Aeroplane Fever (episode 144)

Sky Jockeys, Knights of the Air, and Man-Birds were just a few of the terms that newspapers around the country used to describe the early aviators who converged on Boston in September 1910.  The first Harvard-Boston Aero Meet was the largest and most exciting air show that the world had ever seen, and it left Boston gripped by a bad case of aeroplane fever.  Famous pilots from the US and around the world, including even Wilbur Wright, would compete for cash prizes in a number of categories, including a high-stakes race to Boston Light in the outer harbor.  Tens of thousands of spectators gawked at the spectacle, reporters provided breathless coverage, and the military watched carefully to see if these newfangled flying machines could ever be useful in warfare.  The event was so successful that the organizers extended it by three days beyond what was originally scheduled, then followup meets were scheduled for the next two years.


Aeroplane Fever

Boston Book Club

A few months ago, we featured the book The Race Underground, by Doug Most. It details the race between Boston and New York to build the nation’s first subway system. We just discovered the PBS American Experience documentary based on the book, which was released in 2017, which is described as follows:

In the late 19th century, as America’s teeming cities grew increasingly congested, the time had come to replace the nostalgic horse-drawn trolleys with a faster, cleaner, safer, and more efficient form of transportation. Ultimately, it was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America’s first subway. Based in part on Doug Most’s acclaimed book of the same name, The Race Underground tells the dramatic story of an invention that changed the lives of millions.

Love it or hate it, the T is intrinsic to the Boston experience. To give context for the film, PBS offers several interesting articles and features on related subject matter, including Benjamin M. Schmidt’s article “What the Maps Miss,”  which examines how subway maps have led city dwellers to develop mental maps that are very different from geography, and it includes an overlay of a distorted T map on Google maps to illustrate his points.

The film can be viewed on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and the film and supporting material are available on PBS. 

Upcoming Event

As you know by now, Increase and Cotton Mather cast a long shadow over the early history of Boston. Through his prolific writing, Cotton is a source for researching the religion, history, and even science of the Bay colony in the 17th and 18th centuries.  On August 9, a lunchtime talk at Massachusetts Historical Society will focus on one of Cotton’s most influential religious writings, and it will be led by Dr. Jan Stievermann, who’s a professor of the history of American Christianity at Heidelberg University in Germany.  

The talk is titled “Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana 1693-1728: America’s First Bible Commentary and Storehouse of Early-Modern Learning,” and it draws on Professor Stievermann’s recent book exploring Mather’s landmark work.  Here’s how the MHS describes the event:

With the ongoing edition of Cotton Mather’s massive Biblia Americana scholars of early America are now gaining access to the first comprehensive Bible commentary produced in the colonies. This talk will give an introduction to the riches of the Biblia as a source for the study of colonial New England and its place in early-modern intellectual history.

The event begins at noon on Friday.  It’s free and open to the public, and pack a lunch to enjoy while Dr. Stievermann is giving his talk.