Montréal Updates

For all of you interested in traveling to Montréal and seeing some great historical sites, here's the information for the trip, brought to you by your trip coordinator, Brendan:

While in Montreal we will be staying at the Hotel Le Cantlie Suites. The best rate I could find works out to about $56 per person for the weekend, based on 4 people in a room with 2 queen beds and parking for 1 car for 2 nights. Due to the time-sensitive nature of these prices, I will need to get a $45 deposit from each person who is planning on going on the trip before this Friday, October 31 to cover the reservations for the rooms. The parking fees will be assessed
separately.

Here are several of the sites we're looking at visiting:

McCord Museum of Canadian History
The McCord Museum has two exhibitions which should prove to be of
great interest. The first is entitled "Reveal or Conceal." It is "a
provocative exhibition that explores historical perceptions of modesty
and eroticism in women's clothing. Through a selection of remarkable
garments, accessories, and photographs from the McCord's collection,
discover how changes in fashion trends and cultural standards over the
last two centuries have influenced women's decisions to reveal or
conceal their bodies."
The second exhibition is more ordinary, yet still sure to be of
interest. "Simply Montreal" is an effort to bring the history of the
city to life, with the help of over 800 objects from the McCord's
collection.

Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum & Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel
In addition to offering a museum and chapel for your viewing
pleasure, this place also offers an actual archaeological site that
you can take a tour of.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
This museum currently has an exhibition on Napoleon on display,
in addition to its usual collection of fine are and historical pieces.

Pointe-à-Callière, the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History
Not your typical museum. Another one that involves an
archaeological aspect, which looks to be quite fascinating

In addition to these museums, there are several churches, cathedrals, and basilicas that are of interest. There are also many events occurring while we will be there which we may also want to take advantage of.

If you want to attend the trip, please message Brendan on Facebook ASAP! He needs your deposits by Friday.

If you have any additional questions, message Brendan or comment here!

Meeting Minutes

We want to extend a big thank you to professor Taylor for giving up her time to attend our meeting! She shared some really fascinating information, and I'm sure everybody learned something. Some bits of advice from professor Taylor:

*Learn something that not many other people know. Having particular skills (e.g. a language or statistical analysis) can be used as an advantage when looking at history.

*Learn something that takes you where you want to go. She was able to spend time in Paris doing her research!

Prof. Taylor will also be sharing a list of books, so keep checking the blog for additional reading on the topics she spoke about!!

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In other news, we will be having the haunted tours tonight, rain or shine! In the likely event that it doesn't clear up, we will be telling the stories inside. Please arrive by 7:30 if you are a tour guide.

There will be a Majors Fair on Wednesday 10/29 5:30 to 7:30 in the lower level of the campus center and the department is looking for a couple of students to help out. If you are free at that time and want to be around to field questions from prospective majors (and advertise the club to history lovers!) please email professor Nash a.s.a.p. at advising@history.umass.edu. If you have any ideas for making the booth snazzy, you can email her as well!

Next Monday will be another planning meeting. We will work out our movie nights, professor chats and events for the rest of the semester. We will also discuss activities we can do with Amherst History Museum. If you have any ideas for fun events or meeting topics, bring them to the meeting!

If you have any ideas to share right now or you can't come to the meeting, just leave a comment! Thanks for all your ideas!

Professor Chat: Anna Taylor

We are pleased to announce our first professor chat of the semester! At our next meeting we will be joined by History professor Anna Taylor. Professor Taylor's fields of interest include the Middle Ages, Late Antiquity, monasticism and literary culture.



Come meet professor Taylor and hear what she has to say about history as a passion, a profession and a field of study. Professor chats are a great way to get to know the faculty in your department and make connections!


We hope to see you all on Monday!

Career Development Series: Interships & Graduate School

There are two exciting events in the career development series this week:

Wednesday, October 22, 4:00 pm
INTERNSHIP INFORMATION EVENT
Jeff Silver, Field Experience Director in the UMass Career Services office, will discuss this valuable tool in gaining experience, making career contacts, and helping students find out about the types of work they might enjoy.

