You probably know about Amelia Earhart’s famous career as a groundbreaking aviator, and you almost certainly know about her famous disappearance over the Pacific. But you may not know about Amelia Earhart’s first career as a social worker in one of Boston’s many settlement houses. This week, we discuss her early exposure to aviation, the famed Friendship crossing, and also her reflections on her career of service to newly immigrated Americans.
Amelia Earhart in Boston
- Amelia Earhart’s autobiography, The Fun of It
- Doris Rich’s book on Amelia Earhart has details of her time at Dennison Airport
- Accounts of the Friendship crossing from the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle
- “The secret flight that launched Amelia Earhart’s career,” Boston Globe Magazine
- A view of Denison House in roughly 1903
- The 1916 Denison House annual report
- Profile of Denison House in a 1911 Handbook of Settlements
- Notes from the Boston City Archives on the connection between Denison House and Amelia Earhart.
- An 1899 description of South End House
Featured Historic Site
Our featured historic site this week is the Edmund Fowle House, just outside Watertown Square. It’s the second oldest surviving house in Watertown, and during the siege of Boston, it served as the seat of the Massachusetts Executive Council. They continued to meet at Edmund Fowle’s house after the British evacuation of Boston, until September 1776. The two most famous events that happened at the house occurred on back to back days in July of that year. On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was very famously proclaimed from the balcony of the Old State House in Boston for the first time. Less famously, it was also read publicly to the citizens of Watertown from an upstairs window at the Edmund Fowle house that same afternoon.
The next day, the council entered into a treaty with the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy nations of Nova Scotia. Citing the Declaration’s assertion that the States had “full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts & Things which Independent States may of Right do,” the council agreed to a treaty of friendship with the three tribes. The Mi’kmaq and their allies agreed to send 600 warriors to enlist in the Continental Army. Just one day after learning that the United States of America existed, the council were entering into a treaty “in behalf of said State, and the other united States of America.” It was the first foreign treaty adopted by the United States.
The Edmund Fowle House is open for guided tours from 1:00 – 4:00 PM on the third Sunday of each month. They have a special event this week, so your next opportunity to visit will be September 16. They also offer tours by appointment. The admission is $5, or $3 for seniors and children under 12.
Upcoming Event
And for our upcoming event this week, we’re featuring another one of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s brown bag lunch talks on Friday, August 24th at noon. This one is being presented by Dr. Kirsten Macfarlane, who is on both the history and English faculties at Trinity College, Cambridge. Her specialty is primarily the history of Biblical research. She’ll be giving a presentation called “A Brazen Wall to Keep the Scriptures Certainty: European Biblical Scholarship in Early America.”
Here’s how the MHS describes her talk:
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European scholars made significant advances in the historical and critical study of the Bible, often with highly controversial and factious results. This talk will examine how such exciting but potentially subversive European scholarship was received and transformed by its early American readers, through a close study of the books owned and annotated by seventeenth-century readers in New England and elsewhere.
The event is free and open to the public. Be sure to bring a lunch to enjoy while Dr. Macfarlane is presenting.