Eclipses happen when the moon passes between the sun and the earth during the daytime, briefly blocking the light of the sun from the face of the earth. Over the past few years, observers in the US have been treated to every flavor of solar eclipse: a partial in 2021 when part of the sunās disc remains unobscured; a total eclipse in 2017, when viewers in the narrow path of totality experienced daytime darkness, and an annular eclipse just last fall, when a ring of fire hung in the cold, bright sky. In honor of the April 2024 total eclipse, I’m sharing a clip that cohost emerita Nikki and I recorded within the first year of this podcast about some of the earliest experiences of eclipses here in Boston, most notably in 1780 and 1806. I’ll also share a clip about an unrelated phenomenon that darkened the skies over Boston for a second time in 1780, then again in 1881, 1950, and several times in the past 5 years. This was no eclipse however, but rather a much more terrestrial effect.
Tag: 18th Century
Recent Archaeological Discoveries at Shirley Place, with Joseph Bagley (episode 297)
This week Iām pleased to be able to share a recent talk from the Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury about recent archaeological discoveries at Shirley Place that help shed light on the lives of enslaved residents at the 18th century governorās residence, as well as evidence of the homeās original location before it was moved into its current position in the 19th century.Ā The presenter is past podcast guest Joe Bagley, the archaeologist for the city of Boston, who has led a series of digs at the Shirley house and at the houseās original location across Shirley street.Ā This work is important because written records have only revealed the identity of one of the Africans who were enslaved at the house by Royal Governor William Shirley.Ā In the talk, Bagley explains how discoveries of animal bones, forgotten paving stones, and a cowrie shell connect the dots to the enslaved lives that history otherwise overlooks.Ā He also shares stone flakes and pottery shards that remind us that the history of Shirley Place long predates William Shirley, encompassing the Massachusett people who first called it home.
Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved, with Helen Gelinas (episode 296)
Iām pleased to share a recent talk called “Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved” that was part of the Congregational Library and Archive’s Valentines Day celebration. Helen Gelinas spoke about Cotton Mather and the women he was closest to: his three wives, his daughters, and his sisters, as well as his lifelong mission to understand the biblical Eve, the prototype for all women in his universe.Ā Helen examined who he was behind closed doors, as a husband and father, and she challenged us to reconsider our assumptions that Cotton Mather would have been a tyrant over his wife and a strong disciplinarian who ruled his children with a rod. She also shared the surprising insight that between wives, Cotton Mather was one of Bostonās most eligible widowers, who was pursued aggressively by suitors.
Continue reading Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved, with Helen Gelinas (episode 296)
Water for Boston, Part 1 (episode 292)
This is the first of a three-part history of Bostonās water supply.Ā First up is the early history of water in Boston, from its reliance on natural springs to the construction of the first aqueduct. Weāll compare todayās pure, plentiful drinking water to the challenges that early Bostonians faced in obtaining clean water. First, weāll look at natural springs, hand-dug wells, and cisterns in early Boston, but as the city grew, these sources became increasingly scarce and polluted.Ā Then weāll talk about new technologies at the turn of the 19th century, such as drilled artesian wells and the Boston Aqueduct, which brought water from Jamaica Pond into the city. However, these new technologies were controlled by private companies, only providing water to the wealthiest Bostonians, leaving most residents desperate for a new, public source of water in the mid-19th century.Ā Later episodes will explore the near-miracle that introducing a public water supply from the Cochituate reservoir represented and the engineering marvel of our modern Quabbin reservoir.Ā
More Than Just Tea (episode 290)
I had originally planned to release an interview with an expert this week where we debunked some of the most common myths about the destruction of the tea.Ā Events conspired against me, however.Ā Luckily, the rest of Boston has the 250th anniversary of the Tea Party covered.Ā There are commemorative events taking place around the city and throughout December, so we’ll look at a different detail. In all the hoopla about the tea, it’s easy to forget that the tea ships also carried other cargoes. In this week’s episode, we’ll revisit two classic stories about other cartoes that the tea ships brought to Boston.Ā First, we’ll hear about Phillis Wheatley’s book of poetry, which was on the Dartmouth, through the story of enslaved artist Scipio Moorhead.Ā After that, we’ll learn about Boston’s first street lamps, which were on the forgotten fourth tea ship, the William.
