HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

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**HUB History – Our Favorite Stories from Boston History**

Where two history buffs go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe.

Latest Episodes:

**The Snow Hurricane (episode 153)** Oct 06, 2019
Show notes

Before the Bomb Cyclone, before Superstorm Sandy, a historically severe storm hit Boston in 1804. Meteorologists say that the tropical cyclone would be counted as a category 2 hurricane today, with winds of 96 to 110 miles per hour. It wasn’t just the wind that made 1804 storm so memorable, although the wind was damaging enough, causing problems for industries representing a large sector of the early 19th economy and wrecking buildings that are major Freedom Trail attractions today. What made the storm so memorable was the fact that it was the first known tropical cyclone to carry snow, giving it the enduring nickname, the Snow Hurricane.

Please check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/153/

And support the show on Patreon.
The Snow Hurricane

Old North’s 1740 steeple

The 1806 replacement

The replacement collapses in 1954

4¢ Broadside

Alternate Broadside version

Sidney Perley’s *Historic Storms of New England*

William Bentley’s diary

The three steeples of Old North Church

The header image is a NOAA GOES satellite image of the 2018 “bomb cyclone”

More on the rescue of the crew of HMS Bounty

Boston Book Club

Starting in 1965, designers Peter Chermyeff and Tom Geismar designed the visual language of Boston’s transit network from the ground up. Over the next five years, their agency worked out every detail of the new MBTA’s visual identity, from the iconic T logo to the colors of the subway lines to cleaning up and modernizing stations.

They discuss this process in the September 2018 article **“How Boston Got Its T.”** Here’s an excerpt where they explain a couple of those decisions:

We also wanted to establish the identity of the system and flag it in the streetscape. People had an affinity for the song “Charlie on the MTA” and the name change to “MBTA” was too long. Our core team started thinking about different ways to make something work and eventually came up with simple “T.” It made sense as a name and image that would apply and be understandable at a distance or in conversation. It connects with all the words associated with the service: “transit,” “transportation,” “tunnel,” “tube,” and so on. It made all the sense in the world to go with “T” and have it displayed in a lollipop logo on trains, buildings, and streets.

Tom worked the logo out in great detail. We were unflinching in our recognition that this was not a truly original idea. Stockholm had already had a black “T” in a white circle for the Tunnelbana. It wasn’t necessary for us to be original, just to be right.

The lines themselves lacked identity, so we thought that color coding them would make huge difference. We applied the same process to all four lines. They had been identified by terminus, but most of those names were unclear to non-locals. I remember sitting in my Cambridge office preparing for a meeting with the MBTA in which I would be proposing colored lines. I had markers in front of me and I chose red for the line that went to Harvard since it’s a well-known institution whose main color is crimson. One line went up the North Shore of Boston up to the coastal areas, so it seemed obvious to call that the Blue Line. The line that serves Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace was an obvious choice for green. And then the fourth line ended up being orange for no particular reason beyond color balance. This was 20 years before the Silver Line was added.

That allowed us to give lines understood names. Instead of Harvard-Ashmont—no one visiting Boston knows what Ashmont is—now you have the Red Line. The presence of color reinforces that identity to help people find their way around.

Read the entire interview to learn how Arlington Street served as a model for an upgraded, modern station; how the team created our iconic T system map; or where the designers think their vision was implemented poorly.

Upcoming Event

Way back in episode 27, we reviewed the two cases of execution by fire in the history of Massachusetts, both of which involved enslaved women who were accused of crimes against their enslavers, and both of which involved male co-defendants who were hanged instead of being burned at the stake like the women. One of those co-defendants was named Mark, and his life is the topic of a brown bag lunch at noon on October 16 at the Massachusetts Historical Society titled **“The Last & Living Words of Mark: Following the Clues to the Enslaved Man’s Life, Afterlife, and to his Community in Boston, Charlestown, and South Shore Massachusetts.”**

A woman named Mariah, who was enslaved in the household of Joshua Lamb of Roxbury, allegedly set fire to the Lamb house and a neighboring house in July of 1681. While she was awaiting trial, a man named Jack who had escaped from his enslavers in Western Mass was also accused of an unrelated arson. The two defendants were tried at the same Court of Assistants in Boston, with Governor Simon Bradstreet presiding, and they were sentenced to death for the capital crime of arson. Samuel Sewall’s diary records that they were both executed on September 22, 1681. According to the sentence of the court, Mariah was burned to death, while Jack was hanged. When Jack was dead, in accordance with the sentence, his body was ”then taken doune & burnt to Ashes in the fire with Mariah.”

