Ceremonial time is the moment when past, present, and future can be perceived simultaneously. Experienced only rarely, usually during ancient dances or rituals, this escape from time is the gift of John Mitchells extraordinary writing. In this, his most magical book, he traces the life on a single spot in New England from the last ice age through years of Indians, shamans, and bears, to the ...
Winner of the Historic Preservation Book Award Winner of an ASLA Merit Award Originally published in 1989, this book offers an insightful inquiry into the in- tellectual and cultural origins of Mount Auburn Cemetery, the first landscape in the United States to be designed in the picturesque style. Inspired by developments in England and France, and founded in 1831, Mount Auburn became the ...
Thomas O'Connor draws on oral testimony and extensive written sources to provide an engaging yet objective look at the 350-year old history of "Southie," a neighborhood that has survived largely unchanged since the early days of immigrant Irish families and old-time political bosses.
Boston's Back Bay neighborhood is well known today for its upscale residences, high-rise office buildings, fine hotels, and excellent restaurants. Extending from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, and from the Charles River to the Amtrak and MBTA tracks, the neighborhood includes Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, Boylston Street, the John Hancock and Prudential towers, Copley Square, and ...
How is a sense of place created, imagined, and reinterpreted over time? That is the intriguing question addressed in this comprehensive look at the 400-year history of Salem, Massachusetts, and the experiences of fourteen generations of people who lived in a place mythologized in the public imagination by the horrific witch trials and executions of 1692 and 1693. But from its settlement in ...
From the Revolutionary War to the Big Dig, Boston and its people have played a colorful and often controversial role in shaping the nation's political, economic, and cultural landscape. Now Thomas H. O'Connor, the dean of Boston historians, takes the reader on a fascinating journey through his native city's rich heritage in this long-anticipated history. O'Connor's narrative reveals an ...
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) is recognized as the founder of American landscape architecture and the genius behind New York's Central Park. In 1883 Olmsted established "Fairsted" in suburban Boston, the world's first full-scale professional office for the practice of landscape design. Over the course of the next century, his sons and successors sustained and expanded upon Olmsted's design ...
Four men with the surname Whipple were in the American colonies by the early 1630s. This book is about one of those men: "Elder" John Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts and his 6,880 American descendants, covering 15 generations. In addition to these lineages, the book offers a social history of various family members beginning with John's father, Matthew, Sr., a successful Clothier of Bocking, ...
Two hundred and thirty-four striking photographs of the port of Boston combine with interpretive commentary to recapture the flavor, buoyancy, and excitement of the city's years as one of the two or three great American ports. After the Civil War Boston underwent a radical and successful transformation from a declining mercantile home port to an important and competitive modern seaport. At the ...