Boston 1775

I enjoyed yesterday’s celebration of the 300th anniversary of James Barrett ’s birth even more than I expected. Of course, perfect weather ...

The journalist J. Benson Lossing came through Massachusetts in 1848 on an assignment for Harper’s Magazine . He was dogged in looking for el...

Looking ahead to Saturday’s celebration of Col. James Barrett ’s 300th birthday in Concord , here’s a new online resource about the Battle ...

On Saturday, 31 July, Save Our Heritage is hosting a 300th Birthday party of Col. James Barrett of Concord , with events from 10:00 A.M. to...

Exploring 18thConnect, "a community of scholars that shapes the world of digital resources" on 1700s:...

Back when I was pondering the legend of Hezekiah Wyman , I meant to link to the Francis Wyman House . But since I overlooked the link, I’m g...

Gen. George Washington probably didn’t take command in a ceremony on Cambridge common on 3 July 1775. Instead, Gen. Artemas Ward almost c...

Cambridge ’s Washington Elm died in 1923 after over two centuries of life, not always in the best of circumstances. The legend of that tre...

Though the Washington Elm beside Cambridge common died in 1923, there are remnants and relics of it everywhere in America. Seedlings from ...

In 1927, the editor of the Chronicles of Oklahoma , Joseph B. Thoburn, editorialized about Samuel F. Batchelder’s recent attempt to tell the...

In 1949 Cambridge added a bronze plaque to the granite monument showing Washington on horseback reviewing ranks of troops . The sculptor wa...

Cambridge ’s Washington Elm was in poor shape even before Charles Martyn voiced doubt about its traditional story in his 1921 biography of...

The twentieth century brought a more skeptical approach to writing history, even the history of one’s own nation (as opposed to someone else...

I interrupt my analysis of the Washington Elm ’s decline and fall to share new information on its rise to fame. Yesterday Cambridge resid...

To return to the Washington Elm , said to be the tree in Cambridge under which Gen. George Washington took command, one of the striking th...

Recently Don Hagist of British Soldiers, American Revolution quoted what might be the Most Awesome Deserter Ad Ever , from the Edinburgh Adv...

Snopes on legend of John Hancock's comments on signing Declaration of Independence: bit.ly/abUIYh # Did English Civil War prefigure th...

This is a picture of the Boston Common in 1768, based on a watercolor by Christian Remick . At the rear is Beacon Hill, with John Hancock ’s...

As I quoted back in 2007 , as early as 1846 a story circulated about Gen. George Washington reading aloud the 101st Psalm as he took comman...