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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Revolutionary Spaces

**Revolutionary Spaces ** connects people to the history and continuing practice of democracy through the intertwined stories of two of the nation’s most iconic sites—Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We foster a free and open exchange of ideas, explore history, create gathering places, and preserve and steward historic buildings.

https://www.bostonhistory.org

  • Highlights From Joan Gatturna: Petticoats at the Revolution

    Thu, Feb 20, 2014
    Actor and storyteller Joan Gatturna portrays Rachel Revere sharing the story of the Boston Tea Party, the Midnight Ride and the Siege of Boston through the eyes of a woman who kept the home fires burning while her husband fanned the flames of rebellion. Her characterization of Rachel Revere was developed with assistance from the staff of the Paul Revere House.
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  • The Ether Dome and Beyond: Anesthesia and Its Development

    Thu, Dec 8, 2011
    "Perhaps the best-known story in the history of Massachusetts General Hospital is the pivotal discovery and first use of ether as an anesthesia in 1846. But, that surgical first was only the beginning of a series of technological innovations that helped increase patient comfort and survivability during surgery. Warren Zapol, Emeritus Anesthetist-in-Chief of MGH, will discuss how the discovery of ether was only the start in a series of critical care developments. This program was presented as part of the December Middays at the Meeting House series 'Milestone in Public Care: The 200th Anniversary of Massachusetts General Hospital' and was cosponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital."
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  • Anthony Sammarco: Lost Boston

    Thu, May 29, 2014
    In 1876 the Old South Meeting House was auctioned off for the value of its parts and was being dismantled when people rallied to save it! But other historic structures in Boston have not fared so well. The original Museum of Fine Arts in Copley Square, John Hancock's Beacon Hill mansion, the Huntington Avenue Grounds and the original Boston Opera House are just a few of the places that have been lost to decline or the wrecker's ball. Discover just how much we have lost when historian Anthony Sammarco takes us on a nostalgic and eye-opening journey to a wide range of Boston places that can no longer be seen.
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  • Loren Spears: A Prism of Information - Indigenous Knowledge and Public History

    Thu, Mar 13, 2014
    Lorén Spears, Narragansett artist, educator, and executive director of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Rhode Island, one of the oldest tribal museums in the nation, shared her extensive experience teaching the public about Southern New England's Native residents. Through an illustrated lecture, storytelling and song, Spears explained how today's indigenous educators help broaden our understanding of history through collaborations with local historians, oral history projects and performing arts programs.
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  • Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod

    Tue, Jan 17, 2006
    Philip Dray uses the story of Franklin's wild experiments and his battles with his vehement detractors as a metaphor for America's struggle for democracy and the establishment of our fundamental democratic values. Long before Benjamin Franklin was an eminent statesman and a father of American democracy, he was famous for being a revolutionary scientist, most notably for his experiments with lightning and electricity. But Franklin had many powerful doubters who were troubled by his presumption in denying God his favorite weapon of resentment. For as long as anyone could remember, all the way back to Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, one of the gods' privileges had been the ability to hurl thunderbolts to punish the misdeeds of mortals. **Philip Dray** is the author of *At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America*, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
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  • Memory and Abolition in 1850's Boston

    Thu, Feb 16, 2006
    Margot Minardi explores why the Revolutionary past mattered to 19th century Bostonians and how they used that history to make the case for or against abolition. In 1843, the suspicion that President John Tyler had brought a slave to the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument set Boston abolitionists up in arms. This incident was by no means the only time in the antebellum years when the celebration of American liberty ran up against the messy reality of slavery.
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  • Death in the Haymarket

    Thu, Mar 30, 2006
    James Green, professor of history at UMASS Boston and Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States discuss the exhilarating rise of a visionary union movement and its downfall in the wake of the Haymarket tragedy. In May of 1886 Americans awoke to the news that a bomb had exploded a Chicago labor rally, killing several policemen. Coming in the midst of the largest national strike Americans had ever seen, the bombing, the mass hysteria it created, and the sensational trial and executions that followed, made headlines across the country. National sentiment turned against the burgeoning labor movement, ending a moment of hope for the nation's working class.
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  • Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero

    Fri, Jun 9, 2006
    Historian Robert Allison tells the story of Stephen Decatur's eventful life at a time when the young republic was developing its own identity. Born to a prominent Philadelphia family in 1779, Decatur became the youngest man ever to serve as a captain in the US Navy at age 25.
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  • Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy

    Mon, Jun 15, 2009
    Author and Constitutional lawyer David O. Stewart reveals how the first President Impeachment Crisis was wrought with corruption and greed. In 1868 when the nation was healing from a bloody civil war, the US Congress impeached Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson. Attempting to secure the rights of the freed slaves and prevent the southern states from falling under control of the rebels, congressional Republicans seized the opportunity to impeach President Johnson, a man who took a narrow view of federal powers and was untroubled by racial violence. The conflict between the President and the Congress threatened to tear the nation apart, in a clash that strained the Constitution to the breaking point. This program is generously funded by the Lowell Institute.
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    Belinda Rathbone: Tea with Miss Rose

    Thu, Dec 17, 2009
    Belinda Rathbone, co-author of *Tea with Miss Rose*, talks about the life and times of Rose Nichols, the Bostonian spinster who gathered a regular crowd at her townhouse on Beacon Hill in the 1950s to discuss art, politics, and world affairs over a cup of Hu-Kwa. Rathbone describes these famous tea parties and shares recipes for tea cakes and the best "ingredients" for lively conversations for a proper tea party.
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