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A map dedication from Osgood Carlton "to the select men of the town of Boston" in 1795.

Practical Knowledge and the New Republic

Osgood Carleton and his forgotten 1795 map of Boston.
by John W. Mackey via American Revolutionary Geographies Online on December 17, 2024
The silhouette of a colonial American man overlayed on the front page of Publick Occurrences.

Why the Debut Issue of America’s First Newspaper Was Also the Publication’s Last

The paper angered colonial officials by repeating a scandalous rumor and condemning a British alliance with the Mohawk.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on September 25, 2024
A map of Boston from 1725.

When Did the Police Become a “Machine”?

The journey of America’s police force from a non-professional night watch to a highly visible and professional force.
by Nicole Breault via The Panorama on August 13, 2024
Black student looking up at a school bus full of white children.

The Boston ‘Busing Crisis’ Was Never About Busing

Five decades after the desegregation effort, a civil-rights scholar questions its framing.
by Jeanne Theoharis via The Emancipator on June 19, 2024
Exhibit

Boston Commons

The innovations, and the prejudices, that have shaped the landscape and the community of the "hub of the universe."
partner

The Boston Tea Party, Top to Bottom

A historian attends the 250th anniversary of the Tea Party, and reflects on the ways Americans remember one of the Revolution's main set pieces.
by Benjamin L. Carp via HNN on December 27, 2023
Costumed re-enactors at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum in Boston.

The Boston Tea Party Turns 250

How does the most famous act of politically motivated property destruction in American history speak to our own polarized moment?
by Jennifer Schuessler via New York Times on December 15, 2023
Students on a field trip threw boxes of mock tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party Museum in Boston.

The Boston Tea Party Was a Crime

Opposition to British policy was justified. Destroying 342 crates of tea worth nearly $2 million in today’s money wasn’t.
by Jeff Jacoby via Boston Globe Magazine on December 14, 2023
Colonists boarding the ships and dumping the tea chests.

How the Boston Tea Party's 'Destruction of the Tea' Changed American History

Attacks on private property enraged Colonial leaders and the British public, hardening positions and ruling out compromise.
by Eliga Gould via The Conversation on December 13, 2023
Statue of Paul Revere on Boston's Freedom Trail.

On the Trail—to Freedom?

Touring the palimpsests of cities.
by Charlie Riggs via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023
A modern paper map of Boston, marked with Sharpie lines.

Boston's Map, Explained

Boston has more "made" land than any other American city.
by Daniel Steiner via YouTube on October 26, 2023
Colonists in front of the Old State House in Boston.

‘King Hancock’ Review: The Biggest Name in Boston

More than an artful calligrapher, John Hancock forswore the austerity of his fellow Bostonians, and their extremism.
by William Anthony Hay via The Wall Street Journal on October 6, 2023
Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.

The Night James Brown Saved Boston

The city might have gone up in flames after MLK's assassination, if not for the quick actions of a DJ, a city councilor, and The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.
by Dart Adams via Medium on April 5, 2023
Samuel Adams.

Hanged on a Venerable Elm

The shadow of Samuel Adams, a crafty and government-wary revolutionary, lingers over the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
by Colin Kidd via London Review of Books on January 25, 2023
Detail of atlas of the city of Boston, Boston Proper and Back Bay, Plate 9.

Building Blocks

An exhibition exploring the connections between the environment and social justice, using maps and visual materials.
by Laura Lee Schmidt via Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center on January 13, 2023
Drawing of people gathered around a speaker at the liberty tree.

The Letter That Helped Start a Revolution

The Town of Boston’s invention of the standing committee 250 years ago provided a means for building consensus during America’s nascent independence movement.
by Livia Gershon, William B. Warner via JSTOR Daily on November 2, 2022
Architectural drawing of Boston Harbor from above.

Who Profits?

How nonprofits went from essential service providers to vehicles for programs shaped and approved by capital.
by Justin H. Vassallo via The Baffler on July 25, 2022
People talking about a neighborhood map, from the cover of Claire Dunning's book "Nonprofit Neighborhoods."

Grantmaking as Governance

A new book examines how the US government funded the growth of — and delegated governance to — the nonprofit sector.
by Benjamin Soskis via Stanford Social Innovation Review on May 26, 2022
Sketch of Maxie Shackelford looking tough.

Confessions of a Loan Shark

One of the last survivors of Boston’s Gangland War of the 1960s opens up about his notorious past.
by Springs Toledo via City Journal on October 7, 2021
A photo from the 1976 edition of the People's Yellow Pages shows the publication's volunteers assembled before the Vocations for Social Change office in Cambridge

Why The People's Yellow Pages, A Relic Of '70s Counterculture, Still Resonates Today

Fifty years later, The Yellow Pages stand as a testament to grassroots ingenuity and the radical idealism of '70s counterculture.
by Amelia Mason via WBUR on June 28, 2021
Detail of Anti-Slavery Picnic at Weymouth Landing, Massachusetts (c1845) by Susan Torrey Merritt. Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago

New England Kept Slavery, But Not Its Profits, At a Distance

Entangled with, yet critical of, colonial oppression and the evils of slavery, the true history of Boston can now be told.
by Mark A. Peterson via Aeon on May 3, 2021
Cotton Mather.

The Hellfire Preacher Who Promoted Inoculation

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.
by Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on March 7, 2021
Prince Hall portrait

A Forgotten Black Founding Father

Why I’ve made it my mission to teach others about Prince Hall.
by Danielle Allen via The Atlantic on February 10, 2021
A drawing of the Boston Massacre.

Early American Urban Protests

Eric Hinderaker offers a masterclass in how to peel back the layers of data, scholarship, and propaganda to understand what we call the Boston Massacre.
by Bob Carey via The Metropole on January 19, 2021
People holding protest signs

On the Fight for Black Voting Rights at the Turn of the 20th-Century

A rally at Faneuil Hall in support of the Fourteenth Amendment and congressional investigation of southern disfranchisement.
by Kerri K. Greenidge via Literary Hub on October 14, 2020
The USS Constitution glides through Boston Harbor.
partner

Early Americans Knew Better Than President Trump How To Prioritize Health

A public uprising forced Boston to prioritize fighting smallpox over the economy in 1792.
by Andrew Wehrman via Made By History on July 17, 2020
Boston's Emancipation Memorial depicting a black man kneeling in front of Abraham Lincoln.

Black Bostonians Fought For Freedom From Slavery. Where Are The Statues That Tell Their Stories?

Contrary to the image of the kneeling slave, Black abolitionists did not wait passively for the "Day of Jubilee." They led the charge.
by Kevin M. Levin via WBUR on June 16, 2020
A broadside featuring illustrations of coffins.

Colonial Boston’s Civil War

Bostonians refused to be forced to house British soldiers. So the army paid rent to willing landlords, and soldiers’ families settled down all over town.
by Kathleen DuVal via The Wall Street Journal on February 28, 2020

Gossip, Sex, and Redcoats: On the Build-Up to the Boston Massacre

Don't let anyone tell you revolutionary history is boring.
by Serena Zabin via Literary Hub on February 20, 2020

The Utter Inadequacy of America’s Efforts to Desegregate Schools

In 1966, a group of Boston-area parents and administrators created a busing program called METCO to help desegregate schools.
by Alana Semuels via The Atlantic on April 11, 2019
Aftermath of Great Molasses Flood in Boston.

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919: The Day Boston Was Swamped by a Deadly Wave

100 years ago, an enormous steel tank ruptured, sending a torrent of brown syrup on a deadly path through Boston's North End.
by Mike Shanahan via Boston Globe on January 9, 2019
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