Not quite 75 years later, during the administration of Governor William Shirley, a woman named Phillis suffered a similar fate. In July of 1755, a Charlestown resident named John Codman died. After an inquest named arsenic poisoning as the cause of death, suspicion fell on the African Americans who were enslaved by Codman. Under questioning, a man named Mark admitted to leading a conspiracy to poison Codman with arsenic and a substance called black lead. He had acquired the poisons from neighbors who were enslaved by doctors, and then Codman’s enslaved cooks Phoebe and Phillis slipped the materials into his food. At trial, Phoebe turned state’s witness, while Phillis and Mark were convicted of the crime of petty treason: rising up against their legal owners. For her cooperation, Phoebe was shipped to a sugar plantation in the Caribbean, where life for enslaved laborers was brutal and short. Mark was sentenced to be hanged, and Phillis was sentenced to be burned to death. Both sentences were carried out on September 18, 1755.

Our earlier episode focused on the terrible fate of Phillis, barely mentioning Mark. After he was dead, his body was prepared for public display on Charlestown Common. His body would remain there for decades, becoming a well known public landmark. Historian Josiah Bartlett recorded how a surgeon on his way to join a regiment for service in the French and Indian War in 1758 stopped to examine Mark’s body. He wrote in his diary:

There’s no exact record of when Mark’s body was cut down or decomposed, but it remained a landmark when Paul Revere embarked on his famous ride 20 years later. In a 1798 letter to Jeremy Belknap, the minister and founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Revere described the beginning of his ride to Lexington: “I set off upon a very good Horse; it was then about 11 o’Clock, & very pleasant. After I had passed Charlestown Neck, & got nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains, I saw two men on Horse back, under a Tree.”

Mark’s life and death is often seen as a footnote to Paul Revere’s famous ride, and even in our podcast, he was a footnote to the execution of Phillis by fire. The **lunchtime talk by independent researcher Catherine Sasanov** at MHS on October 16 will attempt to restore his humanity, putting Mark back in the center of his own story. Here’s how the MHS website describes the event:

Mark (1725-1755), a blacksmith, husband, and father, might have slipped from public memory if not for his brutal end: his body gibbeted for decades on Charlestown Common for the poisoning of his enslaver, John Codman. This project, grounded in Mark’s testimony, approaches “legal” and other documents as crime scenes; attention to clues, connections, and seemingly insignificant details unlock important, previously unrecognized aspects of Mark’s world, thwarting their original intent: the enforcement of slavery’s status quo.

The talk is free and open to the public, just pack a lunch to enjoy while Sasanov is speaking.

**Women and Witchcraft (episode 152)** Sep 29, 2019
Show notes

Between 1648 and 1688, four women were executed for witchcraft in Boston and Dorchester. Witchcraft can be loosely defined as the act of invoking evil spirits or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit. In practice, it often meant the failure to conform. This week, we’re discussing the trials and executions of Margaret Jones, Alice Lake, Ann Hibbins, and Ann Glover, who fell victim to superstition and Puritan morality.

Please check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/152/

And support the show on Patreon.
Women and Witchcraft

Margaret Jones’ trial in John Winthrop’s journal

*A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft*

WBUR interview with Sara Black

*The Case of Ann Hibbins, Executed for Witchcraft at Boston in 1656*

*Memorable Providences* by Cotton Mather

Samuel Sewall records the execution of Ann Glover

The case of Ann Glover gets used to promote the racist myth of “Irish Slaves“

Boston Book Club

**Witch Hunt Podcast** host/ creator Nancy Mades-Byrd describes the series as a podcast about the history of scapegoating, and season one details the Salem witch trials.

To get you hooked, episode one asks the question – Why is Salem the witch hunt people remember? It examines the European roots of the Salem witch trials and features renowned author Frances Hill, author of “A Delusion of Satan.” In episode two, historian Dr. Mary Beth Norton discusses what was it about the villagers of Salem that made them the people most likely to unleash a witchcraft Hysteria. The ten episode season weaves together a compelling narratives and includes the reflections of direct descendants of some of the victims.

