Annual Meeting Schedule

As the nation celebrates its milestone anniversary, come back to where it all began:  Boston, site of the Manuscript Society’s 2026 annual meeting. We’ll be there for Boston 250, the city’s yearlong salute to the American Revolution. It’s the ideal time and the perfect place to explore the sites and stories behind the nation’s quest for independence. Frequently referred to as a “living museum,” Boston is steeped in rich history and our members will have behind-the-scenes access to some of the best the city has to offer.

Our immersion in history will begin and end with a stay at our host hotel. Omni Parker House, opened in 1855, is among the oldest continuously operating hotels in the United States. Here Charles Dickens gave his first American reading of A Christmas Carol and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Celebrate America’s 250th in Boston, the Birthplace of the American Revolution drafted Paul Revere’s Ride. In addition to literary figures, the Omni Parker House has served as a gathering place for politicians, including Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, functioning as a venue for important meetings and events throughout history. Culinary history was also made at the hotel. This is where Parker House rolls originated, not to mention Boston cream pie (both of which will be served at our closing reception!). The Parker House is located in beautiful downtown Boston, within easy walking distance of many popular historical destinations.

Per tradition, the annual meeting festivities will kick off with the popular “Fun Auction” cocktail reception on arrival day, Wednesday, May 27. The event will be held in the Kennedy Room at the Omni Parker House. This popular event will feature the sale of documents and books graciously donated to the Manuscript Society, which are sold to help support our mission and defray costs of our various programs. Have something you’d like to donate to the auction? Email Bob Hopper at hopbandc@gmail.com. And come prepared to BUY!

At the top of Thursday’s agenda is a visit to the American Antiquarian Society. Curators will focus on Revolutionary War special collections, and we’ll have a meet-and-greet reception with local historians. After lunch at historic Concord’s Colonial Inn, we’ll visit the Concord Museum. There we’ll see manuscripts by Henry David Thoreau—just one of the many writers once based in Boston.  Think Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott…. We will top off the day with
a tour of the Concord Free Public Library, where we will view more Thoreau manuscripts as well as works by Louisa May Alcott. The Concord Free Library holds the most extensive intact collection of volumes once part of Henry Thoreau’s personal library.

Friday morning we’ll tour Beacon Hill and visit the Congregational Library & Archives, with 400 years of history inside its walls. From there we will work our way across town for a visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Founded in 1903, the museum was designed to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palace. The museum’s collection spans thousands of years and multiple cultures, featuring European, Asian, and American works in a variety of media — including paintings, sculpture, textiles, furniture, ceramics, and decorative arts. Complementing the galleries is an important Archives & Manuscript Collection that both documents the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner and deepens understanding of the museum’s history and operations. Our day will end with a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), which houses one of the most comprehensive art collections in the world.

Saturday we will visit the historically-rich Plymouth community. At Pilgrim Hall Museum we will hear different perspectives of the Pilgrim story through 400 years. Guests will view original documents and signatures from Mayflower passengers and Native American leaders—extraordinary artifacts that bring early American history into sharp, personal focus. Beyond the era of first settlement, we’ll explore how later generations, including early presidents, interpreted and reshaped the Pilgrim legacy. As America’s oldest continuously operating public museum, the building itself is a landmark worth experiencing.

From there, members will be free to explore Plymouth on their own. Visit Mayflower II, the full‑scale reproduction of the ship that carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic. See Plymouth Rock or visit Plimoth Patuxet (Plantation) before heading back to the hotel for our Saturday evening banquet.