-
Revere’s Other Rides: Perspectives on his Patriot Messenger Missions
The 2024 Lowell Lecture 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.Presented by Paul Revere Memorial Association 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. All lectures are free and open to the public. -
Boston’s Black educators were fighting their own battle through desegregation
That era 50 years ago was dominated by resentment and isolation within the district, they say. -
BDBI Walking Tour
The Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative (BDBI) is hosting a walking tour on September 14 that will take participants to important sites of the Boston desegregation and busing history. The tour will start at 10-1/2 Beacon Street. -
20 years ago: Boston’s historic 2004 Democratic National Convention
Looking back on the momentous event that led to protest standards that remain today and introduced Barack Obama to a national audience. -
Frederick Douglass’ iconic speech on slavery and the Declaration of Independence returns to Boston Common
The annual reading is designed to make onlookers consider the legacies of slavery and racism in today’s America. -
‘Stamped from the Beginning’ illustrates the ‘algorithm’ of racism in America
“You don’t ever have to tweak the algorithm if you set it running,” says Joel Christian Gill. “You never have to. If you want it to continue to work, you just leave it alone.” -
When Boston Was Closed: Ordinary Bostonians and the Intolerable Acts
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.Partner:Paul Revere Memorial Association -
Matthew J. Davenport with The Longest Minute : The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
Drawn from never-before-published records and letters, this heralded work of history offers an intimate account of the horrors witnessed and endured during the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Join us to hear more from the award-winning author Matthew Davenport about his research, see rare photographs, and listen to tragic tales of loss and survivors’ experiences on the morning of April 18, 1906.
More than 118 years ago, San Francisco, the largest city in the Western U.S. shook, crumbled, burned, and was completely devastated in an incomprehensible show of force by nature. In less than a minute, shockwaves shook the city, buckled its streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings on slumbering residents, and crushed hundreds. Then came the devastating fires, a second round of destruction that lasted weeks. From archival sources and hundreds of previously unpublished letters, many from private family collections; Matthew J. Davenport weaves a harrowing tale of the fateful day. Meticulously researched and gracefully written, The Longest Minute is both a harrowing chronicle of devastation, and a portrait of a city’s resilience in the burning aftermath of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.Partner:American Ancestors -
How lawmaking veterans like Rep. Seth Moulton mark Memorial Day
Moulton and a group of bipartisan veterans washed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ahead of Monday's ceremonies. -
What winning same-sex marriage in Mass. meant, as told by the lawyer who argued it
“There were a lot of people who wanted to marry each other, wanted to define themselves by this commitment, and yet were blocked from doing so and there was no real alternative,” said Mary Bonauto, who represented the plaintiffs before the Supreme Judicial Court.