history

Watertown

In July of 1630, an English expedition established a colony on the homelands of the Pequossette and Nonantum groups of the Massachusett people. First known as Saltonstall Plantation, Watertown was one of the earliest Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements. While primarily…

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A busy corner on Harvard Street with young people passing by on the street.

Koreans

Corner of Harvard Avenue in Allston, an area often referred to as Boston's "Koreatown" and home of dozens of Korean-owned restaurants, businesses, and the Korean language newspaper, BostonKorea (building center left). Courtesy of Alastair Pike, NBC News.

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Painting of 19th century Waltham showing Boston Manufacturing Company on the banks of the Charles River

Waltham

View of the Boston Manufacturing Company ca. 1816, the first fully-integrated factory in the US that attracted thousands of immigrants to Waltham in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Image photographed by David Bohl, courtesy Gore Place and the…

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Quincy

From the 1820s until the mid-20th century, thousands of skilled immigrant stonecutters found jobs in Quincy's granite industry. Shown here are quarrymen coming up in a "boat" for dinner in the Granite Railway Quarry, ca. 1920-1930. Courtesy Thomas Crane Public…

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Global Eats

Cast members of the theatrical production “One Sunday Afternoon” celebrating at the Russian Bear Restaurant on Newbury Street in December 1933, just days after the end of Prohibition. This restaurant opened a year earlier under the ownership of Mrs. L.B.…

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Jews in the Shoe Trade

Thousands of Russian Jews came to Lynn to work in its shoe factories. The economic life of the Lynn Jewish community was inextricably linked to the shoe industry, which became the major source of the Jews’ upward economic mobility. Even…

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Lynn

Immigrant neighborhood in downtown Lynn, looking up Amity Street from Washington Street, ca 1900. Courtesy of Lynn Public Library.

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A 1922 postcard of the Central Square in Cambridge Mass. The postcard shows a busy street with many people waiting to board the streetcar in the middle of the street. On either side of the street are businesses and individuals walking on the sidewalks.

Cambridge

Central Square became Cambridge's largest commercial center in the early 20th century, serving growing immigrant communities from Ireland, Canada, Portugal, and the West Indies. After World War II, the Square and an adjoining area known as "the Port" would become…

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A postcard of Dorchester Avenue. A yellow streetcar travels down the street along with a horse-drawn wagon. On either side of the street are mixed-use buildings.

Dorchester

Postcard showing Dorchester Avenue near the corner of Savin Hill Avenue, ca 1913. Courtesy of the Dorchester Historical Society.

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