Three years ago, the streets, trains and parks of the Boston area were largely empty, as people stayed home as the pandemic exploded. Photographers across the region, though, did venture out to chronicle the newly formed voids.

MIT News recounts the story of the Roxbury Photographers Training Program, the subject of an exhibit at the MIT Museum.

The studio in the heart of Roxbury included a darkroom and a gallery. Students were well supplied with film and photographic equipment, with support from Polaroid Corporation.

In a report for and on the First Church in Roxbury, Aabid Allibhai chronicles some of the horrible exploits of the colonial founders of the church, including its founding minister, as enslavers of both Blacks and natives, from their involvement in the slave trade to owning slaves themselves, to giving away newborn Black children "like puppies." Read more.

The Boston City Archives has posted a transcript of an interview with John J. McClane, who started working as a Boston firefighter in 1901 and who recalled the transition from horse-drawn engines to motor-driven ones, in the days when Brighton was still home to abatoirs and cattle yards, where farmers from around the area would bring their cattle and sheep to be prepared for shipment to England - and then retire to the Faneuil House for some high-stakes poker.

In 1946, Warren Favor snapped this photo from South Street around to Washington Street and the Rialto Theatre. Read more.

A ferry sits along a snow-covered East Boston waterfront in 1911. Read more.

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene (some details that would make it obvious scribbled out). See it larger.

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.