Getting around in Cambridge: what do you want to know?

In the coming weeks, I will be posting about the history of transportation, particularly public transit, in Cambridge, from toll roads to the horse-drawn street railway to the Red Line.


There are many routes this post could go in (pardon the pun), from the 1830's legal controversy over the right to build toll bridges to the 1960's origin of young people hanging out in "the pit" surrounding Harvard Station. Depending on what I decide to cover, this may be one post or a series.


Do you have any questions about the history of transportation in the area? Are there subjects in particular you want to know more about? Please let me know in the comments!

Guest blog posts at The Uncataloged Museum

February 9 update -- my second guest post is up!

January 18 --
For those of you interested in art or in museums, please check out my three guest posts at The Uncataloged Museum, about my experiences as a docent at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (Gardner herself is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery... I'll keep you updated if I find any more Cambridge connections). Here's an excerpt from the first post:

As a museum professional, I believe that working directly with visitors should be a lifelong practice for me.  I had thought for a long time that I might want to volunteer at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a small, beautiful Boston institution full of art from all time periods. Until recently, I had too many other things going on in my life, including being a tour guide at two history museums, but this fall, after starting a desk job, I realized now might be the time. It’s also a very exciting time to be at the Gardner, because they just completed a new wing, opening to the public on January 19. They recruited a large group of new volunteers, and I applied just in time. In November and December, I attended a series of trainings to get oriented to the museum’s story, the collection, and how to help visitors have a great experience.

While I’m excited to get involved at the Gardner, I’m a historian, and there’s a voice in my head asking,  “What do I know about art?

read on in my post, Learning to Talk About Art.

Some Christmas Cheer from Winslow Homer, a Cambridge Native

     As a history researcher, I often find that libraries are a gift -- and their online collections are a gift as well! The following images, originally published in Harper's Weekly in the late 1850's, are in the Boston Public Library's Winslow Homer collection, which is available to view on their flickr photostream.*

     Winslow Homer was born in Boston in 1836, and he grew up in Cambridge,  on the Old Cambridge side of the gray area between that neighborhood and Cambridgeport [1] (see this post for an overview of the Cambridge of his childhood). At age nineteen, he was apprenticed to a commercial lithographer, creating prints from metal plates. He began working as a freelance illustrator in 1857.[2] The wood engraving prints here are from the early years of his career.  

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, 1859

 

 My favorite part about this image is the holly framing the individual scenes.

    In 1859, Homer moved to New York, where he continued working as an illustrator, studied life drawing at the National Academy of Design, and briefly studied under the painter Frédéric Rondel. He worked for Harper's Weekly for over twenty years, and during the Civil War he served as a special correspondent, visiting the front and illustrating scenes from the daily life of the Army of the Potomac.[3] After the war, he turned more seriously to watercolors and oil painting. He spent time living and working in Paris; Glouster, Massachusetts; England; New York; and Maine. While he lived in Maine, he also made regular visits to the tropics and to the Adirondacks in New York State. He continued painting his whole life.[4]

The Christmas Tree, 1858

If you have seen Winslow Homer's later work, particularly his paintings, you might agree that the figures in his early wood engraved scenes are much less graceful and expressive. If you're interested, I recommend this online exhibit. What I like best about many of his prints, however, including this one, is that there are so many little interactions going on between the characters. You see people talking, listening, reaching out, interrupting, or just quietly reflecting in the glow of the candles.

     Wood engraving, a technique developed in the late 18th century, is a printmaking process in which the wood is cut away where there will be white space in the finished product. It is a form of woodcut printing, but wood engraving is done on the hard end of the block, against the grain, and woodcuts are usually done in the softer side of the block. Because of this, the engraving tools are somewhat different. Wood engraving blocks are ideal for printing over and over again, making them a common method of reproducing images for newspapers in the nineteenth century. [5]

Christmas -- Gathering Evergreens, 1858

I think this is my favorite of this set. The little lines of the engraving capture the needles of the trees perfectly. I like the contrast between the gentle curves of the tall, bare tree on the right and the rough, craggy boulders next to it. I also like the shadows in the snow. I'm impressed by the apparent skill of the pair making wreaths; that's a difficult task.

    What do you like - or dislike -- about these images? Do they evoke Christmastime for you?

    To those of you who celebrate Christmas, have a merry one!

* The images themselves are public domain. The digital photographs of the Boston Public Library's copies of those images are  considered some rights reserved.

1.  Downes, William Howe. The Life and Works of Winslow Homer. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911.

2. Boston Public Library Flickr sets, Winslow Homer Prints and Paintings. Accessed 12/21/2011.

3. Ibid.

4. National Gallery of Art online. Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art. 

  Accessed 12/21/2011.

5.Griffiths, Antony. Prints and Printmaking: an introduction to the history and techniques. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996.