02/26/2021
#FBF What do you think they’re looking at? 🔭
📸 “Telescope on Boston Common,” Boston, Mass., undated. See more from our photographic collection at HistoricNewEngland.org/collections.
Historic New England
- Home
- United States
- Boston, MA
- Historic New England
Historic New England is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization in the nation. We preserve and share centuries of New England heritage through historic properties, collections, archives, education programs, and more.
(176)
We preserve and share four centuries of New England heritage through historic properties, collections, archives, education programs, and historic preservation services.
We preserve and share four centuries of New England heritage through historic properties, collections, archives, education programs, and historic preservation services.
Mission: We serve the public by preserving and presenting New England heritage.
Operating as usual
02/25/2021
Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5
Check out last night's segment on Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm from Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5 to see some footage of our "high-spirited characters"—including Roger the donkey.
Our trip along Route 1A takes us to Ipswich, where the spirit of choice is rum. Farther north in Newbury, a historic estate is home to a cast of high-spirited characters.
02/25/2021
Two items in this painting are considered attributes of its titular Greek goddess, Hera. Can you guess what they are?
If you guessed the pomegranate 🔴 and the peacock feather 🦚 you're correct! This late 1880s painting, "Hera" by Marie Spartali Stillman, is one of the surprising rediscoveries revealed in our exhibition Artful Stories. Next Thursday, 3/4, join us at the third installment of our virtual lecture series "Closer Encounters: Conversations About Artful Stories" to hear more from Stillman experts Kristen Shepherd (Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida) and Margaretta Frederick (Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington) about this piece's symbolism and how it epitomizes the artist's globetrotting life.
Visit https://my.historicnewengland.org/6800/artful-3 for tickets.
02/24/2021
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm
Tonight at 7:30 on WCVB Channel 5 Boston!
Alright, friends. If you want to see some of our beloved Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm animals making their star debut, check us out here tomorrow night.
Also, Lowell's Boat Shop features prominently and gorgeously, along with many other friends and neighbors.
02/24/2021
Historic New England
Rhode Island's special election is coming up on Tuesday, 3/2. Historic New England encourages support of three bond authorizations included on the ballot pertaining to conservation, recreation, affordable housing, cultural arts, and historic preservation. Learn more 📲 https://wfly.co/v4KDg
QUESTION 2:
A YES vote authorizes a $74 million bond investment in state beaches, parks, campgrounds, recreation facilities, working forests and farmland preservation, clean water, flooding resiliency structures, and watershed maintenance.
QUESTION 3:
A YES vote authorizes a $65 million housing and community opportunity bond that would support community revitalization through smart investment in construction and rehab of affordable housing.
QUESTION 6:
A YES vote authorizes a $7 million culture and arts bond, including $1 million specifically for the state preservation grants program.
Historic New England encourages support of three bond authorizations included on the ballot for the March 2 special election in Rhode Island. Conservation, recreation, affordable housing, cultural arts, and historic preservation are interconnected, and the funding measures proposed could have widesp...
02/24/2021
💍💖 Did you get engaged this #ValentinesDay and want to plan an intimate ceremony? We have new micro-wedding packages available for the upcoming warmer weather!
For just $695, you and your loved one can tie the knot at one of eleven of our outdoor spaces. All guests must wear a mask and maintain six feet of social distance.
Get more information and book your micro-wedding at https://www.historicnewengland.org/micro-wedding-locations-for-your-spring-wedding/.
📸 Casey Farm
02/23/2021
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Mass.—with its manor house, farm animals, and hiking space—is one of our most popular sites. But #didyouknow there is a salt marsh on the property that helps protect the coast from erosion and flooding, offers food and refuge to hundreds of species, and improves air and water quality?
Enjoy this drone video of the beautiful farmland, and visit https://www.historicnewengland.org/get-a-look-at-our-video-230-acres-of-open-land-and-the-salt-hay-marsh-at-spencer-peirce-little-farm/ to read more about the history of the land’s salt marshes.
