The Commonwealth Museum

The Commonwealth Museum FREE admission, rare national treasures, engaging field trips. This museum is YOUR museum! Located by the seafront of Columbia Point, the Commonwealth Museum serves as a state history museum in Massachusetts for the public.
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Our exhibit contains many important written texts and documents such as the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Paul Revere’s original engraving of the Boston Massacre and more. With neighboring John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate and the University of Massachusetts Boston all located within a 2-mile radius from the Commonwealth Museum, Columbia Point is certainly a go-to tourist attraction for child-friendly families as well as those interested in getting to know more about the history of the United States. Join us today for an exploration back to the birth of the Commonwealth!

Operating as usual

Photos from The Commonwealth Museum's post
12/18/2020

Photos from The Commonwealth Museum's post

Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.
12/17/2020

Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.

HBD Harriet Taylor Upton (December 17, 1853 – November 2, 1945) who was a suffragist, activist and author. She became a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890 and served as treasurer of the organization from 1894-1910. Her home in Warren, Ohio was a hub of suffrage activity and served as national headquarters for NAWSA from 1903-1905. Some of her many accomplishments include first woman elected to the Warren, Ohio Board of Education in 1898, first woman to serve on the Republican National Executive Committee and founding member of the National League of Women Voters.

12/16/2020
Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.
12/16/2020

Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.

Helen Frances “Fanny” Garrison Villard (December 16, 1844 – July 5, 1928) was an abolitionist, suffragist, pacifist, philanthropist and a co-founder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Fanny was born in Roxbury, MA and was the only daughter of prominent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. After her children were grown and her husband died in 1900, Fanny became active in peace groups and women's rights groups. She joined the American Woman Suffrage Association along with Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt. She founded the Women's Peace Society in 1919.

12/10/2020
11/25/2020

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of Native American Heritage month, we recommend checking out the event Native Communities and the Vote: Teachin...
11/17/2020
Native Communities and the Vote: Teaching about American Indian Voting Rights through Documents

In honor of Native American Heritage month, we recommend checking out the event Native Communities and the Vote: Teaching about American Indian Voting Rights through Documents hosted by the National Archives Museum. Sign up here: https://www.archives.gov/calendar/event/native-communities-and-the-vote-teaching-about-american-indian-voting-rights-through-documents

Join us in this webinar for educators and learn how to incorporate primary sources related to American Indian voting rights into your lessons.

11/09/2020
From Mass. Elections on Twitter:Polls will be open 7am-8pm statewide on Election Day.You can vote at your polling place ...
11/02/2020
Track My Ballot: Search

From Mass. Elections on Twitter:

Polls will be open 7am-8pm statewide on Election Day.

You can vote at your polling place if:
-You haven't already voted OR
-Your ballot hasn't reached your local election office yet OR
-Your ballot was rejected.

http://TrackMyBallotMA.com

Happy Halloween from all of us here at the Commonwealth Museum! We have some ~spooky~ book recommendations. You can read...
10/31/2020

Happy Halloween from all of us here at the Commonwealth Museum! We have some ~spooky~ book recommendations. You can read about the history of the holiday while enjoying some well deserved chocolate (or other candy of choice).

We also have some books for younger audiences, who may be less interested in history and more interested in reading a tall tale. Some featured authors are prominent Massachusetts figures like Marc Brown!

Happy LGBTQ+ History Month! Here is a timeline of some important events in Massachusetts history!
10/29/2020

Happy LGBTQ+ History Month! Here is a timeline of some important events in Massachusetts history!

