Latest news with #ConcordMuseum
Boston Globe
01-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
A reckoning with the Revolution. Start with ‘Freedom Trail.'
Advertisement We need a new history of the Revolution. Barbara Brown Brookline The writer is the founder of Hidden Brookline. I am pleased to read about how museums are understanding that the whole picture of the Revolutionary War needs to be presented and that the Concord Museum is taking clear steps to include the marginalized citizens of the period to make a full-bodied history ('Evolutionary thinking on Revolutionary War'). I always wonder which source material folks use. This project brought immediately to mind Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States' and Ray Raphael's 'A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence.' These authors deserve credit for having taken this subject on decades before it became fashionable for people in influential positions to do so. Advertisement Sara Driscoll Jamaica Plain
Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘Not everyone was Paul Revere': Mass. historians reimagine America's founding tale
Related : Advertisement These overlooked perspectives — included in the museum's ' 'Not everyone was Advertisement A more inclusive accounting of Massachusetts history is a massive undertaking in the current moment, local historians acknowledge. They are taking the charge when public history funding is scarce, the sector lacks few diverse perspectives, and mentions of The Trump administration's canceling of millions of Against these odds, though, 'this is really the time to hook people,' Folsom said. Governor The state closed a second, $2 million grant cycle for organizations marking the But the programming has drawn some Advertisement 'An important focus for us from the start has been on telling the untold stories and spotlighting underrepresented voices from the Revolution,' the spokesperson said in a statement. That focus includes 'Indigenous peoples, enslaved and free Black communities, and women,' along with cities and towns that aren't usually included in Revolutionary War-related tourism. Fifty years ago, or even a few years ago, Independence Day revelers might have heard a different Revolutionary War story. Globe coverage from America's bicentennial captures celebrations centered around figures such as George Washington, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson. Protests from Black and Indigenous groups about these figures' owning of people, and genocide of Native tribes, respectively, were mentioned in mainstream media, albeit briefly. Brian Boyles, executive director of MassHumanities, sits on the state's commemoration commission and co-chairs MassHumanities has allocated at least $600,000 toward ' Boyles said the nonprofit realized that philanthropic initiatives for more diverse public history isn't enough. Historians must also ensure their money will ensure that marginalized communities are shaping the stories visitors hear. 'Expertise lives in a lot of different ways and communities,' Boyles said. Also broadening the Revolutionary War's narrative are exhibits such as ' Advertisement The item, with its endless pattern of circles and focus on King Philip's War, 'serves as a touchstone to multiple stories' of the past, present, and future, Walley said. Related : Walley sees Concord Museum as a potential model for museums reckoning with their outdated interpretations of the nation's founding. It is using its privilege, Walley said, as an institution with extensive collections and funding to center voices such as hers. 'It's not like they're the only museum that's doing good things,' Walley said, but there are many museums that haven't even started improving. As the demand for more inclusive histories grows, community-bred, public historians such as Joel Mackall are in high demand. For years, he has led walking tours of Black history around Greater Boston, mostly among Black people like him. But recently, he has received several inquiries from outside the community to give tours, lectures, and speeches. The surge in popularity is something he's still getting used to, but at times, he feels he can't be as candid about America's problems with race. 'We always have to tone down or reshape our suffering" to ensure some audiences don't feel uncomfortable, Mackall said. 'It's a lot.' At popular Revolutionary War sites such as the Old State House in downtown Boston, historians don't shy away from the political aftershocks of violent protest. This touchy subject is fleshed out in the ' Advertisement But when it comes to race, things get tricky, said Nat Sheidley, CEO of Revolutionary Spaces, the nonprofit managing the landmark. 'It's dangerous, it's hard to create a space you can't control,' Sheidley said. 'You put other people at risk by inviting them to be in dialogue with it.' Joe Palumbo, a Concord native and historian, believes that learning a more complete story will benefit everyone. The state recently awarded the town a $25,000 grant for a project related to the 250th commemoration, which includes Palumbo's tours that highlight the different sites shaped by patriots of color. Take the Across the street from the famous span, there is The Robbins House. Its namesake, Caesar Robbins, was born into slavery in Chelmsford and fought in two wars. At 16, he served in the French and Indian War, and his enslaver received his wages. In his early 30s, he fought in the Revolutionary War and gained his freedom. He served at both Dorchester Heights and Fort Ticonderoga. And these are just two stories. For Palumbo, inclusion in the story of the town, and the nation, matters. 'The country was really built by everybody,' he said. Danny McDonald of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Tiana Woodard can be reached at
Axios
18-04-2025
- General
- Axios
How the Concord Museum commemorates the Revolutionary War's start
Dozens of relics survived the Battles of Lexington and Concord and tell the stories of the militia who fought that day. Why it matters: Greater Boston residents and history buffs visiting the area will have a chance to hear and read the often underrepresented stories that shaped April 19, 1775. Driving the news: The Concord Museum set up an installation to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the battles. The installation will be up throughout the week, and the museum will be free on Saturday. Among the artifacts is a powder horn that belonged to Abner Hosmer, an Acton minuteman who was killed in the first firing at North Bridge. What they're saying: People often assume that the start of the American Revolution was an affair involving just Lexington and Concord, says David Wood, the museum curator. "It involves 23 communities on April 19 itself," Wood says. "Within a few days, there were thousands more provincial soldiers surrounding Boston and they came from as far away as Connecticut and New Hampshire, as well as Western Mass." Zoom in: Of course, the museum will display Paul Revere's lantern and pay homage to his midnight ride, in which he warned people that the British troops were headed their way to steal military supplies. The lantern's been in the custody of the museum's founding collection since the mid-1800s. There's also needlework by Mary Jones of Weston, whose family supported the British Empire. Decades later, her grandson Henry David Thoreau would pen the essay "Civil Disobedience."
