The City Record and Boston News-Letter

Stony Brook History Website

I've written previously about the Stony Brook, which runs through Jamaica Plain, but now there is a website devoted to its history.  Stony Brook: Gone But Not Forgotten is a fascinating look at one waterway throughout Boston's history.  As I wrote in a earlier post, "when we envision what Boston looked like one hundred or two hundred years ago, we generally neglect to add in the topographical features that have been obscured by development.  Numerous waterways, some large, some small, drained into Boston Harbor, or the Neponset and Charles Rivers.  For the most part, these waterways have been filled in, paved over, or diverted into sewers.  Being diverted into a sewer was the fate of the Stony Brook."  Stony Brook: Gone But Not Forgotten helps uncover that history and is well worth visting.

Historic House Museum Conference at the Boston Athenaeum

Some of my readers might be interested in the upcoming conference at the Boston Athenaeum:

New Audiences for Old Houses:  Building a Future with the Past"                                     

The symposium addresses audience cultivation and development in historic house museums. Guest speakers look to both the past and present in their assessment of the changing audiences of historic houses. Topics of discussion include the history of house museum interpretation and audience experience, the institutional developments that affect and are affected by changing audiences and societal demands, and the current and prospective audiences of historic house museums in contemporary society.

Date:    September 28, 2007   8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.                                                                               

Location:    The Boston Athenaeum  10 ½ Beacon Street, Boston, MA                                                      

Sponsors:      The Nichols House Museum
                    The Boston University Art History Department and Preservation Studies Program
                    The Boston Athenaeum                                                                                                   

Speakers & Lecture Titles:

Cary Carson  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, (ret.)
"The End of History Museums: What's Plan B?"

Reena Suleman    Curator of Collections and Research, Leighton House Museum, London, England
"Leighton House Museum and the New Connoisseurship"

John Walton    Professor, Humanities Department, University of Central Lancashire, England
"Recovering the Popular Past: The Beamish Open-Air Museum in its British Context"

Giles Waterfield  Director, Royal Collection Studies, Attingham Trust, England
"The Country House in Britain - Yesterday and Tomorrow"

Patricia West   Curator, National Park Service, USA
"A Thing of the Past: The Beginning of History Museums"

Registration Fee                     $100

REGISTRATION FORM - Registration instructions included on form.

This event is sponsored in part by grants from The Humanities Foundation at Boston University and The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

For more information, please contact The Nichols House Museum  617.227.6993, [email protected]