250YearsofLiberty
10/28/2020

250YearsofLiberty

"Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long." Abigail Adams’ last words. Mrs. Adams died October 28, 1818. Unbeknownst to her, she was a great historian through her many letters to friends and family. Following is some interesting excerpts on her writing:

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A woman, who exercised great and far-reaching influence in her day and generation and that
influence always for the greatest good, was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams of Massachusetts. Always distrusting her own abilities and education, and never realising that she had talent other than that of being a good wife to John Adams and a mother to his children, her letters pulse with life and feeling, while the pedantic, though patriotic, poems, plays, essays, and histories of her friend, Mercy Warren, are relegated to the dusty shelves of the reference libraries…

Mrs. Adams had but a limited education. Educational opportunities, especially for women, were restricted in the early days, and the delicate condition of her health had always precluded her being sent from home to acquire even the common-school training of the day. As she herself wrote in later years: “My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunities which the present day affords and which even our common schools now afford. I was never sent to any school; I was always sick…"

The girl was, however, a great reader and a voluminous letter-writer. “The women of the last century," her biographer continues, “were more remarkable for their letter-writing propensities than the novel-reading and more pretentious daughters of this era; their field was larger and the stirring events of the times made it an object of more interest. Even though self-taught, the young ladies of Massachusetts were certainly readers and their taste was not for the feeble and nerveless sentiments, but was derived from the deepest wells of English literature. Almost every house in the Colony possessed some heirlooms in the shape of standard books, even if the number was limited to the Bible and Dictionary. Many, especially ministers, could display relics of their English ancestors' intelligence in the libraries handed down to them, and the study of their contents was evident in many of the grave correspondences of that early time."

Mrs. Adams died of an attack of fever, October 26 [28], 1818, in the seventy-fifth [73] year of her age, and was laid at rest in the Congregational church of Quincy, where eight years later her eminent husband was laid beside her. Over their last resting place has been placed a marble slab with an inscription prepared by their eldest son, John Quincy Adams.

Thus passed away one of the most remarkable and interesting women of the Revolutionary period. "To learning, in the ordinary acceptance of that term," writes her grandson, "Mrs. Adams could make no claim. Her reading had been extensive in the lighter departments of literature and she was well acquainted with then poets of her own language, but it went no further. It is the soul shining through the words that gives them their greatest attraction; the spirit ever equal to the occasion, whether a great or a small one; a spirit inquisitive and earnest in the little details of life, as when in France or England; playful when she describes daily duties, but rising to the call when the roar of the cannon is in her ears or when she is reproving her husband for not knowing her better than to think her a coward and to fear telling her bad news."

The Pioneer Mothers of America, Vol. 3, Harry Clinton Green, 1912.

Photo: Abigail Adams, from a picture by C. Schessele.

© 2019-2020 Clifford Olsen/250YearsofLiberty
#OTD #AmericanHistory #liberty #250America #250YearsofLiberty

10/23/2020
Happy Boston Cream Pie Day! The Boston Cream Pie is said to have been invented by a French chef at the Omni Parker House...
10/23/2020

Happy Boston Cream Pie Day! The Boston Cream Pie is said to have been invented by a French chef at the Omni Parker House Hotel in 1856. It became the Massachusetts state dessert in 1996.

Here's some Boston Cream Pie recipes to try:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17470/boston-cream-pie-iii/

09/28/2020

Check out our Instagram @commonwealthmuseum! We'll be posting about some history of the area surrounding the Commonwealth Museum this week. 😍😍😍

Happy voter registration day! Click the link in the comments to register!
09/22/2020

Happy voter registration day! Click the link in the comments to register!

09/17/2020

Here’s how we are celebrating Constitution day at the Commonwealth Museum!!

09/17/2020

Here’s how we at the Commonwealth Museum are celebrating Constitution day!!

Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.
09/14/2020

Women's Suffrage Celebration Coalition of Massachusetts, Inc.

