Mass State House designed by Bulfinch © Steve Dunwell
Original time capsule – a small box – retrieved from foundation of the Massachusetts State House yesterday. Placed there in 1795 by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, among others.
State House, Boston, MA
Designed by Charles Bulfinch. Cornerstone laid on July 4, 1795, with Paul Revere and Gov. Sam Adams presiding. This view is from a banjo clock, ca. 1870. Painted on glass, it shows the view from the Boston Common. The original dome was copper, from Revere’s workshop.
Constitution, with sails, Boston
USS Constitution, with sails up, during the commemoration of the battle with Guerriere, August, 1812. Constitution will go into drydock this winter, for two years of restoration work.
Battle of Bunker Hill
June 16, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill. British troops attacked the fortified hill top, with disastrous results. The colonial militia was finally pushed back, but the British suffered 800 injured and 226 killed. This painting, by John Trumbull, is in the Yale Art Museum.
on Memorial day, consider the 54th Regiment of African-American soldiers, led by Col. Robert G. Shaw. They went south on May 28, 1863, to fight in South Carolina. Their first attack, at Fort Wagner, was a disaster. Monumental bas-relief by Augustus St. Gaudens, on Beacon St.
Tonight – April 18 – anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous “Midnight Ride” to Lexington, MA. This statue, near Old North Church, by Cyrus Dallin.
Translating “Boston Freedom Trail” into Chinese, with format for cell phone. Next languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic. Eminently readable.
On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to the public for the first time in Boston, from the Old State House, at 1PM. Colonel Thomas Crafts was the reader.
On March 5, 1770, troops occupying Boston to enforce the new British taxes fired into a mob of about sixty rowdy Bostonians, wounding eight and killing five. This circle marks the spot of the Boston Massacre, just in front of the Old State House.
The Old Granary Granary contains the earliest casualties of rebellion. Victims of the Boston Massacre and the Battle of Bunker Hill lie here, alongside Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and James Otis.