Thursday, October 23, 4:00 pm
APPLYING TO GRADUATE SCHOOL
Our grad student panel will help students think about the ifs, wheres, and hows of continuing their academic career, whether to an MA, a PhD, or beyond.

As always, the events are in Herter 601, refreshments will be served, and all students are welcome.


For more information contact internships@history.umass.edu

Movie Night

Don't forget, tomorrow night is our first movie night! We will be watching Start the Revolution Without Me at 6pm in Herter 601. We will be serving pizza! Bring a friend!

See you there!

Career Development Series/Applying to Law School

Every semester, the History Department puts on a series of events aimed at helping history majors figure out what they want to do after they graduate from UMass, and how to do it. We will be posting information about these events on the blog, so you know what is happening and when! Members of the history club who have attended these events in the past say that they are incredibly helpful not only for planning out your future, but also for making connections to people who can help you out. The events are open to all students, so bring your non-history major friends along!

The first event is this afternoon at 5:00 pm in Herter 601:

APPLYING TO LAW SCHOOL
Diane Curtis, pre-law advisor, will talk to students about if Law School is for you, how to apply, and how to finance your degree. All students are welcome, and refreshments will be served!

For more information about the events, feel free to email internships@history.umass.edu

Haunted Tours of Campus

It's that time of year again, when leaves crunch underfoot and the cold air bristling through the skeletal trees makes us wonder if there is something lurking in the night. Fortunately, UMass students will get the chance this fall to learn what ghosts and spirits haunt their very own campus. On Tuesday, October 28th, the History Club will be leading it's famous haunted tours around campus.


The tours will leave from Herter Hall at 8pm, and last about an hour. Be prepared for some spine-tingling tales! We hope you don't live in one of the haunted dorms...

New! Check out the Facebook event!


If you have any questions write a comment on this post and we will get back to you promptly!

Meeting Minutes

This Monday we had an excellent meeting with Patricia Lutz of the Amherst History Museum. She spoke with us regarding a number of opportunities, including:

*Internships (that you can get credit for)
*Entering data into the museum's catalog
*Cleaning & painting
*Individual & small group work

She also spoke with us about projects we could work on as an organization, specifically:

*A hands-on "history of science" program for kids this spring
*Something to celebrate the Town of Amherst's 250th anniversary next year (spring and fall)
*Any other ideas we come up with as a group, we can collaborate with Pat and the museum

Pat says she has heard from a number of you already- that is great news! She was really impressed by the interest in our group. For those of you who would like to contact her, her email is amhersthistory@yahoo.com. Thanks for being such a great host for our guest!


REMEMBER, there will be no meeting this Monday due to the "holiday," but we will meet again on the 20th, at 6pm for the movie!

Have a wonderful long weekend!

And the winner is...

Start the Revolution Without Me!


Our first movie night of the semester will be in two weeks (no meeting on Columbus Day), and we will be screening the French Revolution comedy Start the Revolution Without Me.



The movie will start at 6pm (not 7!) in Herter 601 and we will be serving pizza and soda for your eating and drinking pleasure. Feel free to bring a friend!


Thanks for voting!

Amherst History Museum!

We are excited to announce that we will have a special guest at our meeting tomorrow night! Patricia Lutz, director of the Amherst History Museum, will be speaking with the club regarding volunteer opportunities. The museum, located on Amity Street right next to the Jones Library, is run by the Amherst Historical Society and contains wonderful artifacts and information about Amherst's vibrant history.



Volunteering at the museum is a great opportunity. If you are interested in public history, research or museum curating, for example, you can gain valuable experience working with the Amherst Historical Society. Even if you aren't planning a career in museums, this presents a great chance to make an impact in your community working with something you love! And of course, we all know that volunteer work, especially in one's concentration, looks great on a resumé.

Click here to read about the museum's latest exhibit on "Emily Dickinson's Amherst"! See you at seven!