Upcoming Event

And for our upcoming event this week, we’re featuring a talk at Old South Meeting House that’s presented by the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands and cosponsored by the group Boston Harbor Now called **“Peddocks Island: Rich History, Vital Future.”** Peddocks is the second largest of the 34 Boston Harbor Islands. Managed by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, it is a favorite park for day trips from Boston and family camping, but the island also has a rich history.

There’s archaeological evidence, including the oldest human remains ever found in Massachusetts, that the island was long occupied by Native Americans. It was the site of one of the first interactions between European visitors and the indigenous population, when a French trading ship visited in about 1616. Early English colonist Thomas Morton recalled in his 1637 book A New English Canaan, “upon some distaste given in the Massachusetts bay by the Frenchmen, then trading there with the natives for beaver, they set upon the men at such advantage that they killed many of them, burned their ship, then riding at anchor by an island there, now called Peddocks island.” The survivors were taken as captives, with Morton writing that the victors, “distribut[ed] them unto five sachems, which were lords of the several territories adjoining: they did keep them so long as they lived.”

In more recent history, Peddocks island was home to Fort Andrews, which was designed during the Spanish American War era and played a role in Boston’s harbor defenses during both World Wars. Visitors today can explore the crumbling barracks and the concrete bunkers that use to house cannons so big that they broke windows every time they were fired. They can also visit a cottage community that is the last remnant of Boston’s early 20th century Portuguese-American fishing fleet. Over the years, the island played host to a healthy trade in bootlegging and speakeasies during prohibition, to a venue for Sunday baseball when Boston’s blue laws prevented such frivolity on land, and to an entrepreneurial group from the Passamaquoddy tribe of Maine who came all the way to Boston Harbor to hunt seals for a cash bounty.

Today, Peddocks Island is at a crossroads, and the quiet campground and historic fort where your humble hosts have spent many happy summer weekends are slated for redevelopment. Plans are on the table to bulldoze much of historic Fort Andrews and replace it with a luxury hotel and spa, an outdoor concert venue, and a conference center. With that context, here’s how the event at Old South Meeting House is described:

Peddocks Island, a series of drowned drumlins, is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. It’s currently the largest of the 34 Boston Harbor Islands that is open to the public. Home to historic Fort Andrews, walking tours, geological features, and archaeological sites, the island is in the midst of an exciting redevelopment planning process led by Boston Harbor Now with the National Park Service and the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Cheri Ruane of Weston & Sampson Design Studio, lead consultant for the island’s development plan, and Alice Brown of Boston Harbor Now, will discuss fascinating highlights of the island’s past, present, and future.

The event will be held at 6:30pm on Thursday, October 10. It’s free and open to the public, but advanced **registration is required**. If you plan to attend, please listen with a skeptical ear for any whitewashing of a plan to convert one of Boston’s last great wild spaces to a luxury retreat open only to the elite.

Women’s Groups Remaking Boston (episode 150) Sep 15, 2019

Show notes

This week’s show dusts off two classic stories about times in Boston history when women’s volunteer organizations had a big impact on Boston. First, we’ll talk about the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association, whose members introduced the concept of a playground to the American public in late 19th century Boston. Then, we’ll fast forward a few decades to the 19 – teens, when the Women’ Municipal League sponsored Boston’s first (and so far only ) Rat Day. Both of these projects made valuable contributions to Boston’s quality of life, and they happened at a time when society didn’t generally approve of women’s work outside the home.

**Mayor Curley’s Plan to Ban the Klan (episode 148)** Sep 01, 2019
Show notes

In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan expanded into New England and tried to make Boston a capital of their invisible empire. However, their deep hatred for Catholics and Jews, as well as their promotion of “100% Americanism,” made the KKK a hard sell in an area where the population was growing rapidly, with a constant stream of Jewish and Catholic immigrants. After staying on the sidelines at first, Boston’s colorful mayor James Michael Curley made it his mission to drive the KKK out of Boston. After a few highly publicized Klan rallies in and around Boston, Curley began to fight them with rhetoric and questionably legal manipulation of the city permitting process.

Please check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/148/

And support the show on Patreon.
Ban the Klan

Mayor Walsh explains the decision to allow a “straight pride” parade.

William Monroe Trotter testifies against the KKK before Congress.

Harvard Crimson profile of James Michael Curley.

