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Paul Revere Memorial Association

The Paul Revere Memorial Association actively preserves and interprets two of Boston's oldest homes. We provide our increasingly diverse audience with remarkable educational experiences based on historical issues and social history themes relevant to our site, our neighborhood, and Boston from the 17th through the early 20th century. Today the Association is an American Association of Museums accredited museum with a full range of operations and programs. Our properties are key sites along Boston's Freedom Trail, private cooperative sites in the Boston National Historical Park, and members of the Boston House Museum Alliance. We fulfill our mission by offering educational programs for all ages - walking tours, concerts, living history presentations, lectures, school programs and much, much more. We maintain an important collection of Revere-made objects, household artifacts, items commemorating the midnight ride, and items related to Revere's life and work.

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/landingpages/today.html

In Person

Virtual

Who was Paul Revere, Really?

6:30pm Tue, Oct 28, 2025

Two of Revere’s biographers will speak with the Executive Director of the Paul Revere House on Paul Revere, the man and the myth. While today he is most famous for his Midnight Ride, this talk will cover his life before and after the Revolution as well.

With:
Dr. Robert Martello, Professor of the History of Science & Technology, Olin College of Engineering
Dr. Jayne Triber, Independent Scholar
Nina Zannieri, Executive Director, Paul Revere Memorial Association

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Whose Midnight Ride? Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the Famous Ride

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
In Person

Virtual

Who Cares About the Midnight Ride? Perspectives on an American Legend

6:30pm Tue, Oct 21, 2025

What does the Midnight Ride mean today, and who does it matter to? In this panel a university professor, a high school teacher and administrator, and a public history content creator will discuss how the Midnight Ride resonates (or doesn’t) with the groups they talk about history with. They will compare perspectives on societal trends that influence whether a historical event like this feels relevant today.

Moderated by Dr. Noelle Trent, Museum of African American History, Boston, with Ahsante Bean, Creator and Storytelling Strategist, Dr. Eileen Ka-May Cheng, History Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College, Kerry Dunne, History & Social Studies department head, Lexington High School,

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Whose Midnight Ride? Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the Famous Ride

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
In Person

Virtual

William Dawes’s Midnight Ride

6:30pm Tue, Sep 30, 2025

With William Dawes Schultz, journalist

While Longfellow cast Paul Revere as a lone hero in his 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” history lovers have stood up for the other rider who carried news from Boston that night, William Dawes, since at least the 1890s. This talk will explore the life and the Midnight Ride of William Dawes.

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Whose Midnight Ride? Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the Famous Ride

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
In Person

Virtual

Lost and Legendary Riders

6:30pm Tue, Sep 16, 2025

With J.L. Bell, Historian.

Beyond Paul Revere and his companions, Americans have passed along stories of other notable riders on April 19, 1775. Historian J. L. Bell investigates the facts and fiction behind such figures as Hezekiah Wyman, the dreaded “White Horseman”; Abel Benson and Abigail Smith, children said to have helped raise the alarm in Middlesex County; and Israel Bissell, the post rider credited with carrying news of the fight all the way to Philadelphia.

Forum Network

Whose Midnight Ride? Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the Famous Ride

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
The Governor, the Sheriff, and the Sawyer: a New Hampshire Perspective on the Coming of the Revolution

Tue, Dec 10, 2024

Join the Paul Revere House for the final event in their 2024 Lowell Lecture Series. This three-part series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.

Paul Revere made multiple rides to New Hampshire to pass messages between Patriot groups. The conventional narrative of the American Revolution emphasizes the role of extra-legal events in Massachusetts such as the Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act riots. Yet, extra-legal actions were not exclusive to Massachusetts—New Hampshire had a long tradition of protest, especially when connected to timber. Laws passed by Parliament in 1708 and 1722 that claimed pine trees for the masts needed for the Royal Navy, among other items contributed to growing discontent with colonial rule, reflected in a series of demonstrations and riots through the 1700s. By late 1774, New Hampshire colonists were seizing Royal munitions.

Peter Flood, author of the 2014 Revere House Gazette article, "A Week in December – Paul Revere’s Secret Mission to New Hampshire, will join the discussion.

Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org or visit paulreverehouse.org.

