Over the past 47 years at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Peter Drummey has witnessed a historical arc of his own — from seeing the research room’s first portable computer to curating a tour for U.S. president George H.W. Bush. He is set to retire from his position as chief historian at the end of this week.
Gingerly handling some of his most treasured materials at the historical society’s headquarters Wednesday morning, Drummey reflected on his role as a catalyst of scholarship and learning.
“Being a librarian is a helping profession, and I think it’s maybe not as appreciated as it should be,” he said.
Founded in 1791 in the attic of Faneuil Hall to ensure a preserved historical record of the Revolutionary War, the Massachusetts Historical Society houses an extensive archival collection. Today, its mission includes reflecting a diverse range of historical figures and creating K-12 civics curricula for local students.
Speaking with Drummey about storied 18th-century Americans is like hearing anecdotes about beloved old friends. He said his access to letters and manuscripts has opened an intimate window into the lives of figures from former President Thomas Jefferson to women’s rights advocate Margaret Fuller to Indigenous Cheyenne warrior Howling Wolf.
“Some of these people — it’s romantic to say so — I feel like I know better from what they wrote in the past about what they were like, and what motivated them, than people I know very well in the present,” he said.
The expert historian and South Shore native said even his earliest memories are colored by a fascination with history.
“If you grow up across the bay from Plymouth, as I did in Duxbury, there’s 400 years now — 350 years when I was growing up — of history around you,” he said.
As chief historian, Drummey personally assisted the society’s patrons with research projects and grew the archival collection by establishing relationships with those who were looking to donate local historic treasures.
He served in the military during the Vietnam War and attended a now-shuttered library school at Columbia, initially intending to become a children’s librarian. He felt an irresistible pull to work with archival materials and working at a historical society was attractive to him at the time.
“I had hard enough lessons about what the world looked like when I was young to want to be in a place that was essentially otherworldly and removed,” he said.
But when he arrived at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1978, he admired the urgent connections it strived to draw between the past and present.
“I couldn’t have been happier to come to a place that, during the Vietnam War, had hosted a series of lectures by historians about how the dissent that was going on, the controversy during protests against the Vietnam War, was not something new in the world,” he said.
Examining past instances of “bitter political division,” he said, can inform our responses to present parallels — something that was true both in the 1970s and today.
“We can look at those times perhaps more objectively and more calmly than we do things in the present or the immediate past,” he said.
Drummey said that in today’s world of an increasing abundance of information, people have gained the power to “choose within” a body of historical facts to build narratives that “favor their view.” He said he is committed to a practice of open-mindedness and nonpartisan archival work, which he sees as representative of the Historical Society’s mission.
“I’ve always looked at the Massachusetts Historical Society as essentially a place where people even with differences over politics — especially over politics — could come together and have both an informed discussion, but also a civil discussion,” he said.
After Drummey’s retirement this week, the society’s director of research Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai will take over as chief historian.
Among the highlights from his tenure, Drummey recalled his experience curating materials to show former President Bush on a tour of the historical society.
“I really thought I went all out to have things to show them,” he said. Drummey selected an engraving of the first building at Yale University, he recalled: Bush’s alma mater.
When asked about his own professional achievements, Drummey kept returning to his gratitude for all the researchers, students and writers who have sought his help in digging through history.
“I can’t tell you how much a pleasure it has been to meet literally thousands of people here,” he said.
