Posts Tagged ‘immigration’
Cambridge’s Long History with “The Beautiful Game” Highlights Immigrant Contributions to the City
By Beth Folsom, 2026 In the spring of 1908, the Cambridge Tribune reported that Harvard was considering its athletic offerings for the following school year. Professors and parents had been concerned about the amount of time that the school’s most popular sports – most notably hockey – were taking from the players’ studies, requiring time…
Read MoreJuly 8: Cambridge Through Time Course
July 8, 15, and 223-5 pmCambridge Center for Adult Ed 42 Brattle StreetRegistration required Join us for a summer course! Cambridge is a collection of rich and diverse neighborhoods, each with its own distinct history and flavor. Over the course of three Wednesday this July we will explore three of these neighborhoods – North Cambridge,…
Read MoreAug 12 & 16: The History of Candy-Making in Cambridge Guided Tour
Details The History of Candy-Making in Cambridge Guided TourWednesday, August 12, 5:30-7:00 p.m.Sunday, August 16, 10:00-11:30 a.m.Registration required$15 Why Candy? Why Cambridge? One of the industries for which Cambridge is best known is candy-making – at its peak in the mid-twentieth century, the city boasted 66 different candy companies, including Squirrel Brand, Daggetts, and NECCO,…
Read MoreA Century of the Cambridge Humane Society and Changing Approaches to Mitigating Poverty
By Beth Folsom, 2026 Today, the phrase “humane society” conjures up notions of a group dedicated to animal welfare and finding homes for adoptable pets. But in previous centuries, humane societies were organizations created to save and enhance human lives. Modeled on the Royal Humane Society that had been established in Britain in 1774, the…
Read MoreCatholic churches have long served as East Cambridge’s cornerstones
By Beth Folsom, 2025 For many who settled in East Cambridge, the Catholic Church was an important and enduring institution. Catholicism was largely a faith practiced by newcomers to the neighborhood in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but despite having a religion in common, members of the area’s various ethnic communities preferred to worship…
Read MoreNov. 24: Making It in East Cambridge
Making It in East Cambridge: Industry and Innovation History Cafe with Mike Kuchta Monday, November 24, 20256-7 pmEast Cambridge History Center, 625 Cambridge Street (the former Mayflower Poultry site) Beginning in the early 1800s, East Cambridge grew into a regionally- and nationally-important center of manufacturing, activity which largely disappeared by the late 1960s. Prominent local industries included…
Read MoreFeb 16: We Were Here
Monday, February 16, 20266:30 pmFoundry Theater101 Rogers Street, CambridgeFree; no registration required Back by popular demand! We Were Here: An Enhanced Performance Arranged and written by Betsy Bard and Micaela León Perdomo, We Were Here is a play exploring the history of immigrant workers at the Blake & Knowles Foundry in East Cambridge by Youth…
Read MoreThe Rise of Industry in East Cambridge
From Salt Marshes to Industrial Hub: The Story of East Cambridge The area we now know as East Cambridge was for many centuries largely salt marshes and mud flats that, at low tide, virtually cut the area off from other parts of the city, as well as from Boston. The rich oyster beds contained there…
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 MoreAug 22: Saudade in the Squares
August 22, 20255:00 PMMulticultural Arts Center41 Second St, East Cambridge, MA 02141Free Join the Multicultural Arts Center (MAC) and History Cambridge for a special History Café celebrating the many immigrant communities that have shaped East Cambridge across generations. Experience a powerful new exhibition, Pressing Against the Thorns by Portuguese-American artist José L. Santos, whose work honors the…
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