anything yet. we do a lot here at the historical society. we provide great programs. educational workshops. we run national history day in massachusetts. we convene academic seminars and mount exhibitions been but more than anything, what we do is hold an amazing collection of almost 14 million items. we provided to historians and researchers for free. in our holdings, we have the equivalent of 2 and a half presidential libraries. we have the papers of john adams, john quincy adams and the personal papers of thomas jefferson. that s important to mention because we have a very special program that has a very special connection. tonight, we will hear about the publication, the presidents and which noted historians rank them on a variety of categories. and if there s anything we like talking about more than presidents, it s historians talking about presidents. so this is on brand for us. as we do with most of our public programs, we have pulled together a small display in the
interested in history. but then people would ask again, why are you interested in history, what does that have to do with the question i m asking you? but i have the same experience of a remarkable teacher in junior high school who was a retired military officer so i m embarrassed to say i believe it was james true then, but he was known to all students as colonel trueden. he was a mature man, with a long military career but someone just starting out as a teacher. she was excited and interested about everything and trying to find his way into this new second career. and i think that that sort of, him thinking this is an adventure, sort of brought the students along with him. and while i suspect i was probably in that small town, probably categorized as the student most likely to end up in reform school if not prison. [laughter] i did win the history award when i graduated. it did not leave me directly here. i think that love for histor
also the author of american revolution. in addition to being a fulbright scholar in japan, he has also served at many venues, including on good morning america and all things considered. our other speaker is a doctorate at the university of melbourne and has specialized training in editing from arizona state university, and neil was up until recently a editor at the adams papers and worked at the university of south carolina and earned a masters degree in public history from north carolina state. so i want to welcome steve, our first speaker. [applause] thank you. on the last day of march, 17 76 3 months before america broke free from britain, epic 1776, three month before america broke free from britain, abigail adams declared that john should have broken free. let me find my slides. let me try to get this going. here we are. john adams was then serving on the second continental congress in philadelphia, urging congress to do just that. abigail, at the family s hou
and john adams and their son and his wife. this is from an event marking john and abigail adams wedding anniversary. the program was cohosted by the massachusetts historical society and the abigail adams historical society. i will start by introducing our our first speaker. bullock is the author of revolutionary brotherhood: freemasonry, and also the author of american revolution. in addition to being a fulbright scholar in japan, he has also served at many venues, including on good morning america and all things considered. sarah mann 10 will be presenting a paper in tandem. sarah martin will be presenting a paper in tandem. she has a doctorate of the university of melbourne and has specialized training in editing from arizona state university, and neil was up until recently a editor at the adams papers and holds a doctorate in history from university of south carolina and earned a masters degree in public history from north carolina state. so i want to welcome st