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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 16h

Maps: Plan of Boston (1837), Cities named Boston (2024), Map of Boston Township (1874), Boston, GA Georgia Aerial Photography Map (2021)
Sources: 6AM-BOSToday, AY Magazine, bostontownship.org, landsat.com

Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 16h

It is likewise doubtful that the multiple Bostons of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan are of English origin.

So, the next time someone tells you they’re from Boston, ask “Which one?”

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 16h

Most of the world’s Bostons likely share their namesake with either the Lincolnshire town or Boston, MA. However, not every Boston has an English origin. The name of the Boston Mountains in Arkansas, for instance, supposedly originates from the French word “bosse.”

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 16h

In the US alone, Ohio, New York, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, and of course Mass all have a “Boston” of their own. Other former British colonies like Australia, Canada, and South Africa are also home to a Boston.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 16h

Like many American towns, Boston was named after a city in England—Boston, Lincolnshire, one of the main origin points for the immigrants of the original Massachusetts Bay colony. However, there are more than two “Bostons” out there. In fact, there are over 16 cities named Boston across the globe!

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 16h

If you’re ever booking a flight to Boston, make sure you’re going to the right one! Wouldn’t wanna accidentally end up in Australia 🫠

#bpl #LMEC #maps #bostonmaps #localhistory #bostonhistory #bostonmuseum #thingstodoinboston #bostontourism

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 1d

You can see the church as it appeared in 1873 in our Atlascope tool ... which was itself the recipient of this award in 2023! From historic maps to historic buildings, Atlascope is a great window into how buildings and neighborhoods have changed over time in Boston. View now with the link in our bio

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 1d

King attended the church frequently as a doctoral student at Boston University and was mentored by TBC’s longtime pastor, Reverend Dr. William H. Hester. TBC moved into the church in 1957, but the restoration brings the church back to its appearance in 1873, when it was first built.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 1d

Among this year’s recipients are Boston City Hall and Twelfth Baptist Church (TBC) in Roxbury. Founded in 1840, TBC is the oldest direct descendent of the African Baptist Church, which was established in Boston in 1805 and is well-known as the “Boston home church” of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 1d

Each year, the Boston Preservation Alliance recognizes architecture projects that show “outstanding achievements in historic preservation and compatible new construction in Boston” with the Preservation Achievement Awards.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 1d

It can be nice to catch glimpses of the past in our everyday lives 🪞

Source: Boston Preservation Alliance
Map: Atlas of the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts, Vol. 2 (1873), Map of Boston [1886]
Images: Historic New England, Boston Preservation Alliance

#maps #bostonmaps #localhistory #architecture

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 4d

❗Join us this Friday, October 10, for a Map Collections Showing as we delve into cities, neighborhoods and regions that either had just or were soon to experience a massive disaster❗

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 7d

To accommodate the expo, some of Boston’s leading citizens built a venue called Mechanics Hall. After the exhibition, it continued to be used as an event space and remained standing until the 1960s, when it was razed for the construction of a new event center—Prudential Tower.

Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 7d

The 1883 exhibition wasn’t as grand as some of the more famous expos, but it did have some international traction, with notable stands from Japan and China. It certainly had a pretty big impact on Boston, if only because of the changes it brought to the emergent neighborhood of Back Bay.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 7d

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nearly every major country showed off its greatest inventions and innovations at yearly “world’s expos.” In 1883, Boston hosted the “American Exhibition of the Products, Arts and Manufactures of Foreign Nations.”

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 7d

Remember that time Boston hosted the world’s largest tech convention? Yeah, we don't either 🥲

Map: New map of Boston giving all points of interest... (1883)
Images: Digital Commonwealth, Historic New England, The Huntington

#bpl #LMEC #maps #bostonmaps #localhistory

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 8d

In the spaces of everyday life, people of different races, ages, genders, classes, and backgrounds experienced the Revolution in different ways and can be observed through the objects they used.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 8d

This musket ball, excavated from the Boston Common, was likely left behind by British soldiers in 1775. It may have been dropped during daily activities as the British Army tried to subdue the colonial rebellion. This ordinary object offers a glimpse into the British Army’s 10 month siege of Boston.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 8d

This powder horn, signed “E.B.,” belonged to a British soldier occupying Boston from 1775 to 1776. It’s likely that E.B. decorated this horn himself, even carving a crown to symbolize his loyalty to the king. He also inscribed his contempt for the Patriots: “A Pox on rebels in their [crimes]."

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 8d

This spoon, excavated from Faneuil Hall and engraved with a portrait of King George I, may have stirred tea with sugar produced by enslaved labor in the Caribbean, reflecting Boston’s ties to a wider empire built on slavery.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 8d

The Revolution had a significant impact on civic landmarks and the intimate spaces of daily life. Each of these physical objects has a geographic story to tell, representing the five scales of our Revolution-focused exhibition, Terrains of Independence.

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 8d

What are the odds the spoon you're using for your matcha will be a historic object one day? Well, it's greater than zero! ☝🏽😌

Objects: Pewter spoon with relief portrait of King George I [early 1700s], Powder horn with map of Boston and Charlestown (1777), Lead Musket Ball (1775)

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 12d

Satellite photos from 1995 form a new layer covering the entirety of Greater Boston. This pre-Big Dig view of Boston serves as a bridge between our most recent available atlas (1938) and modern aerial images. The 1995 satellite images show a very different Boston from today.

Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 12d

The 1798 Clough atlas is the oldest snapshot of the city out of any of our atlases. Completed between 1930-1940, Clough obtained documents from 1798 and pieced the information together in the form of this atlas. Clough's atlas offers a glimpse into Boston when it was still a town (not yet a city!).

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Leventhal Map & Education Center @bplmaps.bsky.social · 12d

Now the most recent and oldest views of the city we have to offer, 2 new atlas layers have been added to the Boston coverage of Atlascope! New layers are only added when they are detailed enough to zoom down to the level of a single building and find details not yet provided by existing layers.

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