The Mather Borealis (episode 289)
Was Cotton Mather a victim of 18th century cancel culture? In December 1719, Bostonians were astounded at the spectacle of the northern lights dancing in the sky, a sight that nobody alive could remember seeing before. One of the Bostonians who watched in astonishment was Cotton Mather. Confronted with this unprecedented natural phenomenon, Mather was torn. His instinct was to see signs and portents in the aurora borealis, but the world around him was changing, and his fellow natural philosophers were more likely to see the clockwork rules of Newtonian physics than the hand of God or the devil moving the universe around them. Mather’s report focuses on the secular experience of the phenomenon, but had he really changed his tune, or was he following the new political correctness of the modern era?
King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father, with Brooke Barbier (episode 286)
In King Hancock, the Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father, Brooke Barbier paints the portrait of a walking contradiction: one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, but a man of the people; a merchant who made his fortune in the warm embrace of empire, but signed his name first for independence; and an enslaver who called for freedom. Perhaps most of all, heās portrayed as a moderate in a town of radicals.Ā Hancock didnāt leave behind the same carefully preserved, indexed, and cross referenced lifetime of papers like our old friend John Adams.Ā He wasnāt immortalized as the indispensable man, like George Washington.Ā But Brooke weaves together the details that can be found in portraits, artifacts, official records, and surviving letters to create a nuanced portrait of a founder who should be remembered for more than a famous signature.
āThis Perilous Hour of Trial, Horror & Distressā: Loyalist Exile and Return in Revolutionary Massachusetts, with Dr. Patrick O’Brien (episode 285)
In this episode, professor Patrick OāBrien of the University of Tampa will be examining the loyalist experience of our Revolutionary War, mostly from the perspectives of women and enslaved African Americans. From our vantage point 250 years later, itās easy to view the War for Independence as a simple story of good and bad.Ā The good patriots battled the bad British from Lexington to Yorktown, until we had a country to call our own.Ā Look a little closer, however, and the story isnāt so simple.Ā Many of the tens of thousands of loyalists who were eventually forced to flee the new United States had roots that went back a century and a half in this country, every bit as long as the patriots who drove them out.Ā And, as Dr. OāBrien points out, many of those who left everything behind to start new lives in London or Halifax didnāt really have much say in the matter, as enslaved people, indigenous groups, and women were more or less forced to adopt the political positions of the white men in their lives.Ā Dr. OāBrien will bring those stories to light by focusing on a few prominent Boston loyalist families.
This talk was delivered as part of Old North Illuminated’s Digital Speaker Series.Ā Many thanks to ONI and Dr. O’Brien for sharing it with us.
Bostonians on the Pacific (episode 280)
This week, enjoy three classic stories about Bostonians and their adventures on the Pacific Ocean.Ā First, weāll hear about the voyages of the Columbia to the Pacific Northwest starting in 1787, then weāll move on to the Congregational missionaries who descended on Hawaii in 1823, and finally, weāll talk about the Boston whaler who brought the industrial revolution to Spanish California.Ā While you’re listening to these three classic stories, see if you can figure out what Iām working on that would involve a Brookline native on a small boat in the Solomon Islands in August 1943!
Granite, Glass, and the Construction of Kingās Chapel (episode 279)
This week’s story ties one of modern Bostonās iconic Freedom Trail sites to the earliest days of English settlement in the Shawmut Peninsula.Ā Itās a story that ties the first Puritan to die in Boston to the hated Royal governor Edmund Andros, and it ties some of the earliest non-English immigrants in Boston to Ben Franklin and Abigail Adams through the invention of two local industries.Ā Kingās Chapel is beloved in Boston today, but it was seen as an unwelcome invasion when it was first proposed in 1686.Ā In this weekās show, weāll look at how Boston found room for an unwanted church, how the church was reinvented three times, and how it launched local glassmaking and founded the granite industry in Quincy.Ā Weāll also see where you can still find the last traces of the original, wooden Kingās Chapel hiding inside the walls of a more modern church, but not here in Boston.
Continue reading Granite, Glass, and the Construction of Kingās Chapel (episode 279)