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Revolutionary Spaces connects people to the history and continuing practice of democracy through the interwoven stories of Boston’s Old State House and Old South Meeting House.


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Boston Reconsidered Blog

  • Interview with Dr. Jacqueline Beatty
    Interview with Dr. Jacqueline Beatty
    Sitting down with Dr. Jacqueline Beatty to talk about her book “In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America.”
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  • Meet Polly: The Polly Sumner Doll Reproduction Project
    Meet Polly: The Polly Sumner Doll Reproduction Project
    In early 2022, Revolutionary Spaces received a generous gift from Rick Wiggin, former Executive Director of the Bostonian Society, to create a reproduction of the Polly Sumner doll.
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  • Abolitionist Petitioning and the Gag Rule
    Abolitionist Petitioning and the Gag Rule
    While petitions played an important role in the abolitionist movement, the Gag Rules of the 19th century and free speech debates in the 20th century have only diminished their power further. How did our nation’s petitioning culture change so radically?
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  • The Boston Massacre and Modern Police Violence
    The Boston Massacre and Modern Police Violence
    The most famous incident of gun violence in American history is undoubtedly the Boston Massacre. But violence perpetrated by the state didn’t end with British rule; we are all too familiar with it in the 21st century.
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  • The Massachusetts State House “Sacred Cod”
    The Massachusetts State House “Sacred Cod”
    Despite its relative obscurity, the “Sacred Cod” that hangs in the Chamber of the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts State House has served a valuable purpose for legislators for over two hundred years.
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  • On Protest in the Streets of Boston
    On Protest in the Streets of Boston
    By Nathaniel Sheidley, President & CEO The two city blocks connecting these national landmarks – Boston’s Old State House and Old South Meeting House – are hallowed ground for our American tradition of protest. On August 14, 1765, a crowd protesting the hated Stamp Act walked this same path.  They began at Liberty Tree, a great elm ...
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  • How to Care for Your Home Library
    How to Care for Your Home Library
    By Nicole McAllister, Special Collections Librarian We have them all over our homes, we probably don’t think too much about them, and they are there when we need them – it’s our books! Books are a great resource for reference, self-improvement, and a fun escape.  And there’s no better time to think about how to ...
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  • Conserving the Memory of Crispus Attucks
    Conserving the Memory of Crispus Attucks
    By Jill Conley, Registrar & Collections Manager; and Nicole McAllister, Special Collections Librarian On March 6, 1770, the day after the Boston Massacre, the coroner filed an autopsy report for Crispus Attucks, a formerly enslaved man of African and Native descent who was the first to die at the “Incident on King Street.” In the autopsy ...
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  • 18th Century vs. Today
    18th Century vs. Today
    Margaret Kemble Gage & Meghan Markle During the Revolution, many Colonists found their loyalties tested due to the strain between being legally and socially British citizens yet also being American colonists. This tension was felt across all social classes, and one example is the complicated position wherein Margaret Kemble Gage found herself. Born to a wealthy ...
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