Do your own research (on Cambridge history)
By Michael Kuchta, 2025 As the city of Cambridge approaches its 400th anniversary and the nation its 250th, many people find themselves more interested in our collective past. You may be curious about the history of your street or neighborhood. Who built these buildings and when? Who lived and worked here? What products were made nearby?…
Read MoreEast Cambridge Ethnic Heritage Center
By Beth Folsom, 2025 The Cambridge Public Library announced in the summer of 1979 that it had received a $36,500 grant under the Library Services and Construction Act to create an Ethnic Heritage Center at the East Cambridge Branch Library. According to the Cambridge Chronicle, the goal of the center was “to provide resource materials…
Read MoreIn 1941, the ‘Dearos’ fought the ‘Foundry Fielders’ over where the borders of East Cambridge ended
By Beth Folsom, 2025 A headline in a 1941 Cambridge Sentinel asked: “What is East Cambridge?” The article recounts the “fracas” between local funeral home director Daniel F. O’Brien and police Capt. John Canney over who could claim to be a resident of the neighborhood. O’Brien planned a reunion of current and former East Cambridge…
Read MorePathway would have highlighted Cambridge’s history in the lead-up to the bicentennial
By Beth Folsom, 2025 With a headline reading “Freedom Trail Here, Too,” the Cambridge Chronicle of April 12, 1962, detailed the recommendations of the Cambridge Historic Districts Study Committee for a pathway that would highlight 30 sites of colonial and revolutionary history in the city. The article was published just before the anniversary of the…
Read MoreEast Cambridge led, not to mention innovated in, the manufacture of coffin and caskets
By Beth Folsom, 2025 Brothers William and David Lockhart established their coffin- and casket-making factory on Bridge Street in East Cambridge in 1854. Woodworking shops of many varieties already existed in the neighborhood, and the Lockhart brothers themselves had a brief foray into the world of cabinet-making before turning their attention to caskets. What began…
Read More‘Reading Frederick Douglass Together’ at CCTV invites community to participate on Wednesday
By Beth Folsom, 2025 Frederick Douglass escaped in 1838 from enslavement in Maryland, where he had spent the first two decades of his life. Over the next 14 years, Douglass traveled around the northern states as an abolitionist speaker and writer, publishing his autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” and…
Read MoreForget July 4. For Cambridge, July 3 is the claim to fame
By Beth Folsom, 2025 While the rest of the country was preparing to celebrate Independence Day on July 4, 1875, Cantabrigians were gearing up for the day before – July 3 – when they would commemorate the 100th anniversary of general George Washington taking command of the Continental Army on Cambridge Common in 1775. As…
Read MoreBrush-making in Cambridge used prison labor, ultimately defeating an industry and principle
By Beth Folsom, 2025 Beginning in the early 19th century, individual craftspeople and small-scale workshops in East Cambridge made a variety of brushes for domestic and commercial use. By midcentury, this had expanded into larger-scale industrial production; in the 1850s, Stratton, Sherriff & Co. employed more than 150 workers in its brush factory on South…
Read MoreLessons in East Cambridge history: Reflections on two centuries of newspaper coverage
By Beth Folsom, 2025 This is the third year of History Cambridge’s Neighborhood History Center model of programming, in which we choose one of Cambridge’s 13 neighborhoods on which to focus for a calendar year. For the past six months, I have delved into the history of this year’s neighborhood, East Cambridge, by reading the nearly…
Read MoreEast Cambridge’s American Net and Twine Co. reflects a history entangled with enslaved labor
By Beth Folsom, 2025 Before the founding of the American Net and Twine Co. in 1844, fishing and other kinds of nets were either made locally using hemp fibers or were made of cotton but imported from England. American Net and Twine was the first manufacturer to use domestic cotton to craft its nets –…
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