Boston 1775

One of the questions asked after yesterday’s talk on young Benjamin Thompson ’s life in America was whether he interacted with any represen...

Yesterday I cited Jane Merrill’s Sex and the Scientist: The Indecent Life of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753–1814) , the latest and ...

In preparation for tomorrow’s talk about Benjamin Thompson ’s early years, I’ve been reviewing the evidence of his affair with Mary (Dill) T...

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, in 1737. In 1964 the town erected a statue of him, over the objections of a councilor who act...

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence , multiple institutions in greater Boston have collaborated to lay ...

On 21 April, the Philadelphia Inquirer shared an opinion piece about the President’s House exhibit by Sharon Ann Holt, a public historian ...

I’ve been following the story of the President’s House site within Independence National Historical Park. That structure marks the reside...

This week Columbia University announced the Pulitzer Prizes for 2026 . In journalism, the big trend was big exposés of big abuses by the cur...

As April started, I planned to spend just a few days on the capture of the Elizabeth , one of the Loyalist evacuation fleet . I expected ...

On 27 Apr 1782, Elizabeth Hill died, “greatly lamented by her Family and Neighbours,” the New-York Gazette reported two days later. In t...

In October 1776, as recounted here and here , John Hill ’s wife Elizabeth (?) and his daughter were stopped at New London and found to be...

In the fall of 1777, as recounted yesterday , John Hill and his family were released from captivity in Boston as part of a prisoner exchang...

We left John Hill , his wife Elizabeth (?), and his daughter in the Boston jail in February 1777, suspected of “being Enemical to the Sta...

Yesterday I illustrated a posting that quoted Boston jailer Joseph Otis ’s list of prisoners with a small image of such a list. However, ...