Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

03/19/2023

☘️Happy St. Patrick’s Day Weekend!☘️
We were in the South Boston St Patrick's Day Parade!!! “Huzzah!”

03/18/2023

Did your ancestors board the vessels lying at Griffin's Wharf on December 16th, 1773 and toss 92,616lbs of tea into Boston's harbor? Our Boston Tea Party Descendants program is only one week in its infancy and we already have applicants!
Join the party! https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-tea-party-descendants

03/17/2023

It's a beautiful day to re-enact history! 🤗 🫖
📸 on Instagram

03/17/2023

The winter cover is off! Could this mean that the brig Beaver is preparing to go back into the water?? Hmmmm…Soon…very soon! Stay tuned!

03/16/2023

Virtual Visit to Historic Boston

We are happy to have partnered with American Battlefield Trust on a Virtual Visit to Historic Boston! The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum is the first featured stop! Please check out the video below, and consider your visit to the Boston area in this 250th Anniversary Year of the Boston Tea Party!
https://bit.ly/3yNbCgJ

Step into more than 100 years of Boston's fascinating history with the American Battlefield Trust, as we visit some of the city's most iconic locations from ...

03/16/2023

We’re going to Southie on Sunday!
Come out and see our costumed interpreters this Sunday 3/19 in South Boston St Patrick's Day Parade !

03/15/2023

In partnership with American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society we are pleased to welcome the first member of our new Boston Tea Party Descendants Program! John S. Rando, Jr. submitted his application to commemorate his ancestor, Joseph Dow, who was an eyewitness to the "destruction of the tea" on December 16, 1773! According to family sources, Joseph and his wife, Judith Emery, “were in Boston” and “took part in the so-called Boston Tea Party.” John is proud to join potentially thousands of descendants who are connected to this famous act of defiance in history!
Join the party at http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-tea-party-descendants

03/14/2023

Boston Tea Party Ships And Museum Launches Descendants Program

https://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/amp/31262614/boston-tea-party-ships-and-museum-launches-descendants-program

The program represents the first lineage society for the historic colonial-era event.

03/14/2023

Due to today’s Nor’easter, the BTPSM will be CLOSED. Please join us tomorrow Wednesday 3/15 after we clear away any snow. First tour experience will be 11am. Abigail’s Tea Room and Museum Gift Shop will open at 10:30am.

03/13/2023

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum Launches Descendants Program | WBZ NewsRadio 1030

Thanks WBZ NewsRadio for the article! We are excited to finally get this program running!

https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/boston-tea-party-ships-museum-launches-descendants-program/

Members will help build a digital portal through their contributions in the form of family documents and documents from other genealogical organizations, in order to create an online resource for descendants, their families, researchers, and organizations.

03/13/2023

We are very excited to be partnering with American Ancestors and NEHGS for our greatly anticipated Boston Tea Party Descendants Program! Are you connected to one of those who threw tea from the decks of three ships at Griffin’s Wharf?

Do you have family connections to participants of the Boston Tea Party or inhabitants of Revolution-era Boston?

In partnership with the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, we are pleased to introduce the Boston Tea Party Descendants Program. Our mission is to foster interest in genealogical connections to participants in the Boston Tea Party, their families, and those involved in the making of colonial rebellion in Boston. As the program grows, the Boston Tea Party Descendants database will become an indispensable resource, bringing new personal and cultural context to an iconic historic event. Learn more at https://hubs.ly/Q01Ghc6t0

03/11/2023

In honor of National Genealogy Day, we are thrilled to announce the launch of the Boston Tea Party Descendants Program! The mission of this program, in partnership with American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society, is to foster interest in genealogical connections to participants in the Boston Tea Party, their families, and those involved in the making of colonial rebellion in Boston. Through access to historical documents, aid from genealogists at American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), secondary resources, oral histories, newsletters, etc., the Boston Tea Party Descendants online portal will continue to grow into a resource for descendants, their families, researchers, and organizations to bring a further personal and cultural understanding to the revolutionary event known as the Boston Tea Party. By connecting people to their personal, familial, and shared histories with the people involved in, and the events surrounding, the Boston Tea Party, the online portal will aim to be a resource and connection to shared local history, national history, and international history. For more on this exciting program, including how to become a member: https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-tea-party-descendants

03/09/2023

Check out the latest round of pics from the refurb of the brig Beaver. Getting excited for her return!
Soon…

03/08/2023

In December of 1873, in honor and celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the New England Woman’s Suffrage Association hosted thousands to a sold out Women’s Tea Party at Faneuil Hall. Many speeches were given, music was played and sung, poems were read and recited, and tea was served. Among the distinguished orators were Lucy Stone, Mary Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, and William Lloyd Garrison. All spoke and expressed ideas of equality, pulling inspiration from the destruction of the tea a century before. In honor of International Women’s Day, we lift up the forgotten or untold stories of the mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and Daughters of Liberty in history connected to the Boston Tea Party, as well as all those who have been inspired by it in the last 250 years. Seen below is one of the tickets used from the 1873 event; part of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum collections. Currently on display in Abigail’s Tea Room.

