Giving Thanks in 1783

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and in celebration of that anniversary, the State Library launched the exhibit Raising the Alarm: Revolutionary Broadsides at the State Library. Using broadsides from 1773 through 1779, the exhibit tells part of the story of the American Revolution in Massachusetts while also highlighting a significant primary source resource in our collection. The exhibit further expands into our collection by highlighting additional 18th-century resources available in Special Collections, like almanacs, city directories, newspapers, and proclamations. Due to the nature of the cases, the exhibit utilizes facsimiles, but each month for the duration of the exhibit, one featured item will be on display in our Collection Spotlight – this month we’re sharing a Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, issued as a broadside on November 8, 1783 by then Governor John Hancock.

Our Special Collections holdings includes a number of original proclamations issued by governors of the Commonwealth dating from the 1720s to the 1930s (more recent proclamations, like ones issued by Governor Healey and Governor Baker, are also uploaded and saved in our digital repository). In colonial New England, proclamations were periodically issued to initiate days of fasting and days of thanksgiving and prayer, the latter were most frequently declared to celebrate a bountiful harvest and were religious in nature. However, during the Revolutionary War, proclamations also drew a strong connection between religion and military affairs, as days of thanksgiving were often established to give praise to God after the colonists achieved a victory against the British.

This specific proclamation was issued following a recommendation made by the Congress of the Confederation (the precursor to the United States Congress) that all thirteen colonies observe a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer in recognition of the end of the Revolutionary War. It established the upcoming Thursday, December 11 as the designated day, and then the notice was printed as a broadside and distributed throughout the Commonwealth. Massachusetts residents were directed to devote themselves to prayer and giving thanks, and were urged to “assemble to celebrate with grateful hearts and united voices,” a sensibility that continues today for our own Thanksgiving holiday.

This proclamation was previously on display in November 2019 and it returns to our Collection Spotlight case once again to align with the Thanksgiving holiday. Click here to read our past blog post, which provides more information about the proclamation itself, and also explains how colonial proclamations for a day of thanksgiving differ from the Thanksgiving we know of today, though there are some overlapping sentiments.

Step back into November 1783 by visiting us from November 3 through November 30 to see this proclamation on display. Click here to read about the previously shared Raising the Alarm broadsides.

Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

From Your Agency to Our Archive: Preserving Massachusetts History at the State Library of Massachusetts

Massachusetts state agencies produce a lot of important information—annual reports, newsletters, guides, advisories, meeting minutes, task force reports, and more. But where do these publications go to be preserved for future generations? That's where the State Library comes in. We want your publications!

The State Library of Massachusetts is responsible for preserving the Commonwealth's published government information. In fact, it's both our mission and our statutory responsibility: M.G.L. Chapter 6, Section 39B requires each state agency to send a single copy (if originally published in hardcopy) or an original electronic file copy of its publications to the State Library for permanent historical preservation.

These publications document the work of Massachusetts government and provide valuable information for researchers, historians, state employees, and the public. Our job at the State Library is to make sure they remain available for years to come.

What should you send us? The State Library collects publications intended for public use, including agency reports, newsletters and advisories, guides and manuals, meeting minutes, and publications documenting significant events in Massachusetts history. We generally don't collect ephemeral materials like forms, applications, event announcements, requests for proposals, public notices, or internal agency documents. Not sure whether something qualifies? We're happy to help!

Agencies should send publications to the State Library as soon as they're published so we can make them available right away (just in case, there is a handy reminder on the Mass.gov document submission page). We welcome submissions at any time, but it's especially important that we receive copies of publications before they're removed from Mass.gov. Making submissions to the State Library as part of your agency's regular publishing process helps ensure that important government information isn't lost. How do you send us your publications? Just use the form on our website or email a copy to electronic.documents@mass.gov.

Once we receive your publications, we add them to our State Library Digital Archive, where they can be discovered and accessed for years to come. We've recently upgraded our DSpace-GLAM platform for the archive with an improved search interface, filtering, and a built-in PDF reader that lets you view documents without downloading them. Just click the "Open PDF" button to try it out!

What about digital accessibility? As Massachusetts agencies prepare for federal digital accessibility requirements, now is a great time to review older publications on Mass.gov and make sure historically valuable documents aren't lost in the process. An annual report from 1995, for example, may no longer be needed for current agency operations, but it still provides a valuable record of Massachusetts government history. Agencies can review and update their websites to meet their needs, while the State Library can preserve and provide access through our digital archive collections. If your agency is planning to remove older publications from Mass.gov, send us copies first! Together, we can ensure that Massachusetts government history remains available for generations to come.

