Boston 1775

Lily Ford’s Public Domain Review article “‘For the Sake of the Prospect’: Experiencing the World from Above in the Late 18th Century” drift...

Let’s get back to Boston’s Civic Festival of 24 Jan 1793. As I described back here , a wide swath of Bostonians appear to have gone gaga o...

This summer’s Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife is on the topic of “Entertainments at Taverns and Long Rooms in New England, 1700-1...

The Department of History & Classics at Providence College in Rhode Island is launching a Seminar on the History of Early America. ...

On Publishers Weekly ’s new list of the best picture books of the year is A Voyage in the Clouds: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Int...

Last week the anniversary of the first balloon crossing of the English Channel by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and Dr. John Jeffries , a Boston...

Since some folks are reportedly shopping for holiday gifts today, I’ll just say that I wouldn’t mind receiving this at the end of December. ...

If you’ve long felt that the only problem with the American War for Independence is that it didn’t have enough airships, then you should c...

Anna Lætitia Barbauld (1743-1825) was a writer, teacher, and minister’s wife in England. She moved in circles of religious and political di...

RT @KevinLevin: "Myths That Should By Now Be History" from your friends at Colonial Williamsburg bit.ly/9eL9Q9 #historyteacher # ...

@ jmadelman Yes, Texas history standards still include ancient Rome, but only the REPUBLICAN period. #stuffimakeup # Current reading – R. ...

Vincent Lunardi, an Italian diplomat, became Britain’s first aeronaut on 15 Sept 1784. The painting of his spectacular ascent above comes fr...

Yesterday I quoted John Childs’s announcement that he planned to fly from the steeple of Christ Church in Boston’s North End, the church we...

This series of postings, starting with Part 1 , has brought Dr. John Jeffries from his early medical practice in Boston to floating across t...

Part 5 of this series of postings left Jean Pierre Blanchard and Dr. John Jeffries dangling in their balloon a few yards above the English...

After their first flight together, in November 1784, Boston-born Loyalist Dr. John Jeffries and French balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard set ...

The first of this series of postings described how Dr. John Jeffries is sometimes called the first American to fly, even though he didn...

Part 1 of this series of postings introduced Dr. John Jeffries, who, despite his family ties to Boston's establishment, became a Loyali...