[Classifieds] February Woods Hole Historical Museum Conversation

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WHHM Conversation, February 12th 2026:
Joseph Story Fay, Thomas Simms, and a Nation on the Brink

Join the Woods Hole Historical Museum for a conversation with scholar Brandon McGrath-Neely entitled “Joseph Story Fay, Thomas Simms, and a Nation on the Brink” on Thursday, February 12 at noon at the Woods Hole Public Library.

In his work, McGrath-Neely examines the “inverted lives” of Joseph Story Fay, a prominent landowner and "the first summer resident" of Woods Hole, and Thomas Simms, a man who escaped slavery, both of whom utilized geographic mobility to enhance their circumstances. Fay relocated from Boston to Savannah to capitalize on opportunities in the cotton trade and improve his financial standing. Conversely, Sims escaped enslavement in Savannah and stowed away on a Boston-bound vessel.

Both men’s endeavors collided with the crisis between North and South epitomized by the Compromise of 1850, particularly the Fugitive Slave Act. This compelled Simms’s return to slavery and complicated Fay’s business relationships in Savannah due to escalating distrust in a nation increasingly divided by region.

Their intersecting narratives reveal how individual ambition was constrained by the machinations of the slave economy within a nation teetering on the brink of civil war.

When: February 12th at noon
Where: Woods Hole Public Library

For more information, contact info at woodsholemuseum.org<mailto:info at woodsholemuseum.org> or call 508-548-7270.
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This 1851 picture from a Boston illustrated weekly shows how Sims was conducted
by three hundred armed police and marshals to a navy ship that carried him back to slavery.
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Joseph Story Fay

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