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Revere’s Other Rides: Perspectives on his Patriot Messenger Missions

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
The Narragansett Pacer: The Finest Riding Horse in 18th-Century New England

Tue, Oct 8, 2024

Join the Paul Revere House for the second event in their 2024 Lowell Lecture Series. This three-part series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.

Horses first appeared in New England in 1629, when Francis Higginson shipped approximately 25 mares and stallions from Leicestershire, England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Horses were central to survival in terms of work, travel, communication, and leisure. However, for New Englanders, horses were also a staple exportation commodity, and by the mid-eighteenth century New England led the way in shipping horses to the sugar colonies. Amongst the diverse types of horses that were raised in New England, the Narragansett Pacer was exceptional in many ways. The Pacer’s easy gait made it suitable for both long-distance travel and racing. The Pacer was the first “truly” American breed of horse, and it was in high demand all around the Atlantic World. However, from such promising beginnings, the Pacer was extinct by the next century. The talk will examine how the Narragansett Pacer emerged in Rhode Island in the 17th century, what made it so special as riding horse, how the breed is connected to well-known people including Paul Revere and George Washington, and how it has been memorialized in literature and art.

Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org or visit paulreverehouse.org.

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Revere’s Other Rides: Perspectives on his Patriot Messenger Missions

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
The Massachusetts Revolution of 1774

Tue, Sep 10, 2024

Join the Paul Revere House for the first event in their 2024 Lowell Lecture Series. This three-part series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.

In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament not only shut down the port of Boston but also revoked the Massachusetts Charter of 1691, which guaranteed the people considerable say in their government. Their sacred rights withdrawn, the people rose up as a body and rebelled. They forced all crown-appointed officers to resign. Everywhere except Boston, where British troops were stationed, they shut down county courts, which administered British authority, executive as well as judicial, on the local level. To fill the vacuum, they formed a Provincial Congress that levied taxes, gathered arms, and raised an army. When British soldiers marched on Lexington and Concord the following spring, they were trying to take back a province they had just lost. That’s when other colonies joined in, broadening the Massachusetts Revolution of 1774 into the American Revolution of 1775.

Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org or visit paulreverehouse.org.

Forum Network

Revere’s Other Rides: Perspectives on his Patriot Messenger Missions

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
When Boston Was Closed: Ordinary Bostonians and the Intolerable Acts

Tue, Jul 2, 2024

On June 1, 1774, British officials shut down the port of Boston as punishment for the dumping of East India Company tea six months earlier. Overnight, ship traffic stopped and the wharves fell silent.

In this lecture, Joseph M. Adelman discusses how Bostonians lost access to goods and work that they relied on and explore how working people coped with the economic fallout.

Forum Network

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
The “New” Catholics Come to Town

Tue, Oct 24, 2023

Join Paul Revere House for the third lecture of the Paul Revere House's 2023 Lowell Lecture Series. This 3-part series From Puritans to Catholics: Religion in Boston’s North End examines how shifts in religious traditions impacted cultural expression, demographics, political affiliations and economic status in the North End.

The key speaker is Stephen Puleo, Author and Historian. When thousands of immigrants from Southern Italy flocked to the North End in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, their Catholic religious practices shocked the Irish diocesan hierarchy.

Stephen Puleo will discuss what this reveals about why this group left Italy, how they viewed religion, and how their presence shaped the North End. Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Old North Illuminated, and the North End Historical Society, with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org or visit paulreverehouse.org

Forum Network

From Puritans to Catholics: Religion in Boston’s North End

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association
"Old England in New England: Contradictions in the History of Boston's Old North Church"

Tue, Oct 10, 2023

Join Paul Revere House for the second lecture of the Paul Revere House's 2023 Lowell Lecture Series. This 3-part series From Puritans to Catholics: Religion in Boston’s North End examines how shifts in religious traditions impacted cultural expression, demographics, political affiliations and economic status in the North End.

The key speaker is Prof. Jaimie D. Crumley, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies Division and Ethnic Studies Division, University of Utah. This lecture explores the Church of England's interventions in the Puritan North End with Old North's founding in 1723.

Prof. Crumley will also discuss the previously less well-known role of people of color in the Old North Church community during its early days. Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Old North Illuminated, and the North End Historical Society, with funding from the Lowell Institute.

Forum Network

From Puritans to Catholics: Religion in Boston’s North End

Partner:

Paul Revere Memorial Association

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