Founded in 1630, Boston
is one of the oldest cities in the USA. Boston’s
population of 668,000 is the largest of all New England cities, while it is
only the 23rd largest city in the USA. The SMSA (Standard Metropolitan Statistical
Area) of Boston has over 4.7 million inhabitants, the 10th
largest SMSA in the USA. As Anne has
lived in the Boston SMSA for six years, we find ourselves traveling there for frequent visits. This slutigram will focus on
our visits in June and November of 2016.
Boston and its nearby environs
was the site of much of the early activity towards the 13 colonies becoming an
independent nation. In
the May 2016 slutigram, I spoke of the Adams’, who were our 2nd
and 6th presidents. In the
November 2008 slutigram several famous sites of Boston are included. I will not be repeating those in this
slutigram. They include the Bunker Hill Monument, Faneuil Hall, the USS Constitution, the site of the Boston Massacre
and some other sites. However, I have
found that we had not even begun to take in all the history and culture that
Boston has to offer.
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow wrote of the “Ride of Paul Revere” during the American
Revolution. Revere was 40 years old
when the famous ride occurred. Revere
served in the French and Indian war as part of the colonial militia. After returning to Boston, he took up his
father’s trade as a silversmith.
However, due to tightening British restrictions after the war, his
business was faltering to such an extent that he took up dentistry. Not the practice as we know it today, but
mainly pulling teeth. He soon was an
active member of the “Sons of Liberty”, a dissident organization. As the years progressed, he became even more
dedicated to the cause of colonial rights.
Revere was one of the organizers of the Boston Tea Party and served as a
dispatch rider to New York City and other places for the Committees on
Correspondence, another patriotic group.
In 1770, Revere purchased
a house in the north side of Boston. He
sold the home around 1800. Fortunately,
the building has survived to this day, mainly due to the efforts of his great
grandson who purchased the home in 1902.
The home is open for tours and has many artifacts associated with Paul
Revere.
Revere would have been
only a footnote to the Revolution if it weren’t for the ride he made on April
18, 1775 to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the dispatch of British
troops to Lexington and Concord. William Dawes also made the ride by a
slightly different route. However,
Longfellow did not include Dawes in his poem.
His ride on a borrowed horse began at the Old
North Church, where lanterns were hung to indicate whether the troops were
coming by land or by sea. The church
stands today and is open to sightseers.
It is humbling to sit in the pews where many of our early founders
worshipped. The church remains active
and has Sunday services.
The British prevented Revere's
return to Boston, so he and his family rented a house in Watertown, a few
miles upriver. Revere served as a Lt.
Colonel in the army until 1779. He
fought in battles in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine (part of
Massachusetts until 1820).
Paul Revere lived to 83
years, a very long and distinguished life in those times. It seems that I should learn more about his
exploits – a trip to the library will be on my agenda.
Since we had seen the old
north church, we though balance required a stop at the old south church.
Speaking of churches, in
north Boston we walked past St. Stephen’s Church. Which I initially thought was the old north
church. After seeing old north church,
we again passed St. Stephen’s. A plaque
on the Church building drew my interest.
This church was where Rose Fitzgerald was baptized and where her funeral
services were held 104 years later. Rose
was the mother of President John Kennedy.
In 1638, John Harvard
bequeathed a parcel of land that was to become Harvard Colledge (spelled it
that way back then). He is honored as
one of the founders of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Today, Harvard sprawls across several blocks
of Cambridge, making it difficult to know whether you are on campus or
not. We haven’t taken a tour of the
campus as yet. However, we have spent
time in a few coffee shops near Harvard Square, where you can rub elbows with
Professors, students and even the homeless. The cafe culture, a true melting pot.
I think it was in 2015,
that Harvard’s 3 art museums merged and now is lodged in one building. As Elaine and I both enjoy art museums; we
spent the better part of the day feasting our eyes on works of art spanning the
centuries. Here are a few examples.
Egyptian art:
Sumerian/Assyrian:
Greek:
Roman
Van Gogh's self portrait; he painted it so that his missing ear was not visible.
Famous Americans. This is a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart and Benjamin Franklin
There are 6 floors to the
museum, with a large open space in the center of the building.
The special visiting exhibit
was Aboriginal Art:
On another day, we went to
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The
museum is unlike other art museums, as it is a total work of art from the
building to its contents. Much of the
gallery building is a disassembled Venetian Palace that has been incorporated
into the gallery. Unfortunately, we
forgot the camera. I think we will
revisit on our next visit to Anne. For
some wonderful reason, admission is waived for veterans and up to 3
others.
The Massachusetts
Historical Society houses some interesting exhibits. The purpose of the Society is to highlight the
state’s important roles in historical events that occurred in the state or
nation. Portraits abound. In order, here are an early settler of
Massachusetts (can‘t remember his name, but he must have been important by the
looks of his garb) and Daniel Boone in his elder years. I do not know what significance that Boone has to Massachusetts.
A pen that signed the
Emancipation Proclamation, a copy of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
a slave collar and an epaulet that belonged to George Washington. Pretty neat stuff.
Another day found us at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Museum. MIT is our premier doctoral level engineering
university. The museum unsurprisingly
focuses of various aspects of engineering to include robotics and strobe
photography. Harold Edgerton, from
Aurora, Nebraska was a beloved professor at MIT who pioneered the use of strobe
photography. The famous stop-action
photo of a bullet as it passes through an apple is only one of the many strobe
photos one can see at MIT. Incidentally,
there is an Edgerton Museum in Aurora, Nebraska where you can learn about this
man’s contributions.
Boston is home to the
Christian Science religion and its famous newspaper the Christian Science
Monitor. Headquarters is in downtown
Boston. Inside the Newspaper’s building
you can tour the Maparium, a stained glass model of the globe’s
various nations in the 1930s. It is a
very large globe.
Time for lunch. We wished to enjoy dim sim in Boston’s Chinatown,
which is several blocks where you get the feeling of being in China. Lunch was yummy.
While walking along the
city’s streets, we encountered some Christmas carolers who were dressed in 19th
century fashion.
Getting around town is
pretty easy and inexpensive. A 7-day
transit pass enables you to ride buses, the T (light rail and subway) and
several inner harbor ferries all for about $20.25.
Anne comes with us as her
schedule allows. On one outing to Bunker
Hill, we had lunch at the Warren Tavern.
You may remember that this is the oldest restaurant in Charlestown and
that it was featured in the November 2008 slutigram of our fall foliage tour. In both photos, we are sitting in the same booth.
A tour of Boston would be
incomplete without a brewery tour, as there are many micro-breweries in
Boston. We haven’t toured the Sam Adams
brewery as yet, but we did tour Harpoon Brewery. A good tour and a good beer.
On our most recent trip, the
Boston Public Library had a traveling exhibit which focused on Shakespeare’s
works. There were 2 parts of the
exhibit, one on maps and the author and the other on his books. The books dated from the early 1600s. For
instance, Macbeth is known as the “melancholy Dane” and you may remember the
line “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” so a map of Denmark would
make sense; so would a map of Venice from “The Merchant of Venice” etc. There were many map locations that related to
the bard. This was a temporary exhibit,
so I believe it is gone.
Anne often finds
interesting things to do and see. Along
with Rhia, a friend of Anne’s, we enjoyed a day on the banks of the Charles
River in Cambridge watching the Dragon Boat Races.
Of course, we love our
time with Anne and friends and plan frequent returns to Boston.
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