Yesterday was Maria Baldwin’s birthday, but we’re still celebrating today! Maria Louise Baldwin was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts but was told to go south “where she was more needed” in order to pursue her dream of teaching. After teaching in Maryland she returned to teach at the Agassiz Elementary School in 1881, a well-regarded, majority white, public school attended by Cambridge’s professional elite. Just 8 years later, Baldwin was named principal - the only black woman principal in all of New England. Baldwin worked at the Agassiz school for 40 years, and was an education innovator - introducing the position of school nurse for example. Decades and generations later, in 2002, the Cambridge School Committee voted unanimously to rename the Agassiz School the Maria L. Baldwin School thanks to a campaign started by students. Read more about Baldwin on the Commonwealth Museum’s website or The Suffrage Centennial Display Panel Project under the Resources tab on suffrage100ma.org. #WeAreAllSuffragistsNow #Suffrage100MA #vote

09/14/2020
Museum of Work and Culture Preservation Foundation

This exhibit was displayed at the Commonwealth Museum in 2017. Check it out as it reemerges at the Museum of Work and Culture Preservation Foundation!

Today is Day 2 of our Virtual Labor Day Celebration series. We are joined by artist Zach Horn who offers a behind-the-scenes look at the inspiration and work behind his exhibit "United We Bargain Divided We Beg," which will be opening at the Museum in October. You can view more of Zach work on his website at https://www.zachhornart.com/ or you can follow him at instagram at https://www.instagram.com/zachshorn/

Department of History and Philosophy, Purdue Northwest
08/31/2020

Department of History and Philosophy, Purdue Northwest

Happy Birthday Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, born #OTD 1842. Ruffin was a journalist, civil rights leader, suffragist, & the editor of the Women's Era, the 1st national newspaper published by & for African American women. Learn more at the Commonwealth Museum in Massachusetts.
https://sec.state.ma.us/mus/pdfs/16-Ruffin.pdf

🎉 🎉 🎉
08/26/2020

🎉 🎉 🎉

Join Us For Women's Equality Day 2020 -
08/25/2020
Join Us For Women's Equality Day 2020 -

Join Us For Women's Equality Day 2020 -

Watch LIVE on Women’s Equality Day! August 26 at 6 pm! Join Suffrage100MA on August 26, 2020 at 6:00 pm for the premiere of our 19th Amendment centennial commemoration film “The Fight for Women’s Suffrage: Looking Back, Marching Forward!” The film gives a versatile glimpse into the suffra....

Timeline Photos
08/25/2020

Timeline Photos

Check out the videos in the comments!
08/25/2020

Check out the videos in the comments!

Photos from The Commonwealth Museum's post
08/24/2020

Photos from The Commonwealth Museum's post

Address

220 William T Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA
02125

By Car (free parking) From the north: Rte 3/I-93S to exit 15 (Morrissey Blvd/JFK Library). Follow signs for UMass and JFK Library. From the west: Rte I-90/Mass Pike to I-93 South. Follow signs for UMass and JFK Library. From the south: Rte 3/I-93N to exit 14 (Morrissey Blvd/JFK Library). Follow signs for UMass and JFK Library. By MBTA Take the MBTA Red Line to JFK/UMass station. Free shuttle Bus #2 stops at the Archives Building and the JFK Library. The bus runs every 20 minutes from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the hour and 20 minutes after and before the hour.

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 16:45
Tuesday 09:00 - 16:45
Wednesday 09:00 - 16:45
Thursday 09:00 - 16:45
Friday 09:00 - 16:45

Telephone

(617) 727-9268

Website

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Videos

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s how we are celebrating Constitution day at the Commonwealth Museum!!

Here’s how we at the Commonwealth Museum are celebrating Constitution day!!

Shout out to the 3rd graders from Sylvester School for making awesome MA State Symbols posters!! Do you know the state marine mammal? It’s not the wrong whale; it’s not the left whale; it’s the.... #MAStateSymbol #RightWhale #FieldTrip #Commonwealth

Are you as excited about the holiday season as this enthusiastic 3rd grader on a field trip at our museum? This winter break, visit the Commonwealth Museum with your family and friends! #Holidays #Museum #FieldTrip #History

5 miles ride
5 miles ride

From Huntington Ave to the Commonwealth Museum.

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