s first term as a U.S. Senator, showing his home address in Newton, his Republication affiliation, biographical information, organizational membership, and his public office positions. Brooke went on to serve in the U.S. Senate until 1979, and was largely known as a progressive Republican, meaning he leaned left on social policy and civil rights, but was fiscally conservative. Brooke was a strong advocate for civil rights, and while there are many achievements from his twelve years in the Senate, among the most notable was his co-writing of the Civil Rights act of 1968.

Read about Brooke’s work to establish Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a holiday in a previous blog post, and for further reading, check out his autobiography, Bridging the Divide: My Life. This Black History Month, we are excited for the opportunity to share collection items related to one of Massachusetts’ most pioneering and influential politicians, and hope that you’ll visit the library between February 3 and March 3 to see these items on display.

Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian