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Talking about grief with color

Talking about grief with color

I’ve recently fallen in love with the New York Time’s Close Read series, a digital exploration of a select number of works that serves as a fantastic introduction to interpretation and, well, close reading. The format itself is very user friendly and as someone who has little 

Art and Museums, Teachers of Empathy: Reflections on the Life, Work, and Historic Homes of Eugene O’Neill

Art and Museums, Teachers of Empathy: Reflections on the Life, Work, and Historic Homes of Eugene O’Neill

In what little spare time I have as a graduate student here at Tufts, I love reading plays. I’ve been hooked on this particular art form since I was ten years old, when my mom — an English major at the same university where I 

The History of One of Boston’s Most Beloved Historic House Museums

The History of One of Boston’s Most Beloved Historic House Museums

The Paul Revere House, 19 North Square, Boston.

The United States boasts lots of historic house museums with at least a few in nearly every state, and one of the first-established historic house museums is right here in Boston: the Paul Revere House, opened to the public in 1908. From its construction around 1680 (341 years ago!) to today, the Paul Revere House boasts an extensive and fascinating history, and is one of many Boston museums that is always worth a visit!

Situated at 19 North Square in Boston’s North End neighborhood, the building known today as the Paul Revere House is believed to have been built around 1680. Though it may not seem like it from our present-day perspective, the house was essentially a mansion by seventeenth-century standards: with two high-ceilinged stories, a small attic, and a basement kitchen, the house had much more space than many others at the time. The first inhabitants of the house were, in fact, one of the wealthiest families in Boston at the time—merchant Robert Howard, his wife and daughter, and one enslaved man.

A drawing of Paul Revere’s famous 1775 Midnight Ride.

Paul Revere, the house’s fourth owner and its most famous resident by far, occupied the property from 1770 (when he was thirty-five, and the house was already ninety years old) until 1800. For those three decades the house was home to Paul, his first wife Sarah Orne Revere, his second wife Rachel Walker Revere, his sixteen children (although it’s believed that only five to nine children lived in the house at any given time), and occasionally extended family members and boarders as well. It was also where Revere began his famous Midnight Ride on the night of April 18th, 1775: he made his way from the house to the Charles River, which he rowed across in a canoe, then got on a horse and rode several miles north to Lexington and Concord to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the British troops’ approach. After being captured by the British and held for a few hours, Revere began to make his way home on foot, witnessing the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the process.

For a century or so after Revere moved out of the house in 1800, the building served a variety of purposes. The ground floor was transformed into a commercial space: a bank, a grocery, a candy store, and even a cigar factory all operated there in turn. The upper floors, meanwhile, served as a boarding house, most often for the Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrant families who were increasingly settling in the North End at that time.

In the first years of the twentieth century, there was a small fire in the basement of the house—fortunately it wasn’t significant enough to cause any damage to the house, but it did make the newspapers at the time. This increased scrutiny on the house led to it being purchased by a Revere descendant, John P. Reynolds, Jr., in 1902. After several years of fundraising and restoration, the Paul Revere House opened as a museum in 1908. Today, visitors can tour four rooms in the house: the kitchen, the hall (which is the only room in the house to model a pre-Revere period, inspired instead by the Howard family’s residence in the late seventeenth century), and two upstairs bedrooms. Also on the museum’s property are the Pierce–Hichborn House, a brick house that dates to 1711 and was occupied for many years by Revere’s cousin Nathaniel Hichborn, and Lathrop Place, a nineteenth-century building that was originally constructed as tenement housing and has served since 2016 as the museum’s visitor center.

Historic house museums have proven enduringly popular, and given its status as one of the nation’s first historic houses and the oldest continually standing building in downtown Boston, the Paul Revere House is no exception! The museum is open to visitors every day from 10am to 4:15pm (and don’t forget that if you’re a NEMA member, you can get in for free!).

Museums for the Future

Museums for the Future

Thinking about the future of museums is a large, daunting task. Where will museums stand in culture, in communities, in education? Even now, we already see museum culture shifting in both purpose and attitude. Instead of placing emphasis and value solely on collections, museums have 

The Desecration of Memory: Bigotry and Violence Against Museums and Markers

The Desecration of Memory: Bigotry and Violence Against Museums and Markers

Content warning: this post includes discussion of vandalism against museums and markers honoring women, Black Americans, and Jewish individuals. On September 26th, 2021, a fire engulfed the back porch of the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House in Rochester, New York. The fire department was 

Celebrating Halloween with Boston Museums

Celebrating Halloween with Boston Museums

Still looking for plans for Halloween weekend? Local museums have you covered! Check out this list for a few spooky museum events in the Boston area.

The Peabody Essex Museum

When it comes to Halloween celebrations, no place does it better than Salem! The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem has a fantastic slate of exhibitions and events year-round, but now is an especially great time to check out their new exhibition The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming, which opened in September and runs through March. Get more information and purchase tickets here!

Ropes Mansion

Ropes Mansion, also in Salem, is an eighteenth-century historic home that is perhaps best known today for being featured in the beloved Halloween movie Hocus Pocus. On Friday, October 29, the Peabody Essex Museum is hosting a free screening of the film at the mansion. Learn more here!

Ropes Mansion at 318 Essex Street in Salem.

The Daniels House

The Daniels House, another historic home in Salem which today operates as a bed and breakfast, is offering a “Local Lore by Candlelight” event every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening this month. Participants will get to hear several tales from New England history by candlelight in the seventeenth-century house (which some say is haunted). Get tickets here!

The Daniels House at 1 Daniels Street in Salem.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums

On October 29 and 30, Plimoth Patuxet is hosting “A Historically Spooky Halloween.” With activities including seventeenth-century games, spooky stories, and more, this event will be fun for the whole family! Find more information and get your tickets here.

The Discovery Museum

The Discovery Museum in Acton has a few exciting events for kids and families planned for Halloween, including a Halloween Trail Walk and Scavenger Hunt on October 29 and a Halloween Hullabaloo on October 30 and 31. Both events are free with admission!

The Boston Children’s Museum

The Boston Children’s Museum is hosting several Halloween-themed events this month, including their Boo-Tanical Garden (running from October 20 to October 31) and a Halloween Spooktacular on October 29 from 6–9pm. For both events, timed tickets must be purchased online in advance. Read more here!

Granary Burying Ground

Granary Burying Ground on Boston’s Freedom Trail, which dates back to 1660 and is believed to be the final resting place for more than five thousand people, has long been thought to be haunted. If you visit this Halloween, you might just run into the ghosts of some of the cemetery’s famous residents, including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock! Learn more about the site’s history here.

Granary Burying Ground on Boston’s Freedom Trail.

We hope this list gives museum-lovers some inspiration for how to spend the upcoming holiday weekend. However you decide to celebrate, have a safe and happy Halloween!