03/07/2023

All Aboard! It's time to change the course of history aboard the Eleanor! 🤗
📸 volundr_forge on Instagram

03/03/2023

Tea Talks Remember the Ladies Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

March is Women's History Month! For the month of March enjoy one of our previously recorded Tea Talks webinars: "Remember the Ladies". Discover the contributions, and sacrifices made by Daughters of Liberty during America’s struggle for Independence. Join staff from the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum for a 1-hour discussion on the important role of women during the time of the Boston Tea Party and the pre-revolutionary era. This prerecorded webinar was originally broadcast on March 24, 2021 and will be made available on our YouTube Channel for the entire month of March. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg_XQElECy0&t=33s

Discover the contributions, and sacrifices made by Daughters of Liberty during America’s struggle for Independence. "Remember the ladies..." Join staff from ...

03/02/2023

Lots of sanding happening! Look at those new hinges! Can’t wait to have the brig Beaver back at her home port at “Griffin’s Wharf”!

03/02/2023

How To Make Loose Tea | Making Loose Tea

🫖 If you’ve got loose tea leaves, you’ve got all you need to enjoy Tuesday tea time! Here’s how… ⬇️

https://bit.ly/3ABZ4sI

Tea Master Bruce Richardson shows you how to make loose tea and some common mistakes to avoid when making loose tea.

03/01/2023

Today is the assumed birthday of John Robinson, born March 1, 1758. At the age of 15, John stumbled across a wooden box on the muddy banks of Dorchester Flats, just south of Boston. It was the morning after 340 chests of tea had been emptied of their contents and the remnants thrown into the harbor. Dubbed “The Robinson Tea Chest”, this wooden box would be handed down through generations of family stewards who understood and respected its significance and held its favor with the same curiosity as young John Robinson did in December of 1773. The Robinson Tea Chest is the only known surviving tea chest from the Boston Tea Party and is on permanent display in our museum experience! Hear its incredible story here! https://bit.ly/41hPAzL

02/27/2023

Due to the forecasted snow, Tuesday’s 2/28 operating hours will be delayed by one hour. Museum Gift Shop and Abigail’s Tea Room will open at 10:30am. First Museum Experience tour of the day will be 11:00am. ❄️ 🫖 ❄️ ☕️ ❄️

02/25/2023

Phillis Wheatley: The unsung Black poet who shaped the US

Phillis Wheatley: The unsung Black poet who shaped the US

She is believed to be the first enslaved person and first African American to publish a book of poetry. She also forced the US to reckon with slavery's hypocrisy.

02/24/2023

Photos from Gloucester Marine Railways's post

02/24/2023

Top Things To Do In Boston This Winter | Fun Winter Activities

We love exploring Boston! Here are our favorite things to do around town during the winter ⛄️ ⬇️

https://bit.ly/3rkjGTC

See the top winter things to do in Boston. From ice skating to winter harbor cruises, there are plenty fun Boston winter activities.

02/23/2023

Nestled amongst the vessel Dartmouth’s fated cargo of East India Company tea was a shipment of newly published books entitled, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” written by Phillis Wheatley: The first woman of African descent, enslaved, and third woman in America to publish a book of poetry. Kidnapped as a child of “seven or eight years of age” in West Africa, she survived the middle passage aboard the slave ship “Phillis” and arrived in Boston on July 11, 1761. She was sold to Boston tailor merchant John Wheatley as a servant for his wife Susanna, and given their namesake and that of the vessel that brought her to Massachusetts. Young Phillis Wheatley quickly learned to speak and read English and was therefore not trained in domestic life. She was encouraged to learn and study Latin, Greek, history, and theology alongside the Wheatley children. Phillis wrote her first poem in 1765 and was published in 1767. Six years later, in 1773, with the help of the Countess of Huntingdon, Phillis published her famed book of poetry. That same year Phillis was manumitted by her masters prior to the arrival of her book of poetry.

02/22/2023

East India Company on the brain? In mid February 250 years ago King George’s November 27th speech to both Houses of Parliament was printed in the Boston Evening Post in which he divulged receiving information on the “difficulties in which the (East India) Company appear(ed) to be involved”. The King was inclined to inform Parliament of the “true state of their affairs; and of making such provisions, for the common benefit and security of all the various interests concerned as you shall find best adapted to the exigencies of the case” In less than three months Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773, favoring the East India Company.

