Current Exhibits
CIVIL WAR UNIFORM:
William Hathaway Forbes’s Union Army uniform from the 2nd Cavalry, Massachusetts Volunteers is currently on display, along with other items form the time period, and information of William’s capture and tenure as a Confederate prisoner-of-war.
IRISH DONATION OF 1676:
This year represents the 350th anniversary of the Irish Donation to Boston. The exhibit explains the layers of events which precipitated the Irish Donation, and later resonated with the 1847 “voyage of mercy” captained by Robert Bennet Forbes during the Irish Famine.
The Irish Donation, which was collected by Catholic leaders and parishioners in Dublin, was attended by certain conditions which transcended religious, territorial, and racial prejudices:
“an equall [sic] respect bee [sic] had to all godly p[er]sons agreeing [sic] in fundamentals of faith & order though differing about the subject of some ordinances,
& p[ar]ticularly that godly Antipeodobaptists58 [sic] bee [sic] not excluded…because sundry reports have come hither suggesting that godly p[er]sons of that p[er]swasion [sic] have been severely dealt withall [sic] in New England & also because divers of that p[er]swasion in this Citty [sic] have freely & very Considerably concurred in advanceing [sic] this releife [sic]”. The Irish donors also required that “if any of [th]e Indians in New England who have adhered to the English in the present Warr [sic] bee [sic] brought to distress by their barbarous country men we desyre [sic] that they by no means bee [sic] forgotten.”