Print, Vue de Boston by Franz Xaver Habermann 1770s 2017.0001.001 This etching, likely created in the 1770s, is said to depict the Old State House and King Street (now known as State Street) in Boston, Massachusetts. Interestingly, nothing in the depiction is accurate; the artist was German and seemingly never visited Boston, nor did he use an …
Keystone (Corbel) from the Old State House c. 1713 0005.1959.010 The exterior of the Old State House has a surprising feature hiding in plain sight! Circling each of the round windows are four unique faces carved in limestone. These keystones provide structural support for the window frames, but also reflect the creativity of the stonemasons. …
“Pick Up Sticks” Game Pieces Nineteenth century 1937.0036.001-.038 These tiny wooden implements, playing pieces for a game of pick up sticks or jackstraw, were carved from wood salvaged from the John Hancock home on Beacon Street in Boston. The house remained in the family after Hancock’s death in 1793, but was ultimately sold in 1859 …
Sampler made by Lydia Hutchinson 1730 1885.0125 Samplers are works of embroidery that often contain a combination of letters, numbers, pictures, and rhymes. Young women and girls would often make samplers as part of their education during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, typically as a way to learn letters and numbers while practicing their …
“Thompson the Abolitionist” Broadside 1835 MS0119.DC973.7114 On October 21, 1835, George Donisthorpe Thompson, a British abolitionist, arrived in Boston to give an anti-slavery lecture at the invitation of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. The lecture was to take place at the offices of The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison. This broadside reflected …
Benjamin Colman Sermon to Pirates July 10, 1726 VAULT BV 4262 .C64 To kick things off, we have this sermon pamphlet, one of many from the eighteenth century in the Rev Spaces collection. Sermons were often written down and pamphlets of the transcriptions produced after the fact, so that churchgoers could experience their favorite sermons …