Boston 1775

In August 1768 a Boston Gazette item, quoted back here , announced that Nathaniel Barber had commissioned a large silver bowl “for the Use...

We have a reasonably good idea of who eight of Boston’s “Loyall Nine” were: John Avery, Jr. , distiller and merchant Thomas Chase , distill...

In a 19 Dec 1765 letter divulging details about Boston’s latest Stamp Act protest, and earlier ones, Henry Bass wrote of the organizers a...

The Museum of Fine Arts just shared an essay by Ethan Lasser , the the John Moors Cabot Chair for the Art of the Americas, about the silver...

The American Historical Association has once again responded to a dubious and harmful White House executive order with a statement on behalf...

When I spoke to the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati in February, a descendant of artillerist William Burbeck asked me a provocativ...

As recounted yesterday , over champagne Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir divulged to a British secret agent that he’d been meeting wi...

I’ve been quoting from the report of a British secret agent on his—or possibly her—conversations with Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir...

As described yesterday , an agent for the British government “pumped” Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir and the Chevalier d’Amboise a...

Here’s another glimpse of espionage in 1775. That summer, Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir , younger son of a French nobleman, and t...

On Monday, 31 March, I’m returning to Acton to speak in the town’s series of Sestercentennial lectures . My topic this time is “Spies and...

The Journal of the American Revolution just published Tim Abbott’s article about Lt. Col. Thomas Williams, Jr. (1746–1776), of Stockbridge ...

As the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord approaches, I’ve gotten requests for information about where the commemorati...

The month of May brings two gatherings of Revolutionary War researchers in upstate New York , just a scenic drive away from Boston. Sarato...

Earlier this month, the nation’s two main associations of historians issued this statement condemning federal censorship of the nation’s his...

On Saturday I attended the “Spies Among Us” event in Concord , described back here . Top highlights: Seeing the Wright Tavern sprucing u...

Laurie Halse Anderson’s latest novel about the American Revolution is set in Boston: Rebellion 1776 . Anderson has won awards for her See...

For the Sestercentennial , Macmillan is publishing The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America , by Kostya Kennedy. The publis...

Yesterday I quoted a description of the Rev. Jonathan Homer of Newton late in life, by the poet and doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes. Homer...

Back in January I quoted Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes on one of the impressive clergymen who came to preach in his father’s pulpit in Cambrid...