Judy Carlstrom
Head of Technical Services

Author Talk with Bill Brett In conversation with EOVS Secretary Eric Goralnick

The State Library of Massachusetts Author Talks Series in partnership with the Executive Office of Veteran Services is proud to announce Bill Brett as our November speaker.

Event Details:

• Bill Brett, photojournalist and author of Boston Veterans Appreciation
• Thursday, November 5, 2026. 1:00pm - 2:00pm
• In-person and virtual event
• State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House
• Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/user/mastatelibrary

The event will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel courtesy of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Broadcast Services - tune in at 1pm!

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.

For more information on the Executive Office of Veterans Services, please visit their official site or follow them on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, or YouTube.

About the book and author: Boston Veterans Appreciation is Bill Brett’s seventh book which honors the Boston veteran and military community. The book contains nearly 190 portraits of veterans, active military service members, and their families. Bill Brett is an acclaimed photojournalist. His long-standing career at The Boston Globe began when he was 18 and hired as a part-time photographer. In 1977, Brett was named chief photographer for The Globe and in 1999 he became the Director of Photography.

A native of Dorchester, Bill has a talent for capturing the people and personalities that make up his community. Bill’s other books include: Boston: All One Family, Boston: Inspirational Women, and Boston: Irish. For more on Bill and his photography, visit his site.

As always, this author talk is free and open to all. Any questions or concerns, please email us at AuthorTalks.StateLibrary@mass.gov. Books will be available to purchase after the talk.

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


April Pascucci
On behalf of the Author Talks Committee

Resource Highlight: DiscoverGov

Trying to find federal publications? Let me introduce you to your new best friend DiscoverGov!

A brief description from the DiscoverGov website:

“DiscoverGov provides simple, one-stop searching across multiple U.S. Federal Government databases including GPO's Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and GovInfo. It will retrieve reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources and publications available online.”

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a massive online catalog containing bibliographic information about federal publications dating back to our nation’s founding; however, as their website states, it is important to understand that “the CGP is a bibliography, not a document repository” (more information about the CGP can be found on their About page).

GovInfo, unlike the CGP, is a repository where you can download digitized versions of federal documents.

So why not just use GovInfo to find documents? You can use GovInfo to find authenticated digital versions of federal documents; however, if you search for a document that hasn’t been digitized yet, your search won’t turn up anything.

Think of DiscoverGov as a more user-friendly version of the CGP with the benefits of GovInfo added.

Let’s give it a try! Here are the search results from a Basic search for John Qunicy Adams in DiscoverGov:

In the search results, it clearly states if the material is available in digital format – it will say Online access: 

For this example, select the 2nd item in the results list:

Permalink to the full item record

Once in the record, scroll to the bottom where it says Links – then click “Link to Resource” which will take you to a PDF of this document.

PDFs like this one, are hosted on the repository GovInfo and can also be accessed directly through GovInfo:

It’s important to verify that the documents you are accessing are legitimate – always check for the GPO watermark that indicates the document has been authenticated.

More information on verifying authentication can be found here. 

If you run into any issues trying to locate federal documents, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Reference Department! One of our librarians will be happy to help!


Maryellen Larkin

Government Documents Librarian

Trashers on Defense in the Library!

Our road trip through the thirteen original colonies continues this month, but finding the Georgia State Bird, the Brown Thrasher, took a little bit of digging. There is no bird with that name included in Birds of America, but that is because when Audubon depicted it in the 1830s, it was identified as the Ferruginous Thrush (plate 116). The word thrasher is believed to be derived from thrush, which leads to some naming confusing. And "ferruginous" is not a standard color, but is used to describe something as rust-colored, a warm reddish-brown, like the male bird shown here (top center). 

In October, we try to share a print with a spooky connection, and this print fits the bill for that, too! In this print, a slithering snake is shown attacking the nest with a group of thrashers in defense mode. Though one might have fallen victim, the other three are putting up a fight, and the snake might be in trouble here. The Brown Thrasher is known as a territorial and aggressive bird that can fend off humans and large predators with a sharp curved bill that can draw blood. Be sure to visit us from October 6 through November 10 to see this dramatic print in person.

Catch up on our previous spooky Audubons here: Barn Owl, Raven, Common Crow Blackbird, and Vulture.

