Healing Runs in the Family
A descendant of Martha Ballard and a cousin of Clara Barton, Hobart’s own work helped to forge new paths for women, beyond the practice of female craft into the […]
Paul Revere Short Takes
All roads lead to Needham, and the road from Canton is no exception. Revere was nationally important, but also important to Needham in roundabout ways, as I learned on
Mapping Needham
From 1771 and still going strong, mapmakers have created beautiful depictions of Needham, lovingly rendering our 3D world into intricate 2D detail. In the process, they have given us
Don’t Be Fooled! …
…It Actually Happened HERE! Everything that happened in Wellesley before 1881 actually happened in Needham. That includes some pretty notable events, events that have become world-famous. Surprisingly, sometimes they just
What’s All This, Then?
No one wanted a job that involved policing your neighbors and enforcing the collection of their taxes. Nevertheless, acting as Constable has been a municipal duty in England and
Warned Out of Needham
A “greeting’ from the Constable was not exactly a visit from the Welcome Wagon. Quite the reverse. In the 18th century, strangers to town were “warned out” as a way
Needham Photographers
Editing an earlier article on the Holmes Brothers, who were photographers in Needham in the 1880s, led me (as it inevitably does) down a wormhole to find out about other
Who is CAREY?
I had already done some research on streets named for the Carter family, and was proud of myself to find eleven. It turns out that I was not
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words…
The town’s recorded words tell one story, but pictures tell another – often one that we have from no other source. There is often a great deal more information in
Witnessing History
Witnesses from a time when our country was young, and they have watched with us as time has passed, and stood with us in good times and bad. Bearing Witness