*The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930*, Kenneth T. Jackson

*Not a Catholic Nation: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts New England in the 1920s*, Mark Paul Richard

*Irish Nationalists in Boston: Catholicism and Conflict, 1900–1928*, Damien Murray

“Unmasking the Ku Klux Klan: The Northern Movement against the KKK, 1920-1925.” *Journal of American Ethnic History*, David J Goldberg

At an October 1922 rally in Cambridge, the KKK claims to have a presence in every New England state, predicts 300,000 members in a year.

The day after the Cambridge rally, Boston mayor Curley declares the Klan unwelcome in his city.

Bricks thrown through windows of suspected Klansmen; snowball attack on suspected leader.

An American Legion leader is threatened when he refuses to join the KKK.

Mayor Curley’s January 1923 open letter declaring war on the KKK in Boston (includes other city documents regarding Curley and the KKK. Thanks to Marta Crilly at the Boston City Archives for finding all these materials and sending them along).

Curley urges taxing Shawmut Congregational Church if they continue hosting KKK meetings.

Curley threatens to pull licenses from public halls that rent to the Klan.

The ACLU advocates for the KKK’s right to free speech, which Curley counters by saying the Klan shouldn’t shelter behind rights it denies to others.

The ACLU still marks October 23, 1923, when they lost their argument with Mayor Curley, as an important landmark date in civil liberties history.

Campus observers are surprised at the rise of the Harvard KKK.

Harvard could use its rules against secret societies to prevent a campus chapter of the KKK.

The NAACP says that Harvard would be better off shutting the doors forever than hosting the Klan.

Harvard Klansmen plan to meet off campus.

While campaigning for governor, Curley calls the Klan “vermin who should be shaken out of the folds of the American flag.”

Curley claims that the KKK is handing out flyers at his own campaign events.

Curley blames Republicans for protecting the KKK.

An anti-Klan riot in Worcester in 1924 spells the beginning of the end for the Massachusetts KKK.

In 1982, a KKK leader is hit with an egg on WBZ-TV, then is met with violent counterprotests at a march.

David Duke speaks at Old South Meeting House in 1991.

Here’s the source for our image of Klansmen posing at Harvard in 1924.

View a KKK flyer that may have been handed out at Curley’s campaign rally.

Boston Book Club

Our pick for the Boston Book Club this week hasn’t actually been published yet. **Black Radical: the Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter** is now available for pre-order, with an expected publication date of November 19. I’m taking the unusual step of recommending a pre-publication book because I’m just so darn excited for this one. My twitter friend Rayshauna Gray tweeted about it last week, which is how I learned that **Kerri Greenidge** had written a new biography of William Monroe Trotter, who was one of the most under-sung Black activists of the early 20th century. He made his name at the turn of the century as the radical response to Booker T Washington’s racial moderation. He published the weekly newspaper The Guardian, giving him a platform to, among other things, lead Boston’s protests against the movie Birth of a Nation, as we heard back in episode 121.

The author of the new bio, Dr. Greenidge, is a student of African American political history and radical Black political consciousness. She was a longtime historian at the Boston African American National Historic SIte, and now she teaches in Tufts University’s Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora, where she is director of the program in American studies, and where she is also codirector of the African American Trail Project.

Here’s how the Amazon pre-order page describes the book:

This long-overdue biography reestablishes William Monroe Trotter’s essential place next to Douglass, Du Bois, and King in the pantheon of American civil rights heroes. William Monroe Trotter, though still virtually unknown to the wider public, was an unlikely American hero. With the stylistic verve of a newspaperman and the unwavering fearlessness of an emancipator, he galvanized black working- class citizens to wield their political power despite the violent racism of post- Reconstruction America. For more than thirty years, the Harvard-educated Trotter edited and published the Guardian, a weekly Boston newspaper that was read across the nation. Defining himself against the gradualist politics of Booker T. Washington and the elitism of W. E. B. Du Bois, Trotter advocated for a radical vision of black liberation that prefigured leaders such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Synthesizing years of archival research, historian Kerri Greenidge renders the drama of turn- of- the- century America and reclaims Trotter as a seminal figure, whose prophetic, yet ultimately tragic, life offers a link between the vision of Frederick Douglass and black radicalism in the modern era.

In case you can’t tell, I’m really looking forward to this one.

Upcoming Event

On September 7, the Museum of African American History will be hosting a panel discussion called **Legacies of 1619: Recognition & Resilience**. You’ve probably heard the kerfluffle surrounding the 1619 project, a special edition of the New York Times Magazine timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619. The articles and related projects are intended to emphasize how central slavery is to the history of the United States.

