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In kind donors
for 2007:Harvard Book Store, Trader Joe's, Armando's,
Easy Chairs Antiques, Full Moon Restaurant, Hallie's Flower Garden. Hanaya
Floral, The Fish Monger, Formaggio, Fresh Pond Market, Hi-Rise Bread Company,
Hotel Marlowe, J Miles, Lee Newbury Design, Marimekko,
Minelli's Catering, Shaw's (Mt. Auburn Street), Raining Cats and Dogs,
Riley to the Rescue, Sarah's Market and Cafe Susi's, The Inn at Harvard,
Valerie Isaacs, Taza Chocolate
Wednesday, December
12
Time: 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Holiday Open House
at the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
Over 100 members and guests attended this annual event, which included
a festive atmosphere, seasonal music, and an elegant buffet donated by
our members and by the following local caterers: Catering by Debby, Cuisine
Chez Vous, East Meets West, Riley to the Rescue, and Tables of Content.
Wednesday, November
7, 7:00 p.m.
Publication Party at the Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Over 100 people came to celebrate the release of the Society's book, A City's Life and Times: Cambridge in the Twentieth Century
This
book is a lively collection of articles on the city's politics, its distinctive
institutions, its immigrant community, churches, architecture, cultural
life, neighborhoods, and much more.
"This book has variety, depth and surprises. You will not read it through, but you will read in and around it with pleasure and fascination. My sincere thanks to all the contributors."
from the remarks by editor Daphne Abeel
Publication
funded by
Cambridge Savings Bank.
Friday, September
21, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
The Sparks House with host
Reverend Peter Gomes
The Reverend Professor Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard Divinity School, hosted guests at his residence-a ca.1838 Greek Revival house filled with his antiques and other collections. An elegant tea was served.
Professor Gomes's remarks highlighted two recently conserved portraits of Jared Sparks (1789-1866) and his wife, Mary Crowninshield Silsbee, of Salem. Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as president of Harvard University from 1848 to 1853.
Saturdays, August
11 and 18
Cambridge Discovery Days:
Cambridge Literati: Writers in Residence
Time: 10:00-11:00 a..m. both days
Location: The Hooper-Lee-Nichols House, 159 Brattle Street
An exhibition featuring with commentery featured more than 20 writers
and poets who lived and worked in Cambridge. Also on display were items
which reflected the history of publishing in Cambridge.
(left) Author May Sarton in 1992, seated below a portrait of her painted in 1937, eight years after she graduated from Cambridge High & Latin School.
Saturday, August 18
Cambridge Discovery Days:
Architectural Walking tour
It's a Classic: American Architecture & Famous Phrases
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12 noon.
Starting point was 159 Brattle Street.
The walking tour focused on domestic architectural styles from all periods of Cambridge history-and included tidbits about Cambridge literati.The route covered parts of Brattle, Fayerweather, Reservior and Highland Streets, with a jog to Brewster Street, ending at the house where Robert Frost lived.. The present owner of the house, Warren M. "Renny" Little, former executive director of the CHS, provided little-known details of the poet's life in Cambridge
Wednesday, June 20
Cambridge Cameos:
Stories of Life in 17th Century New England
A lecture and book signing with Roger Thompson
Location: Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Author and historian Roger Thompson spoke on the research and writing
of his book Cambridge Cameos: Stories of Life in 17th Century New England.
The book covers the settlement and development of church, town government,
farming trades and social status in Cambridge from 1631 to 1686. Using
unpublished documents, such as the Middlesex County Court Records, which
contain thousands of sworn testimonies, Thompson reconstructed a surprising
range of personal stories, from the comic to the horrific.
In his lecture, he recounted the sensational witchcraft accusations against women in the Holman family, the town grandees taken in by a smooth-talking young boat builder, and the doggerel verses lampooning the dignified Deputy-Governor Danforth. Thomspon will even shed light on the character of Dr. Richard Hooper, first owner of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House.
Cambridge Cameos is written for non-specialists, but it is serious history and gives a vivid picture of the lives and attitudes of Cambridge residents in the early years of settlement. The book, published in 2005, explores the relationships between town and gown, Puritans and Native Americans, doctors and patients, old and young, husbands and wives, and more.
Roger Thompson is a British author who has been teaching and writing about early American history since 1962. He has taught at Eton College and the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Other publications include Sex in Middlesex (1986) and Divided We Stand, about early Watertown (2001). Mr. Thompson summers in Cambridge, researching and enjoying the city's unique culture. He is currently working on a history of early Charlestown.
Cambridge Cameos sells for $19.95. To purchase a copy, send email to sales@pictonpress.com
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Cambridge Historical Society Spring Benefit
"On the Avenue, Huron Avenue"
Time 2:00-4:30p.m.
