Friday, March 31, 2017

Boston sights 2016


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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