Near the end of the 19th century, Boston needed to alleviate its heavily congested downtown traffic. The three-phase subway project, completed in about three years, was successful in reducing the… The post Boston Builds The First U.S. Subway System appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
The Rev. George Burroughs was the only minister executed for witchcraft in Salem. Personal debts and village animosity led to his wrongful conviction and hanging in 1692.| New England Historical Society
Beatrice Fox AuerbachExplore the legacy of Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the visionary who built G. Fox into New England's most beloved department store. From legendary customer service to holiday wonderlands, discover how her leadership created a retail experience that fans remember with a cult-like passion.| New England Historical Society
It started for Charles Eastman before he graduated from college. “A Dartmouth Sioux Indian sophomore’s native name is Wiychpeyatamicasta, but he passes as Charles A. Eastman” read an 1885 short… The post The “Indian Othering” of Dr. Charles Eastman, Ohíye S’a, in New England Newspapers appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
Peter Buck was a 35-year-old Yankee with a Ph.D. in physics. Fred Deluca was an Italian American teenager who grew up in a New York City housing project. They lived… The post The Unlikely Duo Behind Subway: A Physicist, a Teenager and a $1,000 Check appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
The Phelps Sacrifice is the second part of a two-part series about one family’s tragic experience of the Civil War. Read Part I here. Having already lost their father to… The post The Phelps Sacrifice: A Family’s Civil War appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
This is the first part of a two-part series about the Phelps family sacrifice during the Civil War. When the Civil War started in April 1861, Abner and Erryphila Phelps… The post The Phelps of Massachusetts: An Ordinary Family’s Civil War Odyssey appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
You may remember seeing them sitting above the Green Monster watching Red Sox games during the COVID-19 lockdown. Life-sized, slightly eerie cardboard cutouts of Red Sox fans. Many baseball teams… The post From Creepy Companions to Cardboard Baseball Fans: The Curious History of the Dummy Board appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
The gundalow (from “gondola”) was a flat-bottomed sailing barge, akin to a scow, that first appeared in the Piscataqua River Region in the 17th century. It continued to assist in… The post The Gundalow: The Workhorse Barge of the Piscataqua River appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
In the fall of 1774, Massachusetts farmers won a revolution months before the war broke out at Lexington and Concord. While every American fifth-grader knows about the shot heard ’round… The post The Forgotten Revolution of 1774: When Massachusetts Won Independence Before the War Started appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
James Dwight DanaJames Dwight Dana was a 19th-century scientific giant you've never heard of. From a groundbreaking global expedition to pioneering the study of volcanoes and corals, he shaped modern geology.| New England Historical Society
Massachusetts Black Cake, A Christmas Treat Emily Dickinson Loved To Bake Halooing, Huzzahing, Roistering and Seven Other Outlaw Christmas Celebrations A Christmas First for New England? Each State Can Claim…| New England Historical Society
The Waterbury Button Company began making buttons for soldiers and sailor, then made a whole lot more. Two centuries later, its still making buttons in the US.| New England Historical Society
Margaret Eloise Knight (1838-1914) was a prolific late 19th- and early 20th-century inventor. She made improvements to various devices but is best known as the creator of the flat-bottom bag used in the retail industry.| New England Historical Society
America’s first factory strike happened just 30 years after America’s first successful textile mill started churning out cotton cloth in Pawtucket, R.I.| New England Historical Society
Margaret Knight, a mechanical genius, patented the machine for making flat-bottom paper bags in 1871. She made her first invention as a 12-year-old mill girl.| New England Historical Society
When Andrew Robinson in 1713 sailed his new boat around Gloucester, Mass., someone watching exclaimed, “There she scoons!” It’s a Scottish word meaning to skip lightly across the water, as a pebble, and it gave the name to the iconic New England sailing vessel, the schooner.| New England Historical Society
From Gloucester's fishing fleet to Civil War blockade runners, explore how the New England schooner -—'the most beautiful thing made by man'—- shaped maritime history. Meet the tragic Wyoming, the revolutionary America, and Maine's legendary shipbuilders.| New England Historical Society
How John Farmer, a humble scholar, pioneered American genealogy—and why his Eurocentric legacy faced challenges from Black historians like William Cooper Nell.| New England Historical Society
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Connecticut copper played a pivotal role in the state’s industrial expansion. The state’s dominant industry began as buttons and trinkets for peddlers to sell. Then, factories in Waterbury, Ansonia and the Naugatuck Valley sprang up, transforming imported copper into brass goods. By the early 1800s, the state led the nation in brass production.| New England Historical Society
Boston banned rock 'n roll, and so did five other Northeast cities, after Alan Freed brought Chuck Berry to town. Critics claimed the music caused a riot.| New England Historical Society
For many years the most popular adult beverage in Chicago was a cocktail created in and named after a town on Boston’s South Shore: Cohasset Punch.| New England Historical Society
Minots Ledge Light, the most romantic lighthouse in America, is also the site of the most tragic event in the history of the American lighthouse.| New England Historical Society
