Abby Epplett, Historian

The first part of “Appendix E: Writing and Spelling”, focused on pronunciation. I am notoriously bad at pronouncing words that I only know by sight, some of my favorites being liaison, epitome, Yosemite, and mischievous. Because I learned most of my vocabulary from reading, I rarely heard more difficult words pronounced aloud until high school or college, when I learned the hard way that what I heard in my head was not the generally accepted way to say the word. I tended to think my linguistic snafus were pretty funny.

After taking a brief hiatus from history webinars, I watched “Edith Stevens: Pioneering Woman Cartoonist” with speaker Robert S. Davidson on March 6, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Hosted by Historic New England, this informative, fast-paced, and at times hilarious talk focused on the life of a local artist who shaped women’s fashion and culture from the 1920s through the 1960s with her daily comic strip Us Girls in the Boston Post and Boston Globe . Edith Stevens was the aunt of Davidson, who currently teaches at Massachusetts College of Art and Design thanks to her encouragement to pursue his interest in art. Stevens was born in Fitchburg, MA in 1899, but her family soon moved to Staten Island. Her father, Beaumont Stevens , died in the New York City harbor after a ferryboat accident, leaving his only daughter Edith, his son Roswell , and his wife Margaret . The Stevens family soon moved to Chicago to live with an aunt, and then to Boston when Margaret remarried. Stevens went to Gi...

In August 2023, I took a day trip to Cambridge, MA. My first major stop on my adventure was Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service (NPS). The double name of the property explains that the home was not only used leading up to the American Revolutionary War as a military headquarters for  General George Washington , but also as a family dwelling owned by poet and abolitionist Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . The standard tour of the interior, led by a park ranger, explored both time periods along with telling the story of how the house was lovingly preserved. Harry Dana & the Longfellow Legacy With a fully name of Henry “Harry” Wadsworth Longfellow Dana , the Harvard academic and expert on Russian drama preserved his family’s story, including extensive documentation and their historic home. Besides his love of literature and history, Dana was an early LGBTQ rights activist and union supportor...

In August 2023, I took a trip to Boston, MA to visit Otis House , a late 18 th century Federal style brick home owned by Historic New England (HNE) . Located on Beacon Hill, the house stands back from the road several feet further from its original location, as the building was moved during the widening of the street in 1925. Once called Bowdoin Square , the area is now a bustling road near  Boston Common . The house itself has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971. Architect Charles Bulfinch designed the mansion for the wealthy Otis family. Bulfinch was a prolific early American designer whose massive government buildings and public works include the United States Capitol Rotunda , the old Connecticut State House , the Massachusetts State House , a renovation of Faneuil Hall , and Boston Common. This Otis House was the first of three houses he built for the family. As for the owners, Harrison Gray Otis already had a successful caree...

Last night — on September 11, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. — I watched a book talk on The Lioness of Boston written by Emily Franklin and published by Godine . This webinar was hosted by American Ancestors in partnership with the Boston Public Library and GBH Forum Network. Franklin has published over twenty novels and poetry books, but The Lioness of Boston , based on the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, is her first historical fiction novel. Other speakers during the talk included Margaret M. Talcott , Director Of Literary Programs & Partnerships at American Ancestors; Kristin Motte , Adult Programs Librarian at the Boston Public Library; and Claire Messud , an author of six novels. Frederique Rigoulot , a journalist at GBH, moderated the chat and Q&A. Franklin described her first exposure to Isabella Stewart Gardner and her legacy. As a high school student in Boston, Franklin visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and wrote a paper about two paintings: Rembrandt’s...

On August 24, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, I watched a webinar hosted by American Ancestors ® & New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) , which debuted the 10 Million Names project. For context, American Ancestors ® is the oldest genealogical organization in the country, established in Boston, MA during 1845. The organization has supported research and publications for over 175 years. Currently, the organization employees about 95 full-time staff, shares 1.4 billion digital records, holds 28 million original manuscripts, and acts as a filming location for the hit PBS television show Finding Your Roots hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. During this webinar, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ryan J. Woods introduced the session by explaining that the intent of the project is to identify and recover names of the approximately ten million people of African descent who were enslaved in early America from 1500 to 1865. This project will be a collabo...

Finishing up the trip where I visited Franklin Park Zoo and Pierce House , I took a walk in Dorchester Park . Frederick Law Olmsted originally planned this park to become part of the Emerald Necklace , a chain of green spaces throughout Boston. His sons, John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. , joined his apprentice Charles Eliot to design and built this landscape in 1891. All three had long worked under the oldest Olmsted. Eliot had designed multiple landscapes, including Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC . Later, the trio would become the architecture firm Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot . They influenced the founding of The Trustees , a Massachusetts non-profit organization dedicated to preserving over one hundred attractions covering 47,000 acres. While this early project is a feat in itself, Dorchester Park never attained the same status of later works. Despite a similar naturalistic style, paved walking trails, small sports venues, and jurisdiction falling unde...

A few weeks ago in April 2023, I visited Pierce House in Dorchester, MA . Not to be confused with the John H. Pierce House in Lincoln, MA or the President Franklin Pierce Manse in Concord, NH (both of which I have added to my ever-growing list of places to visit), this Pierce House is a Historic New England (HNE) property where only about 100 adults visit in a year. Located across the street from an early 20 th century school, the 17 th century house serves as an educational venue for multiple schools in the Greater Boston area.

A few weeks ago in April 2023, I visited the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA. While I have often visited Franklin Park in the past to run in cross country races, I had never gone inside the historic zoo, which first opened in 1912 and is among the oldest urban zoos in the United States. Now part of Zoo New England , a collaboration with Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA that was formerly called Commonwealth Zoological Corporation , this seventy-nine acre property sits at the northeast point of the largest park in the Greater Boston area. The entire park is part of the Emerald Necklace designed by American landscape architect  Frederick Law Olmsted . Formerly called as West Roxbury Park for a local neighborhood now known as Jamaica Plain , the park is currently named after American politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin , who was born in Boston. The zoo itself was designed by former Olmsted employee Arthur A. Shurtleff , greatly changing Olmsted’s idea of a natural wildernes...

Early today — Wednesday, March 22 — at 4:00 p.m., I attended the webinar “ Phillis Wheatley Peters in Material Memory ” hosted by the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worcester, MA . This talk featured five speakers who each held a unique perspective on the life and work of Revolutionary War era African-American poet Phillis Wheatley Peters . The first presentation was given by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers , an English professor at the University of Oklahoma and author of The Age of Phillis , published by Wesleyan University Press in 2020 and long-listed for the 2020 National Book Award in Poetry . Jeffers described her first encounter with the works of Wheatley Peters while an English student at Talladega College , an HBCU in Alabama. In 2003, she read The Trials of Phillis Wheatley by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. When Jeffers became a Robert and Charlotte Baron Artist Fellow at the AAS in July 2009, she read the memoir of Margaretta Matilda Odell , a White woman and f...