02/22/2021
The History of Black History Month: Dr. Carter G. Woodson's fight for reform | Historic New England
#BlackHistoryMonth was adopted nationwide in 1976. But how did this month of commemoration come to be?
Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), “the father of Black History,” believed that the only way to achieve racial equality was through the study and elevation of Black excellence. He believed that education would show the world that African Americans helped build, shape, and bring prosperity to the United States.
It was this acute focus on education that, after years of advocacy to bring African American history and American history together, Woodson helped create Black History Month’s predecessor: Negro History Week. This week-long observance evolved into the month-long commemoration we know today.
Read more about Woodson and his advocacy work at https://www.historicnewengland.org/the-history-of-black-history-month-dr-carter-g-woodsons-fight-for-reform/.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), “the father of Black History,” believed that the only way to achieve racial equality was through the study and elevation of Black excellence. Woodson’s beliefs were not new or unique. Like many who came before him, Woodson believed that education would show t...
02/19/2021
Check out the dapper visitors the Eustis Estate has had over the past few weeks! 🐾
Shout out to beauthegreyhound and walkiesthroughhistory on IG for today’s fleecy #FanPhotoFriday!
02/17/2021
In this time of change for so many New England communities, Historic New England believes it is important to document the things we cherish that are fast disappearing. In keeping with this belief, we have recently acquired photographs for our collection of New England diners and Boston’s Chinatown by John Woolf.
Photographic artist John Woolf has worked for over forty years to document the transformation of the American urban architectural landscape.
Read more about our recent acquisitions at https://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-new-england-acquires-photographs-of-diners-and-bostons-chinatown-from-artist-john-woolf/.
02/16/2021
#TriviaTuesday This camera from c. 1800-1820 captured images by using a small lens at one side of its darkened chamber through which an image was projected onto the wall opposite of the hole. What kind of camera is this? 📸
Give us your best guess in the comments, and then check back later for the answer.
Want to learn more about the history of photography and how to take better photos? Join us next Thursday, 2/25, for our virtual lecture, “How to Take Better Pictures and How to Make Them Last,” with digital photographer Neil Dixon. Visit https://my.historicnewengland.org/6800/take-better-photos for tickets.
02/15/2021
Today is #PresidentsDay, celebrated each year on the third Monday of February in honor of George Washington’s birthday. Originally established in 1885 as a federal holiday to create more three-day weekends, Presidents’ Day honors Washington’s legacy as the first president of the United States.
While today commemorates one of the most esteemed historical figures in America, it also commemorates an imperfect man. Washington enslaved a few hundred people—a hypocritical fact, considering the tenets and ideals upheld in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Ona Judge was one such person, an African American woman who dared to take “what was morally, ethically, and rightfully hers: freedom.” Judge escaped to freedom in 1796 and made her way to Portsmouth, N.H., where Elizabeth Langdon—daughter of US senator John Langdon, of Historic New England’s own Langdon House—saw her in the street one day and sounded the alert. Thankfully, Judge was never recaptured, eventually fleeing to Greenland, N.H.
Read Ona Judge’s story at https://www.historicnewengland.org/ona-judge/.
02/14/2021
Ready to leap into love this #ValentinesDay? 🐸 💚 Just double check that the blinds are closed…
(This is a trade card in our ephemera collection for a…wait for it…dentist’s office. Yes, you read that right. We’re still trying to figure out how frogs are related to dental care.)
02/12/2021
“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”
—Mary Oliver, “Snowy Night”
Thanks to northern_vernacular on IG for this #FanPhotoFriday shot of Castle Tucker!
02/10/2021
This couch hasn’t always looked quite so luxurious. Now seated at
Otis House Museum in Boston, the couch was one of seventy-two pieces made by Isaac Vose & Son for the city to furnish General Lafayette’s lodgings when he made a brief visit in 1824. After nearly two hundred years, the piece needed conservation treatment.
