Author: jake

The Lincoln of Ireland at Fenway Park (episode 303)

105 years ago this month, Irish President Eamon De Valera embarked on an 18-month tour of the United States, starting with a visit to Boston.  His goals were to raise funds for the Irish Republic, gain international recognition, and garner support for Irish independence from British rule.  De Valera’s visit to Boston included a massive rally at Fenway Park, a speech to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and visits to historical sites.  Despite facing challenges, such as his questionable immigration status and opposition from Yankee-aligned politicians, the tour was a success, laying the groundwork for nearly a century of American support for Irish republicanism before the Good Friday accords finally brought the Troubles to an end.


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General Patton Invades Boston (episode 302)

On the first anniversary of D-Day, Boston was feeling festive. Yes, there was a somber editorial cartoon in the Globe picturing an allied cemetery in Normandy to remind people of the sacrifices that the nation had made, but Germany had just surrendered, making the sacrifice seem worthwhile. Now, on D+1 (or was it D+366?), the city would turn out to hail a conquering hero, as General George S Patton, Junior set foot on American soil for the first time in two and a half years. His speech in Boston honored the city’s wounded veterans but managed to deeply offend gold star families whose sons, fathers, and brothers had died under Patton’s command. Was this a simple slip of the tongue or a symptom of a deeper and more concerning malady, a closely guarded and dark secret?


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Around the World With a Less Famous Revere (episode 301)

Joseph Warren Revere was a Boston boy, but a military career kept him from spending much of his adult life here.  He was the grandson of the famous Paul Revere and named after the secular saint Joseph Warren.  As a young Navy officer on the USS Constitution, he fought slavers and pirates, discovered buried treasure, met a czar, and almost killed a king.  Falling in love with California while serving in the Mexican-American War, he made a small fortune during the Gold Rush, while getting mired in scandal.  By the time he served as a union general in the US Civil War, Revere had fought under the flag of three nations.  He had seen war on four continents, discovered a fifth, and traveled to all of them.  He had dined sumptuously with monarchs and nobles, and broken bread with native peoples around the world.  He was a skilled artist and map maker, and an aggressive combat leader.  None of those accomplishments, however, could save his career from an ignominious end amongst charges of cowardice after the battle of Chancellorsville.


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Seismic Boston (episode 300)

Did you feel an earthquake in Boston on April 5, 2024?  Depending on where you were at the time, you might have felt nothing or you might have noticed a mild tremor.  While we think of Boston earthquakes as a punchline and damaging quakes as a California problem, that hasn’t always been the case.  Imagine an earthquake that comes on with the sound of rolling thunder, one where the ground heaved like waves on an angry sea, throwing people to the ground, opening up fissures in the earth, and triggering a tsunami that affects distant shores.  This was the experience of Boston during the great Cape Ann earthquake of 1755, and the effects of a similar seismic shock in modern Boston could be simply catastrophic.


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Starlit Old North

During the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Boston bustled with fireworks, concerts, and historical reenactments, while a unique spectacle quietly unfolded at the Old North Church. The iconic lanterns, forever linked to Paul Revere’s midnight ride, were illuminated not by candlelight, but by the distant light of a star some 200 light-years away. This episode explores the technological challenges involved in capturing starlight and converting it into an electrical signal that traveled thousands of miles, as well as the promotional challenges for Hawaiian officials who wanted to feel like part of the bicentennial celebration. Buckle up, as we journey from the volcanic peak of Mauna Kea to the heart of revolutionary Boston, all under the ethereal glow of a distant star.


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Eclipse Fever (episode 298)

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 sun’s 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.


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Recent Archaeological Discoveries at Shirley Place, with Joseph Bagley (episode 297)

This week I’m 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 governor’s residence, as well as evidence of the home’s original location before it was moved into its current position in the 19th century.  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 house’s original location across Shirley street.  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.  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.  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.


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Cotton Mather and the Women He Loved, with Helen Gelinas (episode 296)

I’m 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.  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 Boston’s most eligible widowers, who was pursued aggressively by suitors.


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A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire, with Professor Adrian Chastain Weimer (episode 295)

In this episode, I’m joined by Professor Adrian Chastain Weimer, author of the recent book A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire.  The book focuses on the period just after King Charles II returned the Stuarts to the English throne, during which he when he sought revenge against Boston Puritans for their perceived role in the execution of his father.  Decades before the absolute rule of Edmund Andros, the crown sent four royal commissioners to Boston with secret orders that would upend every facet of public life, from voting to worship to the code of laws.  Our conversation explores how the colonists defended their liberty within the constitutional system of colonial Massachusetts under restoration rule.


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The Rise and Fall of Black Boston’s First Hospital (episode 294)

Despite the name, Plymouth Hospital was a South End institution.  As the first training school for Black nurses in segregated Boston, Plymouth provided a needed service to an underserved community, led by a medical pioneer.  Dr. Cornelius Nathanial Garland moved to Boston from the deep south to seek opportunity, but while he found opportunity in the Hub, he also found a deeply segregated medical establishment.  To fight against this system and provide opportunities for Black Bostonians in medicine, he founded a hospital and nursing school.  However, the most radical civil rights leader in Boston would accuse Garland of reinforcing that very same system of segregated medicine.


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