The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out what's happening in this photo, and when.
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History
By adamg - 12/28/15 - 11:50 am
A travelogue of sorts from 1970, narrated by Edwin Land himself, that concludes with him walking us around the plans for a new Polaroid factory in Norwood. Around 12:00, he discusses the future of photography, including cameras that would fit in a pocket, "something like a telephone, that you would use all day long. ... a camera that you would use as often as a pencil, or your eyeglasses" (but still one that spits out everything on film).
Via Boston Reddit.
By adamg - 12/27/15 - 7:18 pm
The Ladd Observatory takes some time to tell us about how clocks in the Boston area used to be calibrated with the dropping of the daily noon time-ball from the roof of a downtown building, first a long-gone building at Devonshire and Milk and later from what is now the Ames Hotel at Washington and Court streets.
By adamg - 12/27/15 - 1:09 pm
J.L. Bell ponders who might have been taking notes during discussions of patriots leading up to the Boston Tea Party and forwarding them to His Majesty's Government.
By adamg - 12/25/15 - 9:59 am
Mayor Curley, his wife Mary and son Francis X. celebrate Christmas.
John White notes:
A somewhat tragic figure, his father wanted him to be a pol; he wanted to be a Jesuit.
From the BPL's Leslie Jones collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.
By adamg - 12/15/15 - 11:10 am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo. See it larger.
By adamg - 12/9/15 - 10:59 pm
John Sonderman took a walk around the Copp's Hill Burying Ground in the North End.
Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
By adamg - 12/9/15 - 1:18 pm
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this photo.
By Michael Kerpan - 12/7/15 - 10:43 pm
... but the rest of the country ... not so much.
http://wgbhnews.org/post/charles-dickens-wasnt-impressed-america-he-love...
Not only does he paint a rather dire depiction of (most of) America in his American Notes, but also in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit (which also features a template for the relationship of Frodo and Sam Gamgee, as they roam the darker corners of Middle Earth).
By adamg - 12/5/15 - 6:02 pm
On Feb. 11, 1932, news photographer Leslie Jones watched federal agents dismantle an illegal speakeasy, "the most elaborate joint ever built in Boston," at the corner of Causeway and Haverhill streets, across from the Garden and North Station.
About a year and half later, on Dec. 5, 1933, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring the end of Prohibition. Read more.
By adamg - 12/5/15 - 10:14 am
Horse cars in Park Square around 1880. Photo from the BPL.
Kimberly Arleth at the Massachusetts Historical Society recounts the days of horse railroads in Massachusetts and wonders if they would have fared better over the past winter than our current electrified trains.
By adamg - 12/3/15 - 11:37 am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out what's going on in this photo, and when.
By adamg - 12/1/15 - 10:47 am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out what's going on in this photo and when.
By adamg - 11/26/15 - 1:30 pm
Thanksgiving on Ward T at Boston City Hospital in 1897.
From the City of Boston Archives. Posted under this Creative Commons license.
By adamg - 11/25/15 - 8:39 am
Back in the day, the first floor of Faneuil Hall was the place where Bostonians could buy fresh meat and poultry. In 1952, Leslie Jones captured the scene when Mr. Kelley, of Thresher & Kelley Market, showed off his Thanksgiving turkeys to a mother and her kids.
From the BPL's Leslie Jones collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.
By adamg - 11/23/15 - 10:16 am
It's pretty obvious where this photo was taken. The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you know when it was taken and what's going on.
By adamg - 11/22/15 - 10:55 am
RoadTrip New England updates a bit of Brighton history on Market Street.
By adamg - 11/20/15 - 11:04 am
When German immigrant Jacob Wirth started his eponymous restaurant in 1868, he offered both food and what we'd now probably call artisanal beer. That's Herr Wirth himself in the poster, in front of his restaurant on Eliot Street - a long-gone street across from the present location on Stuart Street. Read more.
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