One of our new online visitor experiences features Otis House—visit the web app to get an in-depth look at how conservators transformed this spectacular example of fine neoclassical Boston furniture.
💻 Read more and discover the web app at https://www.historicnewengland.org/conserving-an-isaac-vose-son-couch/.
02/09/2021
Painting is a powerful medium of expression. Many artists use it as means of communicating life experience or capturing specific moments in time.
Join us for our second installment of “Closer Encounters: Conversations about Artful Stories” next Tuesday, 2/16, to discover how two paintings in the exhibition reflect important aspects of the African American experience in New England. The New Hampshire–based artist Richard Haynes describes why he created his imaginary portrait of Cyrus Bruce, while scholar Rosalyn Delores Elder explores how Edward Mitchell Bannister transcended nineteenth-century attitudes about race to become a successful artist in Providence, Rhode Island.
Visit https://my.historicnewengland.org/6800/artful-2 to get tickets.
02/08/2021
Last week for #BlackHistoryMonth, we introduced Christiana Carteaux Bannister, an abolitionist, activist, and founder of Providence’s Home for Aged Colored Women. Did you know a branch of the organization also existed in Boston?
Established in 1860 by Rev. James Freeman Clarke, his mother Rebecca Parker Clarke, and Rev. Leonard A. Grimes of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston, the Home for Aged Colored Women was a charitable organization that provided services to aged and indigent African American women in Beacon Hill. Supporters of the home provided funding for the organization and also donated food, coal, and firewood.
This dressing gown came into Historic New England’s collection in 1915 as a gift from Boston’s Home for Aged Colored Women. A Committee on Clothing provided both new and used clothing for the residents. Unfortunately, this dress, despite almost certainly being donated long after it was fashionable, had been packed away as being “too good to wear.”
02/05/2021
With funds from a grant from the City of Waltham, restoration of the Lyman Estate’s library is under way. The Queen Anne–style library was an addition to the original house c. 1880 and now requires cleaning and conserving of the extensive wood paneling and wood furniture, plaster, and the fireplace’s distinctive decorative tiles and iron work.
Read more about our ongoing restoration of the library at https://www.historicnewengland.org/community-preservation-act-supports-restoration-work-at-the-lyman-estate/.
02/04/2021
Gropius House | Historic New England
That's a wrap! Thanks again to Matthew Dickey for today's takeover—be sure to follow him on IG at _madickey_ for more architectural views of New England.
Get your tickets for a Gropius House tour at HistoricNewEngland.org/GropiusHouse. Limited capacity; masks required.
02/04/2021
It's Matthew Dickey (@_MADickey_ on IG) for the last time today, but be sure to check out Historic New England's Instagram stories (@historicnewengland) for more behind-the-scenes pics of Gropius House, including the upstairs and kitchen spaces.
The home includes all the original furniture from the Bauhaus and nearly looks as if the family stepped out for a moment. The dining room has a little parlor trick. It has a pen hole–like light above it set to light just to the edge of the table. Be sure to look at all the photos to see the room at night and an additional view of Sori Yanagi's butterfly stool. It was common for the Gropius family to invite students to see the home, a rare chance to check out an operational modern house. Only those in Illinois or California could have a similar experience seeing a Wright or a Neutra. Regardless of your feelings towards modernism, being in the space just feels like a good place to be.
Lincoln and the surrounding area became a center of modernist design. Breuer built his house next door, and other The Architects Collaborative (TAC) colleagues built homes nearby in Lexington in a modernist enclave called Six Moon Hill (it is a must visit for any mid-mod obsessive). Additionally, a TAC neighbor, Earl Flansburgh, also built his own home just down the way.
02/04/2021
It's Matthew Dickey (IG @_MADickey_) again, strolling an architectural classic, Gropius House. It is open for limited capacity, guided tours on weekends from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visit HistoricNewEngland.org/GropiusHouse for tickets.