The panel will feature David Krugler of the University of Wisconsin, Peter Wirzbicki from Princeton, and our aforementioned author, Kerri Greenidge of Tufts. It will be moderated by Robert Bellinger of Suffolk University. Here’s how the event website describes it:

The institution of slavery in English North America began in 1619 with the arrival of roughly 20 Africans in the settlement of Jamestown. What has followed has been 400 years of exploitation and discrimination in many different forms. However, telling this story is not complete without an exploration of how African American communities have created culture and institutions that have survived despite these challenges. This program will explore both structures of exploitation and forms of resistance.

The talk is a joint production of the Museum of African American History, Roxbury Community College, and the Mass Historical Society. It will be held on Saturday, September 7 at 4pm, with a reception beginning at 3:30. The event is free, but advanced registration is required.

No other answer but from the mouth of his cannon (episode 146) Aug 18, 2019

Show notes

Boston and Quebec City share a deeply intertwined history that goes back to the earliest days of English settlement in North America. Puritan Boston could hardly stand the idea that their closest European neighbor was a Catholic colony, and they made many attempts to drive the hated French from the continent. To defeat the French, the New Englanders would have to take fortresses at Louisbourg, Quebec, and Montreal. We recently talked about the 1745 siege of Louisbourg, but this week we’re going even further back in time. In 1690, Sir William Phips, the frontier shepherd who found a sunken treasure and became a knight, led a large fleet of ships and over 2000 soldiers out of Boston. Their goal was to reduce the defenses of Quebec and force the French colonists to submit to the British crown, but the result was a total disaster. Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/146

