Cambridge Love Letters

Red envelope with words "Cambridge Love Letters" written on white paper coming out of envelope

In June 2021, History Cambridge held and event called “Cambridge Love Letters” at Starlight Square. We asked members of the larger Cambridge community to send us their love letters to the city. These are some of the submissions. Dear Cambridge, When I first arrived in your port twenty-one years ago, I had no idea how…

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Self-Guided Tour: Women Activists of Riverside 50 Years After Suffrage

Stop 1: Begin the tour in Central Square With the passage of the 19th Amendment one hundred years ago this past August (2020), American women won the right to vote. Rather than a culmination, this event marked the beginning of a long fight for equal treatment and equity that is still far from over. Fifty…

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Savoring the Legacy of Joyce Chen

Chef. Restaurateur. Entrepreneur. by Stephen Chen, president of Joyce Chen Foods Reproduced from joycechenfoods.com with permission Born in Beijing in 1917, my mother Joyce Chen came to this country with my dad, sister and brother in 1949. We moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where friends of the family had settled, and where I was born. Surrounded…

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Reflecting on the 2019 History Tour

Guided Tour

Amelia Zurcher, 2019 Summer Programs Intern Approaching local history through the question “How Does Cambridge Engage?” has given me an interesting lens into the city’s years of activism and community-building. Throughout the summer of 2019, I spent many days strolling Cambridge’s streets, sifting through archives, and talking with local residents. When I first began research…

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Recap of 9/23/19 History Café 3: Engaging through the Arts

Many thanks to everyone who joined us at the Central Square Theater for our final History Café of 2019! We were delighted to hear from artists David Fichter, Eryn Johnson, and Vincent Siders on how the arts can serve as a catalyst for– or reaction to– change. Our thanks to Dr. Marty Blatt for moderating…

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Self-Guided Tour: Central Square Activism From the 1960s to Now

By Amelia Zurcher, Society Intern, July 2019 This tour was made possible by the Cambridge Heritage Trust Tour Route Overview and History Central Square has been characterized for much of its history as a working-class neighborhood. In the 1960s, the demographics around Central Square began to change subtly. The growth of local universities led to…

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New Wine in Old Bottles

By Michael Kenney, 2017 Sunday brunch time and weekday happy hours, the courtyard at the corner of Broadway and Hampshire Street is a lively place, with hipsters and families enjoying the bars and restaurants grouped around the open brick-paved space. Hard to believe, but it was even more bustling a century ago, when shifts of…

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Trout 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…

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Series II: Cambridgeport

Links to all the Postcard Collection gallery pages and the Finding Aid can be found by clicking here. *Postcard was used.

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