These are two views through the same door. Gropius had an office at the house with its own entrance to meet clients. A well-appointed desk looks out towards the landscape, with a view of Ati's private stair well (just to keep an eye on her!). Loads of Bauhaus artisans adorn the walls and grace the rooms, inviting you to sit and stay for a while. The room has a pair of Saarinen chairs (a personal favorite as I'm from St. Louis and got to admire his arch daily), and a Marcel Breuer Penguin Donkey bookcase (second image next to the desk in the background). The house is a celebration of Bauhaus design and ideals.
There is a great twelve-minute segment of Ise Gropius describing life in the home. She said Walter was torn between getting to the office early in the morning and just dwelling in the home to see all the wonderful things happening around the house. Light shifting in the garden, trees swaying in the wind. Ise says thousands of people came to look at the house within the first year of it being built. An old lady asked her, "Is it always strenuous to live in the future?" She responded, "This is our natural way of living."
02/04/2021
Hello Archinerds! This is Matthew Dickey (@_MADickey_ on IG). Of all the Historic New England sites, the one I have visited the most is Gropius House in Lincoln, Mass. It is hands down my favorite. However, my obsession with the Bauhaus may make me a bit biased. But how can you not love a house with an original Penguin Donkey (a type of bookcase)?
This Bauhaus dwelling was completed in 1938 on land owned by Helen Storrow. She was quite old at the time but was really excited to see what this Bauhaus stuff was all about. (Marcel Breuer would also build a home on her land). The home is a sort of duality in the landscape. It is made of New England materials of wooden clapboard and brick, yet also contrasts to its surroundings. It not only nestles into the landscape but also enhances it.
The home was designed for Walter, his wife, Ise, and their daughter Ati. Ati really wanted a room with a glass ceiling to the stars and a sand floor. She didn't get the sand floor, but she did get her own entrance and a private terrace with views to the stars! Stay tuned to see more of the interior.
02/04/2021
Ready for a Historic New England social media takeover?
Today, our friend Matthew Dickey (_madickey_ on IG) is taking over our feed to give us a tour of Gropius House in Lincoln, Mass. Keep your eyes out for Matthew’s posts throughout the day!
02/03/2021
At the turn of the twentieth century, Gloucester’s Eastern Point attracted a glittering circle of visiting artists, collectors, politicians, socialites, and silent-film stars. At the center of this social whirl stood Red Roof, the home of noted Harvard economist and eventual Massachusetts Congressman A. Piatt Andrew.
Join us for our virtual lecture “The Smart Set at Red Roof” next Thursday, 2/11. Explore Red Roof’s guest books, maintained between 1902 and 1930, featuring hundreds of photographs taken by Andrew himself, a friend of Henry Davis Sleeper of Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House. Cosponsored by The History Project: Documenting LGBTQ Boston.
Visit https://my.historicnewengland.org/6730/red-roof for tickets.
📸 From the Red Roof Guest Book 1902-1912, pg. 113
02/02/2021
🌸Many large historic estates in the Boston area had impressive greenhouses and significant collections of camellia trees. One such place is our own Lyman Estate, which has its own 1820 camellia house.
Next Wednesday, 2/10, join us for “History of Camellias in Boston” to discover the rich history of camellia cultivation from the late 1700s through the 1900s.
Visit https://my.historicnewengland.org/6792/gre-camellias to get your tickets today for this virtual illustrated lecture.
Address
141 Cambridge St
Boston, MA
02114
Telephone
Website
Alerts
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Historic New England posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Contact The Museum
Send a message to Historic New England:
Videos
Billiard Room Chamber Wallpaper Installation at Castle Tucker
#AskAConservator Day
Wednesday is #AskAConservator Day!
