About

When And Where In Boston has an ambitious goal – to collect short, illustrated descriptions of almost everything that’s ever happened, been built, made, said, or done in Boston.

But it is not meant to be a finished product – rather, an ongoing public history project.  It is also meant to be an invitation – to people who know the facts of Boston history to share them, and to residents and visitors, teachers, students, and scholars who want to learn those facts to find them here.

Those facts include the Who of Boston history – from the names of the city’s mayors to its neighborhood activists.  They include the What – from the evolution of the city’s transportation system, to its growth in population and immigration, to the titles won by local sports teams at the professional, college, and high school levels.  Those facts include When buildings were built – from skyscrapers to churches, and to the house next door.  They include seeing Where all these things happened, and the books, paintings, and other created Works about Boston.  They also include those fun facts – the firsts, the oddities, and quotations about Boston that make the city such a special place.

This first edition of When and Where in Boston is a greatly expanded version of the book When In Boston: A Timeline & Almanac by Jim Vrabel.  It has been converted into a database by Dennis McCarthy, and then into this website.  It’s a good start – but it is only a start.  It needs more people who know more and different facts about Boston to fill in its gaps and correct any errors.  And it needs people to use it and show just how much interest there is in finding out about all of Boston history.

Right now, the project is being run by a small, all-volunteer, non-profit group, which is getting administrative help from Boston By Foot, legal help from Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest & Garner, P.C., and financial help from an anonymous, longtime supporter of Boston history.  The new content that is received will be curated by an editorial committee that currently includes:

Joe Bagley, City of Boston Archaeologist.
Jane Becker, Director of Public History, UMass Boston.
Dorothy Clark, Assistant Survey Director, Boston Landmarks Commission.
Dayl Cohen, Volunteer Liaison to Board of Trustees, Boston By Foot.
Carolyn Goldstein, Public History and Community Archives Manager, UMass Boston.
Gretchen Grozier, President, Jamaica Plain Historical Society.
Lynn Johnson, Research Professor, Boston College.
Kristen Lafferty, City of Boston Archivist.
Ken Liss, former Head of Liaison & Instruction Services, Boston University Libraries.
Michael Liu, former Communication Programs Coordinator, UMass Boston.
Giordana Mecagni, Director of the Northeastern University Archives.
James O’Connell, Adjunct Professor of City Planning & Urban Affairs, Boston University.
Pat Reeve, Professor Emerita, Suffolk University.
Byron Rushing, President, Roxbury Historical Society.
Nancy Seasholes, Historical Archaeologist, and Editor, The Atlas of Boston History.
Mary Howland Smoyer, Founding Member, Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Balazs Szelenyi, Director of Faculty, NU Global, Northeastern University.
Earl Taylor, President, Dorchester Historical Society.
Clayton Trutor, Co-Chair, Vermont Society of American Baseball Research.
Susan Wilson, Author, Photographer, and House Historian, Omni Parker House.
Cedric Woods, Director, Institute for New England Native American Studies, UMass Boston.

But if When and Where in Boston is going to achieve its goal, it is going to need more people to get involved – people to run it, people, organizations, and institutions to stock it with more facts, and people to use it.  It also needs an institution – whether city government, a historical organization, or a university – to give it a home, so it can be place where all of Boston history can be collected, shared, and learned.