Among the many medical breakthroughs that are attributed to Boston, surgical anesthesia is among the most impactful. It’s hard to overstate the importance in medical history of ether for the treatment of pain, particularly for those undergoing surgical procedures. Many believe that this technique was pioneered at MGH under the famous Ether Dome, but history tells us a different origin story.
Tag: 19th Century
Lincoln and Booth and Boston (episode 128)
This episode is being released on April 14, 2019, which means that Abraham Lincoln was shot 154 years ago today. Â Thatâs why weâre talking about the links between the Lincoln assassination and the city of Boston. Â President Lincoln, his assassin John Wilkes Booth, and Boston Corbett, the man who killed Booth, all had transformative experiences in Boston. Â
BPL Bonus Episode: Grand Peace Jubilee
Join us at the Boston Public Library to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Grand National Peace Jubilee held in Copley Square in 1869. Â The Peace Jubilee was a week-long musical celebration of the Union victory in the Civil War. It was a concert of unprecedented scale, performed before an audience of up to 50,000 in a purpose-built Coliseum in the Back Bay that was one of the largest buildings in the world. Â People came from far and wide to take in the spectacle, including President Ulysses S Grant and many other dignitaries. The climax of the show was a piece by Verdi called the Anvil Chorus. Jubilee director Patrick Gilmore conducted 10,000 vocalists, who were backed by 1000 instrumentalists, a battery of cannons, a convocation of church bells, a custom made bass drum eight feet in diameter, the worldâs largest pipe organ, and a company of 100 Boston firefighters carrying sledgehammers and pounding anvils in unison. Â
To help celebrate the 150th anniversary of this musical spectacular, the Associates of the Boston Public Library are throwing a party at the Copley branch of the BPL on March 29. Â Nikki and I will be giving a brief talk discussing who Patrick Gilmore was, how he conceived of the enormous Coliseum where the Jubilee was held, and what the concert was like. Bostonâs poet laureate Porsha Olayiwola will give a reading, and the keynote address will be delivered by Theodore C. Landsmark. Â The highlight of the evening will be a musical performance by a brass band from the New England Conservatory of Music, featuring some of the same arrangements that were performed in 1869, complete with firemen hammering anvils.
If youâd like to join us at the BPL on Friday, March 29, make sure to pre-register. The event is free, but you have to pre-register to get in. Doors open at 7pm, and the program begins at 7:30. There will be a cash bar.
Our description of the Grand Peace Jubilee originally aired as episode 102.
Weird Neighborhood History (episode 124)
Instead of writing and recording a new episode, your humble hosts are going to History Camp this weekend. We’ll leave you with two stories about Bostonâs weird neighborhood history from our back catalog.  Weâll be sharing a story from Jamaica Plain about a politically motivated crime in the early 20th century that led to a series of running gunfights between the police and what the newspapers called âdesperadoes.â  Then, weâre going to move across town to Brighton, which — speaking of desperadoes — used to be home to saloons, card games, and hard drinking cowboys, when it hosted New Englandâs largest cattle market.
The Ursuline Convent Riot, revisited (episode 122)
This week weâre discussing the riots and destruction of Charlestownâs Ursuline convent, which we first covered back in January 2017. This episode touches on themes of xenophobia, anti-immigrant prejudice, and religious intolerance – lessons we can all learn from today. On a hot summer’s night in 1834, rumors swirled around a Catholic girls’ school in Charlestown.  Catholicism was a frightening, unfamiliar religion, and Catholic immigrants were viewed with great suspicion.  People said that the nuns were being held in slavery, or that Protestant children were being tortured and forcibly converted.  A crowd gathered, and violence flared.  When the sun rose the next morning, the Ursuline Convent lay in smoking ruins.  Thirteen men were tried, but none served time. What deep seated biases led Yankee Boston down this dark road?  Listen to this week’s episode to find out!
Continue reading The Ursuline Convent Riot, revisited (episode 122)
Lewis Latimer, Master Inventor (episode 120)
African American inventor and draftsman Lewis Latimerâs parents self-emancipated to give their children the opportunities afforded to those born into freedom. A Chelsea native, Latimerâs career took him from the Navy, to a patent law firm, to the prestigious circle of Thomas Edisonâs pioneers.
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Worst Case Scenarios (episode 118)
This week’s show revisits three classic episodes about disasters in Boston history. Weâll start with episode 21, which spotlighted the 1897 subway explosion on Tremont Street. Episode 39 discusses the tragedy at the Cocoanut Grove, followed by episode 91 on the collapse of the Pickwick nightclub. They key takeaway this week? Â We should all be thankful for modern building codes, safety measures, and government oversight.
David Walker’s Radical Appeal (episode 117)
David Walker was one of Americaâs first radical abolitionists, a free African American man who moved to Boston in 1824 to escape the danger and humiliations of life in the slave states. He became a prominent member of Black society in Boston before writing and distributing An Appeal to the Colored People of the World. This radical work called for the immediate abolition of slavery, and even advocated violence against whites to bring about emancipation. At the time, few white leaders were talking openly about ending slavery, and those who were favored gradual emancipation. Frederick Douglass would later say that the book âstartled the land like a trump of coming judgement,â and it shook the slaveowning society of the white South to the core.
Continue reading David Walker’s Radical Appeal (episode 117)
Horace Mann, Education Innovator (episode 116)
Boston has always been a city that valued education, and few people did as much to improve our educational system as Horace Mann. He started from modest means, living out the one-liner in Good Will Hunting about getting a $150,000 education for $1.50 in late fees at the library. Mann served as a tutor and a librarian before being elected to the Massachusetts legislature. It was, however, as the Commonwealth’s first Secretary of Education that Horace Mann transformed education in Massachusetts by fundamentally reforming how our teachers are trained. His method would eventually be adopted by much of the country. You’re welcome!
Continue reading Horace Mann, Education Innovator (episode 116)
Crossing the River Charles (episode 115)
What do you know about the earliest crossings over the Charles River in Boston? When it was founded, the town of Boston occupied the tip of the narrow Shawmut Peninsula, with the harbor on one side and the Charles RIver on the other.  Residents relied first on ferries, and later on a series of bridges to connect them with the surrounding towns and countryside. The progression of bridge construction illustrates not only the state of construction technology, but also the birth of corporations in America and a landmark Supreme Court case defining the limits of private property rights.