In need of a fun lunchtime distraction? 🧩 Put together one of our online puzzles based on paintings from our collection featured in our upcoming exhibition “Artful Stories”! Choose between an easy or a hard puzzle (or don’t choose at all and do both) and see how fast you can put it together. https://www.historicnewengland.org/painting-puzzles/ Explore more paintings featured in Artful Stories through our immersive online preview: Eustis.Estate/topic/exhibitions. 🖼️ “Barnyard Scene,” Thomas Hewes Hinckley, 1848
For the last segment of our Lyman Estate Greenhouses walkthrough series, we’re taking you on a stroll through the camellia house. 🌺 The 1820 room was originally built for growing peach trees, but now houses these beautiful flowers. See our 100-year-old collection of camellias, as well as tropical azaleas, orchids, and more. #MuseumFromHome
View of the Salmon Falls River from Hamilton House, Springtime 2020
In need of a #MuseumMomentofZen this Thursday? Enjoy this video of the view of the Salmon Falls River from Hamilton House. The flowing water, the chirping birds, and the springtime air all come together in this one moment of tranquility.
Today’s #MuseumMomentofZen is perfect for orchid fans! This Lyman Estate Greenhouses video walkthrough takes you through the pondhouse and the lower sales house. These rooms house many varieties of orchids, plus plenty of other flowers types, such as kalanchoes and aeoniums.
Today we have a walkthrough video of two more Lyman Estate Greenhouses’ rooms for you. Here you’ll see the second and third grapehouses, filled with flowering plants such as bougainvillea, billbergia, and bottlebrush. (Plus, a lot more plants that don’t start with the letter “B.”)
Join us on a virtual walkthrough tour of the Lyman Estate Greenhouses’ first grapehouse to celebrate #EarthDay! 🌸🌼🌷🌻 While the greenhouses are closed to the public, we hope seeing the spring blooms emerging in this video tour will brighten your day. Stay tuned for more greenhouse room tours!
Although not a piece that will be included in our upcoming “Artful Stories” exhibition, this chair reupholstery video from our conservation lab was too good to not share! This is a treatment of a small chair from Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum & Visitor Center. The wool embroidery had some small holes, revealing the cream-colored fabric of the layers beneath it. Fraying fabric is likely to continue to fray. To fix the issue, conservators custom-dyed cotton patches and inserted them in the holes. Then, custom-dyed nylon net was overlaid across the entire chair seat. By stitching through the nylon net and the patches, the patches both improved the overall look of the chair and stabilized the fabric to prevent further fraying. Come back for more behind the scenes conservation content!
Gilding Swab Cleaning
This spring, our “Artful Stories” art exhibition will open, thanks in large part to the behind the scenes work of our conservators. This week, we're getting a behind the scenes look in the conservation lab at a conservator cleaning a frame. This video shows the process of cleaning "size" (adhesive used to attach gold leaf to the desired area of the frame). On this frame, the size is rabbit skin glue, common to nineteenth century gilding. Rabbit skin glue dries hard, but is still sensitive to water. On humid days, dust can attach to the glue size and discolor it. The only way to clean the frame is to reactivate the original rabbit skin glue layer with new, dilute rabbit skin glue. A conservator dips a large, soft cotton swab into rabbit skin glue solution made in the lab and rolls the swab over the frame's surface to pick up dust and dirt. It also redeposits a new layer of clean glue. Tune in next week for another #ArtfulStories update!
Sealing Cracked Gilding
This week for our “Artful Stories” conservation update, we see frame repairs in action. When cracks appear in the surface of gilding, it becomes vulnerable to further damage. The cracked edges leave the gilding materials exposed to the air and humidity, which can cause flaking due to expansion and contraction. Here, a conservator adds a very small amount of consolidant (a.k.a. adhesive) which wicks into the tiny cracks in the gilding to seal them. This process stabilizes the cracks to prevent flaking. The consolidant used in this video is made of—get ready—diluted fish glue and ethanol! Check back next week for more #ArtfulStories content.
