BOSTON CONFERENCE DETAILS
The meeting is scheduled to last longer than the usual annual Martineau Society meetings, stretching over five nights with the possibility of staying additional nights. However participants on a tight schedule or budget could limit their attendance to four nights without too much difficulty. The meeting and meals will take place in the Eliot and Pickett Houses, the Unitarian Universalist Association's very nice B&B accommodation on Beacon Hill, behind the UUA headquarters and next to the State House in Boston, USA.
There are 20 rooms available (all doubles and en suite) which will be reserved until the end of December 2008 for the conference dates and/or for those opting to come early or stay later. * All rooms provide access to a large roof garden deck with views across the city. The nightly rate is $110 per room and breakfast plus snacks all day long. A better deal in the heart of Boston in the height of the tourist season cannot be found!
As usual, the conference will be a mixture of paper presentations and trails though there will be no AGM*. Trails have been planned for three afternoons: (1) Thursday walking/bus trail in central Boston, (2) Friday library and archive bus trail ending at Harvard Yard, and (3) Saturday bus trail to Concord and East Lexington
(Each trail will include tea and a talk at a church with significant connections with the Martineau family).
The Thursday walking tour includes King's Chapel (oldest extant Unitarian Church), the Old Corner Book Store to which the works of John Taylor of Norwich were imported, the site of First Church Boston, which became Unitarian thanks to these books, the site of the Federal Street Church, William Ellery Channing's home church, where HM and Maria Weston Chapman met, possibly the site of the Jackson home where HM made her famous statement or that of the Asylum for the Blind or other alternative, ending at Arlington Street Church, the successor of Federal Street Church for a talk on Channing and reform and a cup of tea.
The Friday bus trail includes major libraries which have displays on the Boston Female Anti Slavery Society, the papers of Chapman and key associates of HM, and much else, and tea at First Church Cambridge (Harvard Square) where HM was present for commencement, and ending in a guided tour of Harvard Yard.
The Saturday bus trail includes the Old Manse and the Emerson and Alcott homes in Concord, with a guided tour by a historian who knows of the Martineau connections we wish to explore, and ending at the Follen Church for tea, the church that called Charles Follen, one of HM's key associates in Boston, who was killed in a ship fire on the way to be installed in the new octagon church which we would see.
On Sunday, with Boston rich in Unitarian history of significance to JM and HM, there will be an opportunity for those who would like to connect with that Unitarian heritage in the present day to attend a service in one of the historic churches, or as an alternative, to stroll through the Common and Public Garden is suggested and take in the several Unitarian monuments on display.
Provisional Costs
Rooms and breakfast (plus drinks and snacks all day long): $110 per room with double or twin beds (NOTE: not per person).
Bus for trails: $65 per person (assuming 25).
Lunches and evening meals, cost per day per person;
Wednesday - $40
Thursday - $40
Friday - $40
Saturday - $45
Sunday - $20
Total for meals etc.: $185
Plus
Entrance to museum buildings: $20 per person
Conference fee: $25 per person
TOTAL for full conference (minus travel costs): $845 (about £425), less for couples or single registrants sharing a bedroom.
Current low cost flights London to Boston return: app. £300
Edinburgh to Boston return: app. £400
WE NEED TO KNOW APPROXIMATE NUMBERS FAIRLY SOON SO PLEASE NOTIFY GABY WEINER BY OCTOBER 15TH 2008 (ADDRESS AND CONTACT DETAILS BELOW) OF YOUR INTENTION TO ATTEND THE BOSTON MEETING
Honorary secretary: Prof. Gaby Weiner
Her contact details are as follows:
Address: 9 Ferry Orchard, Stirling FK9 5ND, Scotland, UK
Phone: 0044 1786 462 915; mobile: 0044 7914 600 129; email: gaby.weiner@btinternet.com
For general conference enquiries, please contact the conference organiser:
Prof. Willard C. Frank, Jr.
His contact details are as follows:
Address: Department of History, Old Dominion University,
Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0091, USA
Phone: 757-683-3949; fax: 757-683-5644; email: wfrank@odu.edu