Walking Tour of Boston's North End

This past Friday, I braved the New England cold for a three hour walking tour of the North End of Boston and found that the quiet winter streets were ideal for wandering through the City. Context Boston offered me the tour to get my take on their recently launched historical seminars.

My e-mail contact described Context Boston as "a network of over 200 scholars and experts who create and lead walking seminars in cultural capitals in Europe and, now, the United States as an alternative to mass tours. Context connects intellectually curious travelers (and locals) with Ph.D. level experts for in-depth learning experiences..."

Perhaps I should not admit this, but I am not a tour guide kind of cultural heritage participant. I prefer experiencing a site on my own, doing my research ahead of time, carrying my guide book or brochure, and wandering through an institution or new city. I like going in blind, being led by serendipity and not another person with preconceived notions about what I should find interesting or a docent who tells me what parts of a history are the important parts. In other words, I am quite often the person in the back of the tour group who is reading my guide book while the group leader is speaking. (That's the part that I shouldn't admit, I think.) I thought that Context Boston might have their hands full with me, but I went in with an open-mind, choosing the walking tour of the North End over three others offered because of the area's immigrant history. As a former archivist of the immigrant City of Waltham, Massachusetts, I thought I'd be able to make some good connections in my knowledge of the subject. I had been to the North End many times as a former resident of Boston and a frequent visitor, but I was not well-versed in this particular area's community history.

Boston's North End is now known as a neighborhood composed mainly of people of Italian descent. Its contemporary standing in my mind focused on its restaurants, ethnic shops, and culinary festivals. Its history was remarkable to me for Copp's Hill Burial Ground, which is one of the oldest graveyards in the city and of particular interest to me because of my research in this area as a student, and of course for Paul Revere and his ride. The North End has a small, old-fashioned community feeling in a large city. I had invited a colleague to take the tour with me and she said that the area made her think of Brooklyn, New York. I think that is an apt comparison.  Despite this cozy sense on old narrow streets where neighbors can probably still yell across to each other from apartment to apartment (much like the stereotypical Prince spaghetti commercial from the 1970s), I always feel like an outsider when I venture through this area. I am not privy to the true character and inner happenings of the community as a wanderer on its streets, but our tour guide had the insider's view as a resident of the area, president of the recently established North End Historical Society, and writer of a book about the area's history.

The value of the Context Boston tour to me was this insider's view and the easy knowledge our resident expert had. He could not be stumped by any question (and I did try to stump him.) The very little he did not know, he would admit to and give us some other related tidbit that tied perfectly in to my questions. The guide could change directions on the fly. He tailored his tour to our interests, at first giving us some basic information and then ratcheting up the depth of his colorful descriptions when he realized that we had some historical knowledge of the area. The information he provided us ran the gamut from the 1600s to the present day and included multiple ethnic groups, who I pictured arriving on these shores pushed by the waves of the Atlantic. We talked about architecture, religion, city planning, business, and every other topic that relates to the development of a community. There was no script for our guide. He asked what we wanted to view (everything) and what we wanted to know (everything). He led the way, making sure to get in the necessary history to give us a good framework for understanding the subject, but also going off on the tangents we wanted. He was never rushed, but yet managed to finish the tour in the three hour time frame.

The story of the North End of Boston could be the story of any immigrant area in the United States, but the uniqueness of this particular community was made clear. Its early colonial history remains highly visible in the presence of Paul Revere's home and the Old North Church. It's African American roots are less visible up at the Copp's Hill burial ground. The legacy of its former Irish inhabitants are there in its street signs, old churches, and buildings once frequented by Kennedys. Our tour guide recalled the memories of the area's Jewish residents on streets where synagogues once stood. He even pointed out the last Jewish business owners in town to us. All the immigrant histories overlapped and all were neatly woven back and forth along the threads of time. The information we were given raced back and forth along the community's chronology as we rounded neighborhood corners and examined the architecture, objects, man-made and natural topography of the North End.

Though not one to take any old tour, I will again take one with Context. I have invited my husband to join me to discover the Brahmins of Boston in the spring and will seek out their tours in other cities that I visit. Their program was more of a college course by foot than the typical historical tour I've experienced in the past. I wandered the streets of Boston with an art history professor in my younger days, when everything was exciting to me and the teacher made every building come to life. Context Boston is on par with that experience of my youth. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in gaining a full understanding of a community and its history.
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For more information about my tour and for more images of Boston's North End see ArchivesInfo on Facebook

"Reading" into a Document - More Thoughts on "History is Personal"

Last month I wrote "History is Personal" in this blog, discussing how humans can relate ideas of a larger history to their own lives and can examine the past through their own family lens. As I prepare for an upcoming workshop that I am conducting with colleague Sue West, I keep delving deeper into the idea that history is personal, that the past informs one's present, and that individual history is important to a larger community.