Gilding Spot Testing
This week, for our “Artful Stories” conservation update, we’re taking a closer look at the gilding process. In this video, conservators test a sample of gilding from a gold frame with mineral spirits in a process called spot testing or solubility testing. Many old frames have had multiple repairs, and it can be difficult to tell what material (i.e. paint, wax, adhesive, plaster, putty, etc.) comprises a repaired portion of the frame. However, identifying the material can help conservators figure out how to safely remove it. Here, a conservator scraped off a small sample of a repaired portion of the frame, placed it in a glass dish, and added a few drops of mineral spirits. The sample was then confirmed to be gold-colored wax because it dissolved in the fluid. Check back in next week for another look at conservation efforts in preparation for #ArtfulStories.
Painting Removal in Phillips House for "Artful Stories"
An expansive exhibition like our upcoming “Artful Stories: Paintings from Historic New England” takes plenty of behind the scenes work to make it happen. Historic object conservation plays a vital role in preparing artwork for a show, and it all begins with de-installation. Each painting must be safely transported from its usual location to the conservation lab in Haverhill, Mass. Watch conservators in this video carefully remove “A Country Landscape” (Charles Harold Davis, c. 1890-1920) from Phillips House and safely wrap it in packaging for transportation. In anticipation of our upcoming exhibition “Artful Stories,” we will be sharing different historic conservation methods and treatments across social media. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more exclusive #ArtfulStories conservation updates.
Good morning from the animals at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm! The grounds are open daily from dawn to dusk. Stop by and say hello!
Have you seen the trailer for Little Women Movie? That’s the Lyman Estate where Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet are dancing as Jo and Laurie, about a minute in. We’re thrilled to be one of the Massachusetts locations for the Greta Gerwig-directed adaptation. See it in theaters this Christmas! https://youtu.be/AST2-4db4ic
Shortcuts
Category
Our Story
Historic New England operates thirty-seven historic properties open to the public. Open hours and prices vary, so please visit HistoricNewEngland.org. Many of our properties also have their own pages, which we invite you to follow.
Nearby museums
-
141 Cambridge St
-
02114-2621
-
55 Mount Vernon St
-
150 Staniford St
-
2 North Grove St
-
Congregational Library & Archives
14 Beacon St Ste 206 -
100 Legends Way
-
1 Washington Mall
-
William Hickling Prescott House
55 Beacon St
Other History Museums in Boston
-
206 Washington St -
256 Marginal St
-
Charlestown Navy Yard
-
Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
306 Congress St -
55 Mount Vernon St
-
Veteran Association of the First Corps of Cad
227 Commonwealth Ave -
19 North Sq
-
308 Congress St
-
William Cullen Bryant Homestead
200 High St -
344 Congress St
-
195 Boston St
Comments
Eustis Estate, Dec 2017
photo by Tisha Shaughnessy-Sullivan
Detail, Eustis Estate, Milton, MA
Dec 2017
photo by Tisha Shaughnessy-Sullivan
Jess Provenzano
Help me get my new fruit in stores!
A friend of mine purchased this. Dated from mid 1700's. Would love your interpretation of what you think is written.
Release of The Noble Train The story of a twenty five year old Boston bookseller who dragged 60 tons of cannons to George Washington and saved the American Revolution
hppiest day in my life walking Bristol beach/BYE see you in heaven
Roger that...talking to a fellow visitor at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, MA today, I discovered that she hadn't seen Roger the donkey anywhere...and then this...made me smile :-)
I have keys that belonged to Charles C. Walker of Manchester, I would like to donate them to you if you would have them. I have tried to locate his family with no luck.
Peak foliage is just around the bend!
I was just reading the Fall/Winter newsletter like it was a novel! There are so many great things coming up, I can't believe it! Looking forward to seeing a lot more of the properties in the next months!
Misery Island 1962 ~ 1900 Beverly Farms Ma.