Boston 1775

The first biography of James Otis, Jr. , published in 1823 by William Tudor, Jr., described the Patriot lawyer’s death in Andover this way:...

A Boston 1775 reader alerted me that the Bonhams auction house is about to sell Timothy Newell ’s diary of the siege of Boston . Newel...

Michael Quinion of World Wide Words recently wrote : In 1807, the American diplomat , politician and poet Joel Barlow [1754-1812] publis...

After I wrote about 1760s astronomy earlier this week, I heard from Sara Schechner, the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Hi...

The West End Museum has just opened a new exhibit on ropemaking in the area from the mid-1700s through the late 1800s. Less than a hundr...

On Saturday, 2 June, the group that reenacts McAlpin’s Corps of Loyal Volunteers, a Loyalist military unit formed in 1777, will drill at ...

Along with future physician Isaac Rand (profiled yesterday ), Prof. John Winthrop took a young man named Samuel Williams (1743-1817) up...

After reading that Prof. John Winthrop took two recent Harvard graduates with him to Newfoundland in 1761 to observe the transit of Venus...

Prof. John Winthrop of Harvard College (portrayed here by John Singleton Copley , in an image that comes courtesy of the university’s Co...

Historian Andrea Wulf will speak about her new book, Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens , at two local sites next week. On Tu...

This morning Boston National Historical Park opens its new visitor center in Faneuil Hall —the reason I’ve been exploring stories of th...

Click on the thumbnail at the right to see a nice photograph of the grasshopper-shaped weathervane atop Faneuil Hall , taken by Steve Bor...

On Monday, Boston 1775 reader Daud Alzayer asked me about how Peter Faneuil ’s name appeared on his tomb. That turns out to be a rather h...

In 1740, the New Rochelle-born merchant Peter Faneuil (shown at left courtesy of the New York Public Library ) offered Boston money to erect...

This is a big week for Boston National Historical Park . Today the park is scheduled to close its visitor center at 15 State Street, across ...

A few days back I quoted Lt. Col. Stephen Kemble ’s diary entry for 8 Sept 1775 about an American soldier who deserted into Boston: anoth...

Since it’s mid-May, it’s still hockey season. The Canadian news media is bubbling with the news that a couple of Swedish researchers—Dr. C...

The April 1774 issue of Isaiah Thomas ’s Royal American Magazine included this portrait of local politician Samuel Adams engraved by Paul ...

Earlier this month I posted a couple of times about the milestones in and around Boston, and proposed that someone (else) compile a comp...

Continuing British Lt. Col. Stephen Kemble ’s diary entries mentioning deserters from the Continental lines during the siege of Boston fro...