Aeroplane Fever (episode 144) Aug 04, 2019

Show notes

Sky Jockeys, Knights of the Air, and Man-Birds were just a few of the terms that newspapers around the country used to describe the early aviators who converged on Boston in September 1910. The first Harvard-Boston Aero Meet was the largest and most exciting air show that the world had ever seen, and it left Boston gripped by a bad case of aeroplane fever. Famous pilots from the US and around the world, including even Wilbur Wright, would compete for cash prizes in a number of categories, including a high-stakes race to Boston Light in the outer harbor. Tens of thousands of spectators gawked at the spectacle, reporters provided breathless coverage, and the military watched carefully to see if these newfangled flying machines could ever be useful in warfare. The event was so successful that the organizers extended it by three days beyond what was originally scheduled, then followup meets were scheduled for the next two years. Please support us on Patreon and check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/144/ Aeroplane Fever Honey Fitz flies with Claude Grahame-White Honey Fitz Honey Fitz, Grahame White, and President Taft Cromwell Dixon’s dirigible View of Squantum Second Boston Light course Third Boston Light course Final Boston Light course Grahame-White’s monoplane Grahame-White clinches the Boston Light prize bomb dropping target Boston Light cigar ad Transit options to the airfield Poster poster The triplane that crashed Wilbur Wright sold postcards that he carried on flights Harvard is the first college with an aeroplane 1907 map including Squantum Point, before the airfield About the Atlantic land company Map of Atlantic Land Company development Summary of the 1910 meet Military interest in the 1910 meet 1910 Harvard graduates magazine, published right before the meet Harvard Crimson coverage of the 1910 aero meet A large collection of photos of the 1910 Harvard Boston Aero Meet LA Herald “Big Flock of Men-Birds Flies at Harvard Field” LA Herald, Wilbur Wright to debut new plane design at Harvard A 2018 Harvard Crimson retrospective on the meet A 2003 Harvard Magazine article with lots of photos If you have a Globe subscription Mar 10, 1910, competing aero meets July 28, 1910, Aero Meet originally announced for Soldiers Field Aug 2, 1910, competing cities, Harvard officially sanctioned Aug 7, 1910, meet moved to Squantum, Boston Light course revised Aug 8, 1910, work begins on the airfield at Squantum Aug 13, 1910, work continues on airfield Aug 14, 1910, excursion trains to bring tourists, example of racist “Asa Spades” comic Aug 17, 1910, Squantum is the best field in America Aug 17, 1910, Prizes announced Aug 19, 1910, directions to the meet by elevated train, streetcar, steam train, and automobile Aug 20, 1910, Point Allerton lifesavers to monitor Boston Light course Aug 26, 1910, Boston is suffering from aeroplane fever Aug 30, 1910, Final Boston Light course set Sep 2, 1910, Wilbur Wright and others prep on day before meet Sep 3, 1910, opening day Sep 3, 1910, Dixon and Grahame-White give exhibition flights Sep 4, 1910, First day’s results Sep 6, 1910, 100,000 spectators Sep 8, 1910, Ads for products and services related to the aero meet Sep 10, 1910, Honey Fitz flies with Grahame-White while President Taft watches Sep 11, 1910, two extra days added Sep 13, 1910, pilot fights cops on the airfield Sep 13, 1910, Grahame-White’s Boston Light flight Sep 13, 1910, records set, rifle shooting Sep 16, 1910, police leadership worried about safecrackers with planes Sep 5, 1910, Cromwell Dixon’s dirigible out of control Sep 17, 1910, meet closes, prizes awarded Sep 17, poem Oct 5, 1910, meet loses $21,000 Sep 28, 1910, airfield improvements dismantled Nov 29, 1910, planning for second meet, glider meet Jul 23, 1911, Ad for the play “The Aero Girl” Nov 19, 1911, 1911 meet loses $11,000 May 18, 1912, Russell Green composes “Take Me Down to Squantum, I Want To See Them Fly.” Contemporary coverage of the 1911 glider meet in Aero magazine The New York Times on the opening of the 1911 meet Official program of the 1911 meet Harvard Crimson coverage of the 1911 aero meet Crimson coverage of the 1911 glider meet Harriet Quimby’s death in 1912 Sheet music for “Take Me Down to Squantum, I Want To See Them Fly” Boston Book Club A few months ago, we featured the book The Race Underground, by Doug Most. It details the race between Boston and New York to build the nation’s first subway system. We just discovered the PBS American Experience documentary based on the book, which was released in 2017, which is described as follows: In the late 19th century, as America’s teeming cities grew increasingly congested, the time had come to replace the nostalgic horse-drawn trolleys with a faster, cleaner, safer, and more efficient form of transportation. Ultimately, it was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America’s first subway. Based in part on Doug Most’s acclaimed book of the same name, The Race Underground tells the dramatic story of an invention that changed the lives of millions. Love it or hate it, the T is intrinsic to the Boston experience. To give context for the film, PBS offers several interesting articles and features on related subject matter, including Benjamin M. Schmidt’s article “What the Maps Miss,” which examines how subway maps have led city dwellers to develop mental maps that are very different from geography, and it includes an overlay of a distorted T map on Google maps to illustrate his points. The film can be viewed on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and the film and supporting material are available on PBS. Upcoming Event As you know by now, Increase and Cotton Mather cast a long shadow over the early history of Boston. Through his prolific writing, Cotton is a source for researching the religion, history, and even science of the Bay colony in the 17th and 18th centuries. On August 9, a lunchtime talk at Massachusetts Historical Society will focus on one of Cotton’s most influential religious writings, and it will be led by Dr. Jan Stievermann, who’s a professor of the history of American Christianity at Heidelberg University in Germany. The talk is titled “Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana 1693-1728: America’s First Bible Commentary and Storehouse of Early-Modern Learning,” and it draws on Professor Stievermann’s recent book exploring Mather’s landmark work. Here’s how the MHS describes the event: With the ongoing edition of Cotton Mather’s massive Biblia Americana scholars of early America are now gaining access to the first comprehensive Bible commentary produced in the colonies. This talk will give an introduction to the riches of the Biblia as a source for the study of colonial New England and its place in early-modern intellectual history. The event begins at noon on Friday. It’s free and open to the public, and pack a lunch to enjoy while Dr. Stievermann is giving his talk.

Full show notes at the publisher

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HUB History – Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

The Snow Hurricane

Boston Book Club

Upcoming Event

Women and Witchcraft

Boston Book Club

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The Birth of Historic Preservation

Boston Book Club

Upcoming Event

Boston’s Rock n Roll Riots

Alan Freed and the Big Beat

Beatlemania hits Boston

James Brown at Boston Garden

The Rolling Stones

Led Zeppelin

Minor 1980s Kerfluffles

Green Day at the Hatch Shell

The Trouble

Boston Book Club

Upcoming Event

Ban the Klan

Boston Book Club

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The Dread Pirate Rachel

Boston Book Club

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When Darkness Veiled the Sky

Total Eclipse

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