J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

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Check out the 150 Years of “Paul Revere’s Ride” website for information about Henry W. Longfellow’s famous poem. First published at the end of 1860, that poem had a profound impact on how Americans remember the start of the Revolutionary War.
J. L. Bell was a panelist in the discussion of “A Knock at the Door: Three Centuries of Governmental Search and Seizure” at the Old State House in Boston on 4 Nov 2009. View this event through the WGBH Forum Network.
Hear J. L. Bell “Gossiping About the Gores” at Old South Meeting House, archived by the WBGH Forum Network. (And follow along with the handout.) This talk from January 2009 follows one Boston family from the 1760s through the 1820s—striving in society, divided by politics, and occasionally star-crossed by love.
Read the transcript of J. L. Bell’s discussion of John Adams with Mike Pesca, host of N.P.R.’s The Bryant Park Project, in April 2008.
Check out the online exhibit about the 5th of November in Boston that J. L. Bell assembled for the Bostonian Society. People in Britain celebrated that date as Guy Fawkes’ Day, but in Boston it was “Pope-Night”—a riot of bigotry, violence, and giant puppets!
J. L. Bell’s article “A Bankruptcy in Boston, 1765” appears in the fourth-quarter 2008 issue of Massachusetts Banker. Download a copy of the entire magazine for free from this page.
J. L. Bell’s article “‘I Never Used to Go Out with a Weapon’: Law Enforcement on the Streets of Prerevolutionary Boston,” about town watchmen, army officers, and the Boston Massacre, is available in the Dublin Seminar volume Life on the Streets and Commons.
Children in Colonial America, edited by Prof. James Marten and published by N.Y.U. Press, features J. L. Bell’s chapter “From Saucy Boys to Sons of Liberty: Politicizing Youth in Pre-Revolutionary Boston.”

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Training for Eighteenth-Century Cartographers

The Department of the Geographer, an organization reenacting the cartographic unit of the Continental Army, has announced its fifth annual Cartography, Surveying & Engineering School of Instruction, to be held next month in West Virginia.

The group’s website explains:
At so many of the events we participate in, we are so busy working with the public that we don’t get to conduct training exercises for ourselves. Sessions for the weekend include:
  • Creating (draughting) maps from survey data
  • Thomas Hutchins’ study of magnetic needle dip around the world
  • Colouring maps and plans with period watercolors
  • Observing the 2012 Transit of Venus
  • Enhancing living history impressions by studying museum collections
  • Basics of 18th-century surveying
This is the sort of event I have no interest in attending, but am tickled pink to know that it’s out there.

The next transit of Venus, incidentally, is on 5 June, so make your plans now.

PERMANENT LINK: 08:27

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1 comments:

Thomas said...

Mention of the transit of Venus alls to mind the various voyages of Captain James Cook. The first voyage, of course, was tasked with observing the transit of Venus in the Pacific. The third and for Cook fatal one, in 1777-79, was the one for which Ben Franklin issued a passport directed at all naval vessels in arms for Congress:

http://tinyurl.com/78ll68t

Wednesday, 11 January, 2012

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