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How a Maine poet turned Paul Revere into a hero for the ages
Apr. 18—Andrew Pal can't tell you how the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" goes, but he's quite clear on how it made him feel. "As I kid, I just remember it as something that inspired," said Pal, 71, a retired radio advertising executive from Windham. "It's a critical part of our history. It's something that you've got to know." Revere's famous ride on the night of April 18, 1775, warning Massachusetts colonists of advancing British soldiers, has become an enduring part of our country's history, a symbol of bravery and heroism from the earliest days of the American Revolution. Its 250th anniversary is being celebrated at events around the country this weekend. But if not for Maine poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writing some 85 years after Revere's ride, most Americans would likely know very little about the Boston silversmith or his mission. His poem about Revere's ride was meant as a call for unity and action among abolitionists on the eve of the Civil War. Longfellow picked Revere over William Dawes, Samuel Prescott or a dozen or so other riders who carried out similar warning missions that night, on the eve of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In doing so, Longfellow got himself a great opening rhyme —"Listen, my children, and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere" — and secured Revere's place in the collective national memory. "When Revere died (in 1818), there's no mention of his ride in his obituary, or in his eulogy," said Tom Putnam, a former director of the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts, who lives in Kennebunkport. "During his lifetime, it was somewhat suppressed. It wasn't what he was known for." Longfellow was arguably the most popular poet of his day, at a time when poetry had the same sort of pop culture influence that TikTok and Netflix have today. His poem lived on long after the Civil War was over, recited by school children and made into songs. The opening number of the 1950s Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls," about lovable gamblers, features the rhyme: "I got the horse right here, his name is Paul Revere." The poem created such mythology around Revere that he's often remembered as an important actor in the American Revolution, alongside others from Massachusetts who played much bigger roles, like John Adams, Samuel Adams or John Hancock. More than 250,000 visitors annually journey to Revere's house, a major tourist attraction in Boston's North End. On a recent Thursday afternoon a half dozen people walking or sitting near the Longfellow statue on Congress Street in Portland said they had heard of Revere. Some knew a couple of lines from the poem, including "One, if by land, and two, if by sea." House painter Rodney Nason of North Yarmouth, sipping a cup of coffee, said he remembered hearing about Revere in school, but didn't think he knew the poem. But when given a few lines from it, he said it rang a bell. "I know he was a very popular poet, so the poem probably really helped spread the folklore about Revere," said Nason, 50, who himself writes poetry. "It's sort of like if Paul Revere showed up as a topic on (the HBO series) 'The White Lotus' and everybody started talking about him." Kitty Gilbert, a nurse practitioner who lives near the Longfellow statue, said she remembers learning about Revere and the poem when she was a youngster. She didn't remember any lines, but remembered the story pretty vividly. "I know it was about his ride, going through towns and alerting people that the British were on their way," said Gilbert, 63, a native of Washington, D.C. "And that was important because it was at the start of the Revolution." SEEKING A UNIFYING SYMBOL Longfellow lived much of his adult life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and so was familiar with Revolutionary War history around Boston, Putnam said. In 1842 he had taken British author Charles Dickens on a tour of the city's historic sites, including the Old North Church, where the lanterns were hung on the night of April 18, 1775. Years later, as an ardent abolitionist, he decided to write a poem with Revere as the hero. He thought the heroism shown at our country's birth would unify people about the country's future. "Longfellow wrote it as a way of reminding people what it felt like to come together during the American Revolution in a bid to instill that unified spirit as the country was pulling apart over slavery, " said Larissa Vigue Picard, executive director of the Pejepscot History Center in Brunswick, where Longfellow attended and taught at Bowdoin College. "The depiction of this lone rider, even though he wasn't the only one, feels very superhero-like. I think that's one reason it has staying power. We are pulled in by the drama of the moment and this heroic person who's out to save us all from the encroaching enemy." During the Revolution, the enemy was the British, said Picard, while at the start of the Civil War it was, in Longfellow's view, the South or anyone trying to dissolve the Union. Longfellow finished "Paul Revere's Ride" in October 1860 and it was published nationally in the January 1861 issue of Atlantic Monthly magazine. The magazine arrived in Boston on Dec. 20, 1860, Putnam said, the very day that South Carolina seceded from the Union. Revere was a prominent Boston citizen during Colonial times and into the early days of the United States, a noted silversmith whose work is collected in museums around the