In our class, Sue and I discuss using objects and archives as a launching point for documenting our lives. One item that I had stuffed in a "one day I plan to complete this genealogy research" folder is the document on the left. This is a copy of my grandfather's discharge papers from the U.S. Army in 1948. It is a public document. I have been told that my grandfather was displaced from his country because of the persecution of Jews in Europe and subsequently helped with cleanup after World War II. This document shows the very general information related to one man. It shows when this man was born, his height, his weight, his serial number and his immigration status. The paper was a formality, pronouncing his service and letting him move on. There is a copy of this item in the National Archives. It is one of many such records of individuals, documenting their service with the United States government.

This is also a unique document, representing an individual's life and embodying the hopes and dreams of his family. For one, the document can help set me down a trail to tracking more about my family story. The certificate says that my grandfather intended to settle in Palestine. Instead, his final home became the country he briefly served after the War. I do not have specifics about the journey here. I do know that these discharge papers represent a vital moment in my own personal history. They symbolize freedom and pride in who I am and from where I came. This document represents the struggle for the possibility of my existence.

Someone who stumbles across this manuscript in the Archives may not read into the document what I read into it. We each bring a unique perspective to what we read and what we read becomes clearer when we have more information upon which to base conclusions. Archives are important because they are the first hand accounts of humanity. Everything we know about history is (or should be) based on accurately recorded information. The content of this document and the related context of my grandfather's story can be examined from many angles by someone studying immigration, the Holocaust, the U.S. Army, my family, my story, the story of someone else in my family, or any other myriad related communities and subjects. It demonstrates how our "private" history is inextricably linked to a broader public history. Understanding that history is only properly done through analysis of what our ancestors leave us to study, we need to help ensure that proper documentation exists to allow us to thoroughly "read" the events of the past. History is indeed personal. The more we do to save our personal documentation to reflect our personal stories, and the more we do to simultaneously support the building of an accurate public documentary record, the more obvious that becomes.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop

This morning, as I was purchasing these photos at the local antique shop, the clerk asked me if I wanted them gift wrapped. I'm not sure to whom I would give these images, but it was a pleasant thought that someone else might appreciate them. Perhaps the first photo shown here could be given on the anniversary of friends with a note that says something such as, "I hope that you are always as happy as this couple appears to be."

Besides the historical aspects of these images I collect, I treasure them for the way they make me feel when I look at them. How could a woman not melt when her husband looks at her as this dashing gentleman looks at the woman beside him? Or, is this a son and mother image? (It's especially hard to tell with the man in profile.) I've talked in my More Finds at the Local Antique Shop "column" before about my trips of the imagination and these three images transport me once again. Also, as I so often lament, none of these photos are labeled. But at least that allows my imagination to take me anywhere.

I suppose that the couple had children. Perhaps they are away on vacation. Maybe grandma and grandpa are watching the kids play on the lawn behind the photographer. Perhaps, this could be a bed-and-breakfast or summer home similar to the one my grandmother occupied in the Catskills. This snapshot was taken quickly in a "wait! Stand there for a second" moment that didn't much rely on a well-formatted picture. But if this image were of me, it would be much treasured just the same. Their expressions and pose filled with warmth are what is most important for the camera to capture in this quick documentation of a moment in their lives.


I'm assuming that picture number two must capture a family reunion. The image was labeled 1890s, NH. I wonder from where all these people came. Was this image taken when everyone arrived? As they departed? Was there a fabulous offering of food in the house or a picnic on the lawn? What games did they play? How far did these people travel to get here? What are their relationships? How lovely would it be to have some archival materials to fill in the missing information? Did someone keep a diary that included mention of this event? Perhaps there was correspondence related to its planning. Were their copies of this image made for the family members and do they still exist somewhere in an ancestor's home?

Picture three brings me back to my archives roots in Waltham, Massachusetts. These gentleman remind me of the Italian families in that city. Immigrants often found work in the United States and sent money home to their families along with letters and photos. Were these men brothers? Did they send pictures home to their mother? Wives? Girlfriends? Families proudly dressed in their finery to record a special moment or relationship. Is that what is going on here? If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, you can see the slightly tattered base of the photographer's backdrop and the rug he must have set out to make the image more "homey." Was this a traveling photographer or did these gentleman go to a studio for this image? Besides my questioning musings, this image is also appealing for the fine mustaches and fabulous three piece suit fashions. I just couldn't resist...