02/20/2023

OTD in 1821, Solomon Shaffstall was born in Lykens, Pennsylvania. One of only a handful of people to be steward of the Robinson Tea Chest, the only known surviving tea chest from the Boston Tea Party, Mr. Shaffstall was gifted the Tea Chest in 1843 by Nancy Robinson Holden, widow of John Robinson who found the chest the morning after the Boston Tea Party. In 1864 one of Solomon’s daughters and her husband passed away leaving their only infant child Mary to be raised by Grandparents Solomon and Zilpha Lurana. In 1872, when Mary was eight years old, Solomon entrusted the care of the Robinson Tea Chest to her. Years later Solomon would dictate to his granddaughter the history of the Robinson Tea Chest. When Solomon Shaffstall passed away in 1902 at the age of 82, the local newspaper said he “was one of the oldest citizens of his community and was highly respected.”

02/19/2023

Our museum tours are now sold out for the remainder of the day today 2/19/23! However, our gift shop and Abigail's Tea Room remain open until 5:00pm!

02/19/2023

Join us this week for February Break and let your five senses experience the history of the Boston Tea Party!

02/17/2023

So much great work being done to the brig Beaver! Finishing work on the new automatic bilge system, detail woodwork on the quarter deck, installing the catheads near the bow, and even exterior painting of the hull! Thank you global warming?

02/16/2023

MHS Collections Online: Edes family Tea Party punch bowl

OTD in 1836, Peter Edes, son of Boston patriot printer, publisher, and Tea Party Participant Benjamin Edes, gifted a porcelain punch bowl to his grandson Benjamin C. Edes of Baltimore. Accompanying the punch bowl was Peter’s anecdote connecting it to the Boston Tea Party history. “I recollect perfectly well that in the afternoon preceding the evening of the destruction of the Tea a number of gentlemen met in the parlour of my father's (Benjamin Edes’) house how many I cannot say as...I was not admitted to their presence. My station was in another room to make punch for them in the bowl which is now in your possession and which I filled several times-- they remained in the house till dark...after they left the room, I went into it; but my father was not there.” This historic punch bowl is now in the collections of Massachusetts Historical Society.
https://bit.ly/40O3d9k

Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections Online: Edes family Tea Party punch bowl

02/15/2023

Best Museums in Boston To Visit On Vacation

It may be a bit cold outside but the fun is heating up inside these amazing Boston museums 😍 ⬇️

https://bit.ly/3nTzURa

Walk around a university campus, throw tea overboard, & stand at the helm of a historic warship while visiting the best museums in Boston.

02/12/2023

Great round of pics of the Beaver’s progress this week! Looks like we are getting closer to having her back!

02/11/2023

Even though Boston born Benjamin Franklin wanted Massachusetts Colony to repay the East India Company for the loss of the tea, we lift him up anyway for National Inventors Day! Check out our Museum Gift Shop or Online Store for your special Dr. Franklin gift. The pictured statue is modeled after the 1856 Richard Saltenstall Greenough statue which resides outside "Old Boston City Hall" on School St.
"... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously." -Benjamin Franklin
https://bit.ly/40MhN17

02/10/2023

: Boston Common is the oldest public recreation area in the country. Over 50 acres of stunning grounds are good times! Explore everything to do around the area with this helpful guide. 😊 ➡️ https://bit.ly/3OITqff

02/08/2023

Plan the perfect weekend getaway exploring the rich history of Beantown with this helpful two-day guide.😎 🙌🏼 https://bit.ly/3NA6HED

02/04/2023

The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum will remain CLOSED through Sunday 2/5. Please join us again on Monday 2/6 for our regular winter hours.

02/03/2023

For National Wear Red Day enjoy this pic from yesterday when our ladies donned many layers to keep warm; including woolen men's coats, mittens, and these beautiful bright red cloaks! We're going to hunker down for the next couple days, but we'll be back. Please join us again on Sunday 10am-4pm after this cold snap! Stay safe and warm!

02/02/2023

Due to the extreme frigid temperatures The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum will be CLOSED Friday 2/3 and Saturday 2/4. Please join us again on Sunday 2/5. Museum experience tours:10am-4pm. Abigail's Tea Room and Museum Gift Shop Hours: 9:30am-5pm.

02/02/2023

A Most Precious Cargo, Phillis Wheatley's Books of Poetry & The Dartmouth

In honor of Black History Month please enjoy our previously recorded TEA TALKS webinar: A Most Precious Cargo, Phillis Wheatley's Book of Poetry & The Dartmouth. Nestled among the cargo of East India Company tea was a crate of newly published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral written by Phillis Wheatley; the first woman of African descent, and slave, and third woman in America to publish a book of poetry. Phillis wrote her first poem in 1765 and was published in 1767. Six years later in 1773, Phillis would publish her famed book of poetry. This prerecorded webinar was originally broadcast on November 17th, 2021, and will be made available for the entire month of February. https://bit.ly/3l2P3Rj

02/01/2023

There she is! Thank you Gloucester Marine Railways for taking such good care of the brig. Keep the pics coming. Looking forward to getting her back!