Category: virtual (11)

Boston Public History Conversations Boston By Foot’s walking tours are educational experiences, based on sound research and designed to engage a public audience. Our work in public history both depends upon and showcases the work of our public history colleagues. In this virtual series, join us for conversations with our friends in the field to learn more about their work and how it enhances Boston By Foot’s walking tours. Part Three: Emily Bowe, in conversation with BBF Guide Dennis McCarthy The Leventhal Map and Education Center is an incredible resource for those interested in exploring Boston. LMEC assistant director, Emily Bowe, will join BBF Guide Dennis McCarthy to discuss how historic maps can help us better understand today’s cityscape. Emily will showcase free online tools that our tour guides use to piece together stories that enhance their tours. Register find out more

Award-winning historian and author Kerri Greenidge will speak about her new book, "The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family." Sarah and Angelina Grimke — the Grimke Sisters — are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Their antislavery pamphlets, among the most influential of the antebellum era, are still read today. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives. In The Grimkes, Greenidge presents a parallel narrative, indeed a long-overdue corrective, shifting the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepening our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality. Register find out more

COVID ended Boston By Foot guide Martha Vicinus’ plans to visit Paris in May 2020, but May 2022 saw her walking its streets. Rather than visit familiar tourist highlights, Martha used her Boston By Foot Flansburgh Travel Fellowship to see subjects and arrondissement of specialized interest. She registered for tours on topics similar to those she guides here in Boston; and she sought out buildings and stonework that influenced Boston’s architects. Join Martha for a look at some of Paris’s lesser known neighborhood tours: Artists of Montmartre; Three Hundred Years of Homosexuality; Jews of Paris, 1200-1950; and Entrée to Black Paris. Discover how a visit to the newly renovated History of Paris Museum helped her better understand the different neighborhoods and how they had changed over time. Hear how tour leaders generously shared their stories, why they guided, their training, and their best and worst experiences. Explore a side of Paris off the beaten path...a Paris you’ll want to know! Register find out more

Boston Public History Conversations Boston By Foot’s walking tours are educational experiences, based on sound research and designed to engage a public audience. Our work in public history both depends upon and showcases the work of our public history colleagues. In this virtual series, join us for conversations with our friends in the field to learn more about their work and how it enhances Boston By Foot’s walking tours. Part One: Susan Wilson, in conversation with BBF Guide Sally Ebeling Susan Wilson is a photographer, author and long-time champion of Boston’s history. She’s the official house historian for the Omni Parker House, Affiliate Scholar at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center and author of several books, including an upcoming biography of Dr. Susan Dimock, namesake of the Dimock Center in Roxbury. In this program, she is joined by friend and longtime BBF guide, Sally Ebeling, for a conversation about her many Boston history projects, both past and future. Register find out more

We walk past Boston Unitarian churches and look at their bronze statues every day without knowing who they were and what they did. How did the Puritans separate into Unitarian and Congregational congregations? Who were the significant Bostonians who drove the Unitarian movement? Where do we find their statues, buildings, and churches around the city? This presentation takes you along the Boston’s Unitarian Trail, introducing you to people who changed the face of the city while popularizing a new approach to faith. Register find out more

Join Boston By Foot guide, Sami Alouani as he shares his journey from lab to street. From diverse family origins to the many places he’s lived and visited, and the people who have influenced his life, explore the parallels between a scientist’s search for knowledge and the tour guide he is today. Register find out more

Boston Public History Conversations Boston By Foot’s walking tours are educational experiences, based on sound research and designed to engage a public audience. Our work in public history both depends upon and showcases the work of our public history colleagues. In this virtual series, join us for conversations with our friends in the field to learn more about their work and how it enhances Boston By Foot’s walking tours. Part Two: Joe Bagley, in conversation with BBF Guide Jan Engelman City of Boston Archaeologist Joe Bagley will join BBF Guide Jan Engelman for a lunchtime conversation about his recent archaeological excavation and analysis work. Joe and his team were active on several sites in 2022, excavating artifacts dating as far back as 3000 years ago to the present day. Join our conversation to hear about highlights from the past field season and learn how Boston’s archaeologists are using new technologies to help us better understand these sites and the stories they tell. Register find out more

How did citizenship evolve throughout Boston’s history? Who had citizenship rights at particular times? What rights did that include? Learn how citizenship has changed over nearly 400 years — based on religion, gender, nationality, age, race and more, beginning with Puritan’s in the Massachusetts Bay Company through to today. Ponder your own citizenship and its future, on this journey of Boston citizenship through history. Register find out more

Let’s meet at the labyrinth at Armenian Heritage Park on the Greenway. Let’s discover how the Armenian Heritage Foundation’s creative efforts overcame many obstacles to bring their dream of a park commemorating all immigrants to fruition. How was Parcel #13 on what was once the Central Artery transformed into the vibrant space of the Armenian Heritage Park? How did the Armenian Heritage Foundation’s plan recognizing the commonality of immigrant journey’s succeed where other groups did not? Who were the people behind the labyrinth? How is this park enjoyed today? Come find out in this fascinating virtual exploration of the history of the Labyrinth at Armenian Heritage Park. Register find out more

Some Bostonians have behaved badly and bad things have happened to good people. This presentation describes murderers and their victims, execution and disaster, people killed for their faith and one who talked to the spirits. Meet the woman who lured Houdini to Boston, the Quaker hanged for her faith, the serial killer who terrified Boston and the duelist who died on Boston Common. We travel through time from 1688 to 1942, along the way meeting killers, grifters, gangsters, heroes, cops and grave robbers. Learn about duels, dastardly doings and the conflagration that changed America’s fire regulations. Take a shadowy walk with Boston By Foot through the City on a Hill’s less shining history. find out more

With urban life becoming more and more attractive to people of all ages, the population of Boston has consistently grown over the last fifteen years. After spending much of the 20th century in a free fall, losing residents faster than it could gain them, Boston reached its peak in the 1950s with around 165,000 more residents than it currently has today. However, it began to decline after that, and bottomed out in the 1980s. Since the 1980s, the population has begun to increase rapidly due to new residences and a construction boom in areas such as Seaport, the West End, Downtown Boston, Back Bay, Allston, East Boston and even on college campuses across the city. find out more