History

John F. Kennedy and the Declaration of Independence

Via BostonMaggie: Sen. John Kennedy reads the Declaration of Independence in 1957:


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Opening a time capsule in Roxbury

Rushing

State Rep. Byron Rushing holds up a 1922 newspaper. Photo by Third Decade.

Third Decade reports on what was inside a 1922 time capsule opened today at the Ferdinand building in Dudley Square:

... The Mayor and Rep. Rushing pulled out copies of the Boston Evening Transcript and the Boston Post, furniture advertisements from Ferdinand's Blue Store, and a list of employees from Ferdinand's Blue Store. ...

Next up: Figuring out what to put in a new time capsule.

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What is it?

On top of the world

Downtown Boston is just full of symbols from the past. Take this relief on the side of the Flour and Grain Exchange building. On the top, an eagle, showing our strength. On the left, Neptune's trident, symbolizing Boston's role as a seaport, and Mercury's caduceus, calling for protection for our traders (Mercury is the god of merchants and he carried a caduceus), atop, of course, the bounty once traded in the building. On the right, there's a ship's mast, a fish, the money used to buy and sell all the grains and fruits and, in between them, um, what are those things? Anybody know?

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James Michael Curley not the only scoundrel to live in a mansion near Jamaica Pond

Interesting account of a 19th-century JP mogul exposed as a champagne smuggler.

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Movie to be filmed in the Boston area to actually be about the Boston area

Movie about Paul Revere's ride slated for filming this fall.

"The goal is to shoot in Massachusetts," said Dawson, who mentioned Concord and Lexington as areas of interest. "We have to make the numbers work."

Via Beantown Bloggery, who can't fathom the idea they would actually film this anywhere else:

No one wants to see him riding through the hills of Vermont to warn about the British.

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A good location for the Phantom Tollbooth

Wade Roush walks around, photographs the ghost cloverleaf of Canton, built for the Highway that Never Was - the Southwest Expressway meant to gouge through Boston and Cambridge (along the route of today's Orange Line, basically).

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You can always tell a Harvard man, and if he's a freshman, you can tell him what to do

J.L. Bell posts a copy of the official rules for Harvard freshmen in 1741, such as:

No Freshman shall be saucy to his Senior, or speak to him with his hat on.

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One if by land ...

Revere

Faegirl spots the modern-day Paul Revere after he rowed across the Harbor to Charlestown.

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