country. He was a businessman who supplied copper sheeting for American Navy ships, said Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which runs the Paul Revere House in Boston. He was also an accomplished horseman who had been asked several times before to deliver important news from Boston to other colonies, as tension between colonists and the British were escalating. But would he have been so well-known nationally if not for Longfellow? "We kiddingly say we don't need to hire a marketing person because we have Henry," said Zannieri. ""The downside of the poem for us is that it sort of makes Revere a disembodied hero. It sort of obscures all the other things that are important about him." On April 18, 1775, Boston had already seen several years of skirmishes and tension between British soldiers and colonists, including the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. At that point, Boston leaders had learned the British army was planning to raid stockpiles of guns and ammunition in the Boston area. Militias and local leaders knew of this plan and set up a network of riders to warn people in those locations as the British approached. Revere took a boat across the Charles River to Charlestown and then rode north to Medford, where other riders were waiting to bring warnings to towns north of Boston. He then continued on to Lexington, where he was captured and briefly held by the British, before being released. Dawes had ridden through Cambridge to points west of Boston, while Prescott rode to towns even further west of the city. Historians estimate there may have been a dozen riders who helped spread the word of British attacks that night, but most of their names have been lost over time. There were lanterns hung in the Old North Church tower, as Longfellow mentions, but they weren't there to let Revere and other riders know which way the British were coming, said Tiffany Link, collections curator at the Maine Historical Society. They were more of a back-up plan, a way to let people in nearby towns know the British route in case Revere or other riders couldn't get out of Boston. Revere's ride and the Battles of Lexington and Concord are the basis for celebrating Patriot's Day in Maine each year — Maine was part of the colony of Massachusetts at the time. Both states have celebrated the day for more than 100 years, and in the past decade or so a few other states, including Connecticut and North Dakota, have followed suit. But Maine uses the spelling Patriot's Day, as if to denote one patriot, while in Massachusetts, it's Patriots' Day. So one might surmise the patriot in question is Revere. Or it could be Longfellow, whose poem has helped instill a sense of patriotism in people since 1860. Either way, the two men are connected, and continue to help expand each other's legacy. "When people visit his childhood home, we ask if they're a fan of Longfellow or his poetry," said Kathleen Neumann, curator of education and public programs at the Maine Historical Society, which manages the Wadsworth-Longfellow House on Congress Street. "The answer is often no, or non-committal. But if we mention Paul Revere, that's when we get recognition. It's not a perfect analogy, but it's not a huge stretch to say that what Longfellow did for Revere a 150 years ago is like what Lin-Manuel Miranda (creator of the Broadway musical 'Hamilton') has done for Alexander Hamilton today." Copy the Story Link
Axios
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Lexington and Concord's 250th: How to commemorate the battles
Expect heavy traffic in Boston and the surrounding suburbs between those in town for the Boston Marathon and the 250th anniversary attendees. Look out for several road closures starting 8pm Friday in Lexington, as well as additional road closures starting 12pm Saturday until 6pm Saturday. Thursday, April 17 Concord hosts a patriot vigil at the North Bridge Visitor Center, 7:30pm. The vigil includes a lantern-light procession, poetry, music and a recitation of the names of soldiers who died on April 19, 1775. Friday, April 18 Watch Boston's reenactment of Paul Revere's ride from North Square to Charlestown, 8-10pm. If you're in Lexington, the city will host a separate reenactment from Buckman Tavern to the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington, 10-11pm. Saturday, April 19 The reenactment of the Battle of Lexington kicks off, 5:15am. Concord hosts a dawn salute at Buttrick Hillside, 6am. Concord's parade begins at 8:30am on Thoreau Street, runs until midday on Everett Street, followed by the Concord250 Block Party at the Concord Museum. Concord's ceremony at North Bridge starts at 9:30am. The USS Lexington Ceremony at 9am on the USS Lexington Memorial commemorates the fallen soldiers and five U.S. Navy vessels named the "USS Lexington." Lexington's Patriots' Day Parade kicks off at 2pm. Sunday, April 20 Arlington commemorates the Battle of Menotomy with a reenactment, 2pm. The battle involved minutemen from 16 towns that beat back the British as they retreated from Concord and Lexington. Monday, April 21 Boston's Patriots' Day Parade starts at City Hall Plaza and ends at the Paul Revere Mall, 9-10am. The parade concludes with a reenactment by the National Lancers of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride on the Paul Revere Mall in front of Old North Church and Historic Site. Somerville hosts its Patriots' Day Colonial Fair at Foss Park, 10am-12pm. Lexington hosts a patriotic picnic in Hasting Park, 11am-2:30pm. (RSVPs end Thursday.) As is tradition, the Red Sox will commemorate Patriots' Day with a home game, 11am.