Tickets: $75
Location: The Former Fayerweather Street School (now an extraordinary
private residence) Special
thanks to the Lander family for graciously inviting us into their remarkable
home.
CHS and guests celebrated the history of this vibrant neighborhood that has been home to both wealthy and working class Cantabrigians of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Featured speakers
were:
-Charles Sullivan, executive director of the Cambridge Historical Commission:
The evolution of the neighborhood from Brattle Street's undeveloped
"backyard" to the residential and commercial buildings that
line the charming streets today
-Heli Meltsner, architectural historian, preservation consultant. The
architectural and social history of the Fayerweather Street School building
and site
There was a hearty reception donated by neighborhood eateries and markets. Other features were tours of the house (complete with gymnasium on the top floor) led by architect Maryann Thompson; a silent auction; a chance to record your own memories of living, working, playing, or shopping in the neighborhood.
(Review complete Program Guide)
(Complete list of event Sponsors)
Saturday, April 21,
10:00 and 11:00 a.m.
Tuesday, April 24, and Thursday, April 26, 2:00 and 3:00 p.m
Innovations and Innovators: Special Tours of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols
Houset
The CHS participated in the first annual Cambridge Science Festival by
offering guided tours of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House that featured scientific
innovations that were developed right here in Cambridge. Visitors had
an opportunity to view highlights of the Society's collections, including
Elias Howe's sewing machine (left), Sterling Elliott's addressing machine,
Edwin Land's Polaroid cameras and the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House itself.
Tours were designed for both adults and school children in grades 4-12.
Wednesday, April 4
Dana Fellow Event*
175 Brattle Street
(Ruggles-Fayerweather House)
Time: 6:00 p.m.
This was a rare opportunity to see the interior of one of Cambridge's
famed collection of "Tory Mansions."
Architectural historianSusan
Maycock of the Cambridge Historical Commission spoke about the history
and significance of this 1764 house as it evolved from a high style Georgian
residence owned by loyalists George Ruggles and Thomas Fayerweather, to
an army encampment and hospitalfor injured patriots, to a private boy's
school at which James Russell Lowell, Richard Henry Dana, and Colonel
Thomas Wentworth Higginson studied.
*This event was by invitation only. Dana Fellows contribute $100 or
more annually to the CHS.
Thanks to Trader Joe's for contributing to the refreshments for this event.
Sunday, March 25
Longfellow Bicentennial Gala
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Place: Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
This was the 200th birthday celebration of one of America's original superstars,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The two-hour gala-organized by the Harvard
University Division of Continuing Education and the Longfellow Bicentennial
Committee- included music and poetry. The Cambridge Historical Society
presented the Longfellow medal (below) the Longfellow National Historic
Site, and a new 39-cent stamp bearing Longfellow's image, was unveiled.
For more information about the gala visit www.longfellow200.org
Sunday, February 25,
2007
Illustrated lecture, The Cambridge Rail Road:
Celebrating 150 Years of Urban Rail Transit in Boston and Cambridge
Time: 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
Fee: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers
When
the Cambridge Rail Road opened for business on March 26, 1856, it was
the first street railway in Massachusetts, and one of the earliest streetcar
lines anywhere in the world. It was in large part the brainchild of Gardiner
Greene Hubbard, a Brattle Street resident who wished to have a better
commute to Boston. This innovative form of transit prospered and expanded,
and was copied by other companies, eventually becoming the direct corporate
predecessor of today's MBTA.
Local historian Charlie
Bahne's illustrated lecture revisited the the sesquicentennial of rail
transit service in the Boston area, examining both the history and development
of public transport in Cambridge, as well as other accomplishments of
the Cambridge Rail Road's president, Gardiner Greene Hubbard.
(Photo: Harvard Square with street cars in the late 1800s, CHS Archives)
Sunday, January 28,
2007
102nd Annual Meeting
Time: 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Location: Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
Cambridge's
Dana Family:
History! Mystery! Scandal! Local Color!
Our
speaker was Rosamond W. Dana, a great-granddaughter of Richard Henry Dana
III, founding president of the Cambridge Historical Society.
Ms. Dana based her talk on her master's thesis, "Privileged Radicals: The Rebellious Times of Six Dana Siblings in Cambridge and New York in the Early 20th Century" (1991), and on her recent research into the letters and diaries of her great-grandfather Richard Henry Dana III.
He was the son of
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., the author of Two Years Before the Mast,
as well a the son-in-law of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Ms. Dana focused
on her great-grandfather's six children and how they reacted to their
heritage as grandchildren of both Mast Dana and Longfellow.
There was a short business meeting which included the election of the Society's governing council.
Refreshments included sweets donated by members and Taza Chocolate.
Ongoing
Tours of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
Tuesday and Thursday at 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.
$5 for adults, $3 for students, and free for CHS members.
Call to arrange a group tour.
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