History Cambridge holds eclectic collections from Cambridge’s past. Specializing in social history, they tell the story of how people lived during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and the cultural revolution of the mid-20th century.
How to research Cambridge History online:
- Use the magnifying glass tool (
) on the top navigation bar to search this website. - Our archival collections are not digitized, but their Finding Aids are.
- View our digitized historic images on Flickr.
- Looking for information about a person?
- Looking for information on a Cambridge building?
If you want to visit the archive to view materials in person, please read our Rules for the Use of Materials and call 617-547-4252 or email us at archives@cambridgehistory.org to schedule your appointment at least a week in advance. More information is here.
- Cambridge Archives
- Cambridge Black History Project
- Global Boston: A Portal to the Region’s Immigrant Past and Present -- Cambridge (Boston College Department of History)
- Lois Lilley Howe Hub
- Select pieces of our furniture collection are featured in the Boston Furniture Archive, a project of the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in conjunction with Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture
Created by former History Cambridge interns and volunteers, these project sites highlight facets of Cambridge's history:
- Cambridge in the American Revolution
- Cambridge Replicas
- Central Square: Then and Now
- Culinary Cambridge
- Folk Music in Cambridge
- Growing up in East Cambridge
- If This House Could Talk
- Industry in Cambridge
- Innovation in Cambridge
- Music in Cambridge
- Performance Spaces in Cambridge
- The Society for the Protection of Native
Plants and the Cambridge Plant Club - William James' Cambridge