Posts Tagged ‘Cambridge Common’
There’s also a tree made of wood: Edward Everett and the Washington Elm
The Washington Elm might be called a dead metaphor – it’s invoked, but those who invoke it largely have no clue of its origins and meaning.
Read MoreThe Washington Elm fell near 100 years ago, living symbol of liberty and site of reverence
What was the Washington Elm, and how did it attain such a powerful hold over the popular imagination over generations in Cambridge and well beyond?
Read MoreSelf-Guided Tour: Stories from the Early African American Community of Old Cambridge
By Jules Long, Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, 2018 | Edited by Eshe Sherley, History Cambridge, 2021 Slavery in Pre-Revolutionary Cambridge The oldest existing mention of slavery in Massachusetts was recorded in 1638, when African prisoners arrived in the colony on the slave ship Desire, built in Marblehead the previous year. In…
Read MoreSelf-Guided Tour: Monuments and Memorials in Cambridge
Cambridge is a city filled with monuments. Statues, plaques, and memorials across the city commemorate people and events from its nearly four hundred years of settlement. But who decides what is worthy of commemoration, and how does the memorial landscape of the city reinforce certain narratives of Cambridge history and exclude others? In this tour…
Read MoreEvent Recap: How Does Cambridge Commemorate?
On Monday, August 17, CHS held a Virtual History Café exploring monuments and memorials in Cambridge. In this program, “How Does Cambridge Commemorate?” we examined several of the city’s most prominent public monuments, and we were joined by Kim and Sofia Bernstein, honorary members of the Cambridge Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Committee who provided the impetus…
Read MoreCambridge Trees
By Lois Lilley Howe Read January 25, 1950 This article originally appeared in the Cambridge Historical Society Proceedings, Volume 33, pages 94-99 In the records of The Cambridge Plant Club I find that on February 25th, 1901 “Miss Prince of Boston,” no further identified than this, read “an Interesting paper on Trees in our neighborhood.” This was…
Read MoreThe History of Garden Street
By Lois Lilley Howe Read April 25, 1949 This article originally appeared in the Cambridge Historical Society Proceedings, Volume 33, pages 37-57 WE CANNOT think of Old Garden Street without thinking of the Common which forms one side of it. Yet our thought of the Common is just of a big open space with trees and a…
Read MoreThree Distinct and Separate Communities: The Old Cambridge Secession Attempts of 1842–44
By Edward Rodley, 2018 Introduction The Cambridge, Massachusetts, of 2017 is a heavily developed, densely populated urban center with a population that has hovered around 100,000 for the past twenty years. Regional differences exist from one part of the city to another, but the sense of Cambridge as a unique, distinct community provides a cement…
Read MoreTrout Fishing in America Communal School
By Cambridge Historical Society Staff, 2012 There was once a school in Mid-Cambridge called the Trout Fishing in America Communal School. It was based on the book of the same name by Richard Brautigan. On November 3, 1969, the Harvard Crimson reported: ‘‘A night session two weeks ago at Trout Fishing in America… resulted in…
Read MoreSeries I: Hotel Commander
Links to all the Postcard Collection gallery pages and the Finding Aid can be found by clicking here.
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