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The Story of How Hebrew Almost Became the Official U.S. Language
Just after the turn of the 19th century, an English essayist named William Gifford reported that Americans during the Revolution planned to substitute Hebrew as the official language of the United...
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Morgan Bulkeley, The Crowbar Governor
Success came easily to Morgan Bulkeley, but still he had to crowbar his way into the Connecticut governor’s office. Literally. He ran for governor of Connecticut and mayor of Hartford at the same time...
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Why the Ghost of Eugene O’Neill Haunts a BU Dorm
Eugene O’Neill lay dying in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel in Boston just before Thanksgiving in 1953. For years he had suffered from depression and what was diagnosed as Parkinson’s Disease, but was...
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The Green Book Guides African-Americans to Safety in New England (and Elsewhere)
African-Americans driving through New England from the 1930s to the 1960s carried the Green Book to guide them to friendly hotels, restaurants and service stations. It was a time when they might find...
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Pass the Tourtiere, C’est Le Reveillon!
For many, many years, le reveillon was the way Franco-Americans ushered in New Year’s Day in New England’s Little Canadas. The reveillon is a long, late dinner preceding a holiday, and central to it...
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The Almanac, Indispensable Day Planner for the Busy Colonist
When John Winthrop set foot on the shores of Salem in 1630, he carried with him an out-of-date almanac that had belonged to Adam Winthrop, his father. Like many Englishmen, Adam Winthrop carried a...
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The Mark Twain Burglary Goes Comically Awry
The Mark Twain burglary of 1908 is remembered for the witty notice the author tacked onto his dining room door for the next home invader. However, the reminiscences of the burglar – a Mark Twain...
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U-Boat Attacks Of World War II: 6 Months of Secret Terror in the Atlantic
On Jan. 13, 1942, German U-boat attacks officially started against merchant ships along the East Coast of North America. From then until early August, Nazi U-boats dominated the waters off the East...
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In 1863, Anna Dickinson Takes New England by Storm
In 1863 with the country locked in Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s party desperately needed political support. To get it, the Republicans turned to a 19-year-old Quaker girl, Anna Dickinson, who was a...
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Geraldine Farrar, the Women Who Put the Fight Into Carmen
Until diva Geraldine Farrar duked it out with screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson on film, the opera Carmen was staged without the brawl between the two pretty cigar factory workers. The two women, born...
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The 21 New England Capitals
New England cities and towns used to vie for state capitals the way they now court sports stadiums, with the result that 21 New England capitals graced the land since Europeans settled the region....
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Eat Like A President, Part II
In honor of President’s Day, the New England Historical Society brings you another guide to how to eat like a president. This year our focus is on New England presidents beginning with John Adams and...
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John Brown Warns the Congress about Traitorous Benedict Arnold – and No One...
In December of 1776, Colonel John Brown of Pittsfield, Mass. made an allegation against Connecticut’s General Benedict Arnold so shocking it seemed ridiculous. During the attack on Fort Ticonderoga,...
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Was Bundling in Winter Really Less Dangerous Than a Sofa in Summer?
Few of New England’s folk customs caused the gentry as much embarrassment as the practice of bundling. It was considered a practice of unrefined rustics, sneered at by city slickers and the upper...
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Al Capp Invents Sadie Hawkins Day — Sort Of
Centuries before Al Capp started the Sadie Hawkins Day fad in his Li’l Abner comic strip, women in Scotland and Ireland asked men to marry them during Leap Years. At least, that’s how the story goes....
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Al Marder, The Oldest Living Communist Victim of the Red Scare
Al Marder at 94 years old is a World War II veteran, president of the Amistad Committee, chairman of Connecticut’s Freedom Trail and one of the last surviving Communists persecuted during the Red...
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A Brief History of Town Meeting, From Election Cake to Lemon Meringue Pie
Town Meeting wasn’t exactly what the Puritans had in mind when they came to New England to build their cities on a hill. Samuel Stone, who came over with Thomas Hooker and John Cotton, described the...
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The Puritanical Controversy Over the Meetinghouse Stove
Perhaps nothing revealed the puritanical contempt for comfort so much as the absence of a meetinghouse stove. The Puritans believed their religious zeal could warm them in unheated buildings, even in...
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When Greenwich Kicked Out the United Nations
Peace after World War II was shattered in Greenwich, Conn., when a United Nations site committee started looking at land for its new headquarters in the tony suburb. The news came in December 1945 to...
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Flashback Photos: The Carnegie Libraries of New England
Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the mayor of Worcester, Mass., was so eager for a Carnegie library in his city that he sailed to Scotland to personally deliver his funding request to...
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