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

“There is Power in a Union”

The Socialist Labor Party (SLP), established in 1876, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States. Our SLP collection contains campaign literature, meeting and rally announcements, platform pamphlets and flyers, programs, ballots, and reports documenting the Party’s activities in Massachusetts from 1884 to 1903. You can read more about the SLP in the collection finding aid and in this previous blog post. For now, I’d like to focus on something that piqued my interest within this collection as I worked to answer a recent reference question – that is, the Scandinavian musical influence on U.S. labor movements.

Pictured above are the flyers for the annual Labor Day Grand Joint Picnic at Amory Grove in Roxbury hosted by the SLP and the Scandinavian Socialist Club of Boston. The 1899 and 1900 picnics featured a concert performed in part by the Swedish Glee Club (featured on the flyer shown below) and the Scandinavian Socialist Singing Chorus.

A flyer for a charity concert given
by the Swedish Glee Club of Boston
at Dudley Street Opera House
in Roxbury on December 3, 1899

This unexpected subject matter caught my attention for very personal reasons. My great-grandfather John immigrated to the United States from Northern Sweden in 1928. He married my great-grandmother, Florence, the daughter of Swedish immigrants. I’ve come to appreciate the unmistakable Scandinavian influence on my upbringing, something I took for granted in childhood. I also serve as the union steward for State Library staff members of SEIU Local 509 and am deeply interested in labor history. Until diving into Ms. Coll. 176, I had no idea there was a Scandinavian influence on Massachusetts’ own labor history, let alone a musical influence.

According to historian and archivist Ulf Jönson, Scandinavian immigrants to the U.S. from the 1850s to the 1920s, particularly those who found industrial jobs in cities, organized themselves mainly within the SLP and the Socialist Party of America. Scandinavian workers most often chose to establish all-Scandinavian ethnic sections of trade unions and political parties, rather than national subgroups. It appears Scandinavian immigrants organized themselves similarly within the Swedeville area of Norwood, Massachusetts outside of Boston. A People’s Guide to Greater Boston describes Swedeville as the center of Norwood’s Finnish community in addition to its Swedish immigrant population. In Norwood, a socialist retail cooperative store opened in 1909 and operated until 1953. The store was initially a branch of a coop called Turva founded in Quincy.

A 1900 pamphlet describing dance lessons to be hosted by the SLP at Cochrane’s Hall in Malden

Scandinavian immigrants joined the SLP in greater numbers than any other ethnic group and were consistently at the forefront of demands for workers’ rights and unionization, according to historian Patricia Fanning. They built halls for community gatherings, formed drama, athletic, and sewing clubs, hosted educational and political lectures, and of course, sang and played music together.

A circa 1901 labor song book published by Labor Press in Lynn

A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over, and I maintain that if a person can put a few cold, common sense facts into a song, and dress them up in a cloak of humor to take the dryness off of them, he will succeed in reaching a great number of workers... - Joe Hill, 1914

Though he was not a member of the SLP, Joe Hill (born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund) was a Swedish American labor activist, poet, and songwriter remembered as a martyr and folk hero within U.S. labor movements following his execution in 1915. He was an itinerant worker for much of his life and was an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Hill had been born into poverty in Northern Sweden, forced to work in factories as a child after his father’s death on the job. Following his mother’s death in 1902, he emigrated to the U.S. He worked various jobs, moving westward across the country, writing songs as he went. He saw his music as a means to build class consciousness and build solidarity among workers, and he intended his songs to be sung as a group activity rather than by soloists. Hill’s lyrics were known for their humor and satire, mocking abusive bosses and the wealthy. Generations of American musicians have been influenced by Joe Hill - Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Paul Robeson, and Joan Baez to name a few.

Sheet music cover courtesy of
the Library of Congress 

From The Rebel Girl by Joe Hill:

She’s a rebel girl, a rebel girl.

She’s working class: the strength of this world.

From Maine to Georgia, you’ll see

Her fighting for you and for me.

Yes, she’s there by your side

With her courage and pride.

She’s unequaled anywhere.

And I’m proud to fight for freedom

With the rebel girl.

Alyssa Persson
Special Collections Processing Archivist


Related Collection

Ms. Coll. 51 – Socialist Labor Party National Board of Appeals Records, 1891-1896

State Library Newsletter - October Issue

Hello October! Our monthly newsletter is out now and full of information about upcoming events, seasonal displays, a newly cataloged item, 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.