From exploring the Boston Tea Party Museum to learning about the Salem Witch Trials at the House of Seven Gables, Massachusetts boasts many ways to open up its rich history for exploration and learning.
If you’re a serious historian or just interested in finding out more about America’s past, you’ll love the museums and attractions around the state. And, as a bonus, the many historic sites will offer a glimpse into how the American Revolution unfolded.
In the early 1790s, Massachusetts’s founders formed the first historical society in the United States, and the organization grew from its founding to become a national institution.
Cranberry Bogs
No matter your interest - be it nature exploration or cuisine, visiting a Cranberry Bog can be both educational and rewarding. Found across Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, these manmade wetlands play an essential part in protecting Buzzards Bay by providing habitat for deer, red-tailed hawks, and various species of birds and mammals.
Cranberries are an iconic New England agricultural system, and bogs provide visitors with the unique opportunity to witness its ingenuity first-hand. At Nodji Van Wychen Cranberries in Carver, for instance, visitors can witness workers performing dry harvesting -- an artful technique which removes fruit without flooding fields -- which gives visitors an experience they won't soon forget!
Bogs are beloved destinations for picnickers, hikers, kayakers, canoeists and other outdoor enthusiasts who appreciate their natural beauty and utility. Additionally, bogs play an economic driver in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod but have undergone significant transformations recently as an industry has declined significantly and some farms are closing while others convert to other uses.
State officials are taking great measures to preserve wetlands bThe y encouraging "no-till" farming techniques that minimize water and soil loss, and encouraging farmers to use techniques tailored specifically for use on bogs that mitigate against their loss. Furthermore, unique ecological ecosystems are being restored. All this work will help preserve bogs while decreasing nitrogen runoff from septic systems which pollute ponds and estuaries.
Cranberry industry reached its zenith during the 1920s. But as larger growers took control of the market, Long Island's smaller bogs became less competitive; only about half of their original cranberry bogs remain under cultivation today, with many having been sold off or converted for other uses.
At Brooks Academy Museum in Harwich, a collection of tools--weed pullers, turf axes, pruning rakes, wood irrigation pipes, and hand water pumps--depict the back-breaking work required to establish, cultivate, and protect cranberry bogs. Other exhibits at the Brooks Academy Museum include photographs from harvests in 1890s as well as mannequins wearing wide quilted and slatted bonnets worn by women pickers to protect them against sunlight.
Cobblestone Streets
Cobblestone streets are one of the hallmarks of historic Massachusetts. Locals affectionately refer to them as "cobs", these old-fashioned pathways are both eye-catching and charming, providing tourists a peek back in time. Their charming charm also makes these stone walkways an excellent spot for taking photographs!
Cobblestones were once the go-to paving material in Massachusetts, but have fallen out of favor around the turn of the 19th century. At that time, builders switched to creating roads using granite setts (more commonly referred to as Belgium Block). Builders employed these flat stones with narrow edges designed to provide smoother rides for horses and carts. While cobblestones may no longer be widely used on roads across Massachusetts, true cobblestone streets remain and can still be found during historic walks in cities like Boston.
Walking along a Boston cobblestone street can be one of the most serene experiences ever, offering visitors a peaceful respite from modern life's hustle and bustle. Popular locations for this visitation include Elfreth's Alley, Nantucket Main Street, and Old Town District on Nantucket Island.
As soon as one steps onto a cobblestone sidewalk or road, one should be extremely wary not to slip and injure themselves. The uneven surface can easily lead to trips and falls among pedestrians with physical disabilities. Some advocates have advocated bringing back old cobblestones as they may provide greater accommodation for those with limited mobility; others believe this would create an unsafe and hazardous environment for pedestrians.
Some streets still feature cobblestone-paved Belgian blocks as opposed to concrete or asphalt pavement, making these cobblestone streets an attraction for visitors to New England. Recently during a repaving project, workers had to leave behind exposed cobblestones due to weathering; thankfully these cobblestones were saved thanks to dedicated citizens fighting hard for the preservation of these historic streets.
Cobblestone can be an ambiguous term, often being applied to any round stone used as pavement material. But cobblestone actually refers to a specific kind of hand-trimmed flat-wedged granite used as pavement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in places like Dock Square and Boston; John Josselyn first documented and described its usage back in 1663.
Maritime Museums
One of the nation's premier maritime museums, it showcases an impressive collection of ship models and plans dating back to 17th-century vessels. Additionally, navigational and astronomical instruments as well as decorative art from the sea captain era (mostly paintings) can also be found within.
A signal station featuring Teletype machinery shows how sailors communicated until the 20th century. An actual wall of ice and captivating underwater audio samples provide an impressive sense of the ocean environment.
Sag Harbor is well known as a historic whaling port, and this museum honors its rich maritime history spanning decades of seafaring industry in the 19th century. Visitors will learn all aspects of whaleship life ranging from galley work to captain's quarters duties and learn the various roles played aboard such vessels.
Open from late June through mid-October, this museum showcases an expansive collection of nautical, Native American, and cranberry-related artifacts as well as a full-sized whaleboat and an impressive scrimshaw collection.
At the museum is a schooner that can be chartered for sails and educational programs, while there is also a small, general gallery with nautical-related items for viewing.
The Museum of America and the Sea stands apart from most museums due to its unique mission. It aims to tell America's maritime story through seafaring experience while acknowledging how important ocean and seascape environments are in human culture and society - the latter appearing without boundaries and representing something closer to perceptible eternity than landscape does.
This museum comprises two separate buildings, each housing an extensive collection of art and historic objects from the sea and ships. Of particular note is a gallery dedicated to scrimshaw items of remarkable preservation; ship models; and a antique nautical furniture; as well as an art gallery dedicated to the maritime history research library (National Maritime Historical Society). Additionally, one building houses maritime art gallery as well as a research library.
Dinosaur Footprints
When two slabs of rock resembling giant bird tracks were discovered near South Hadley in 1835, this caused quite a sensation throughout Europe and America. Ichnology would become one of the first major scientific endeavors on the American frontier and became known for studying fossil trackways. Hitchcock was deeply affected by this discovery and went on to shape emerging fields like biology, geology, and paleontology in America and worldwide. Hitchcock rose quickly as a leader in his field, publishing four early scientific publications such as Ichnology of New England (1858 with a supplement published two years later). At first, he thought these prints belonged to ancient birds--they did seem birdlike at first--but later confirmed they were dinosaur footprints.
The site where these prints were discovered used to be part of a shallow coastal lagoon that separated land areas to the north and west from marine sediments deposited by rivers running inland, leaving soft lime sediment wet with rain behind for dinosaurs to walk over, leaving their tracks behind when drying up of lagoon. When the lagoon dried up further sand and silt washed in from land areas to cover up these tracks and eventually be covered over with beach or lime sands.
These limestone deposits not only preserve three-toed footprints of Theropod family dinosaurs but also an herbivorous sauropod known as Anchisaurus that fed on plants; there may even be tracks from an ankylosaurian! Invertebrate burrows, plants, and solidified ripples on the bottom of a lagoon have also been preserved at this site.
Researchers have spent decades studying the tracks at Dinosaur Valley State Park for decades, using them to gain information that cannot be gained solely through studying skeletal remains, such as how quickly animals moved, whether they traveled in groups and what type of terrain they traversed. A parallel orientation in the tracks, for instance, shows that animals likely kept together as they moved.
The park features an impressive collection of fossils, such as teeth and claw marks from Batrachopus (see image). It is an extremely popular tourist attraction as well as a host for educational programs for schoolchildren.
Post a Comment