Revere House Radio

When Paul, Sarah, Rachel, or any Revere found a tear in their clothing, what did they do next? Today’s guest, Emily Whitted, is examining early American textile repair for her dissertation. Her research touches on cultural, economic, and military history and has brought her into the collections of a wide range of museums. To finish out Season 5 of Revere House Radio, interpreters Derek and Greg discuss some of the details that help them and our visitors see Paul Revere as a real person. 

• Some information on our Facebook page about the sampler made by Revere’s great-granddaughter 
• Book: The Needle’s Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution, by Marla Miller (2006) 
• Explore the University of Rhode Island’s textile collection online 
• A brief summary of different ways the Revere House has been used over the years

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

“He was a fan!” today’s guest says about Paul Revere’s relationship to Freemasonry. Hilary Anderson Stelling is the Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington, MA. We discuss Freemasonry in Revere’s life and in the Revolution, silver and paper objects Revere made for a number of lodges, and how Revere shows up in all kinds of other objects. Additionally, interpreters Derek and Kathryn talk about the novel Johnny Tremain, which was written by a biographer of Paul Revere and was the inspiration for a Disney movie and part of the inspiration for Liberty Square in the Disney parks. 

• Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library 
• An example of the jewels we discuss 
• A second example 
• The Masonic summons we discuss 
• The can of tomatoes 
• The matchbox 
• There are a number of editions of Johnny Tremain and Forbes’s biography of Revere on the Internet Archive, and we also sell them in our gift shop.

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

The North End is geographically one of the smallest neighborhoods in Boston, but it has a big personality. Dr. Jessica Dello Russo is a native North Ender and therefore a neighbor of the Paul Revere House. In today’s episode, she discusses her experiences seeing the neighborhood change over the decades, her background as an archaeologist, and history shared by the North End Historical Society. To close out the show, high school interns Erin and Elena talk about the perspectives they gained by spending a week learning about the Paul Revere House. 

• The North End neighborhood on Google maps 
• St. Leonard’s Church virtual tour. Created by the church, this tour has information about the religious meaning of visual elements in the space, but it is also a good visual resource for people who have not been inside a church like this one. 
• North End Historical Society 
• Streaming film “Boston’s North End: An Italian American Story” 
• Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson on The Internet Archive 

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

Genna Kane, a former Paul Revere House interpreter, shares stories and analysis from her dissertation research on the history of Boston’s waterfront. We are only a few blocks from the harbor at the Paul Revere House, and many people describe the North End and Waterfront neighborhoods as one. In the interview, we get into changing commercial and industrial functions, sea level rise, the creation of waterfront parks, and more. At the close of the show, high school interns Keyana and Maddie share a bit about their internship project and what they learned about museums.

• Map of Boston in 1722 by John Bonner in the Massachusetts Historical Society
• Boston Green Ribbon Commission 
• North End / Waterfront Climate Alliance 
• 1876 lithograph of a ship leaving Cunard Wharf in 1844 using the canal cut in the ice. 
• India Wharf Bulfinch warehouse as photographed in 1903 
• c. 1927 photo of bathers at North End Beach 
• Virtual exhibit created by our 2025 high school interns 

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

Happy 251st anniversary of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride! Massachusetts Poet Laureate Regie Gibson is the guest in this episode, and we talk about the role of poetry in society and about Paul Revere's life. He shares his poem “Dear Paul Revere, or Forge, Shape, Shine” and we discuss his process for creating this piece that explores what Revere’s legacy means today. To round out the show, high school interns Arabella and Veronica share a bit about what they learned about history.

• Regie's website
• Phillis Wheatley postage stamp 
• Just the recording and text of "Dear Paul Revere" by Regie Gibson 
• Text of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride”  
• A digitized recording of “Paul Revere (Won’t You Ride for Us Again)” 

Regie’s recommendations:

• Walt Whitman – Link to online edition of Leaves of Grass       
• Doris Kearns Goodwin 
• David McCullough  
• What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner      

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

We're starting season five with an interview with R.P. Hale, an educator, craftsman and musician who has worked with the Revere House on special events for several decades. We'll talk instrument making, paper marbling, and printing, and how these and other crafts were interwoven with daily life in the 18th century. In our interpreter segment, Derek and Natalie talk about international trade and religious perspectives in Boston.

• Paul Revere’s engraving showing the obelisk for the Stamp Act repeal celebration 
• Internet Archive copy of Paul Revere’s Engravings by Clarence Brigham
• Video presentation commemorating Paul Revere’s Massacre memorial illuminations 

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

We're releasing a new season of Revere House Radio starting in mid-April. Season Five will include six interviews with historians, colleagues from related museums, and more, with discussions ranging from Masonry to Boston's waterfront, textile repair, to harpsichords.

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

For the last episode of Season Four, recent Paul Revere House Research Fellow Ryan Bachman discusses his research into Black residents in the North End, in the decade that legal slavery ended in Massachusetts and the decades that followed. He highlights some of his favorite stories and discusses the challenges and opportunities of tracing people’s lives through government documents such as census data and tax records. In Our Favorite Questions, interpreters Derek and Colton talk about the power of physical places and objects in connecting with history. We’ll be back with more Revere House Radio next spring!

• The map, presented on our blog
• Short biography of Salem Poor from American Battlefield Trust
• Book: Black Boston: African American Life and Culture in Urban America, 1750-1860 by George Levesque
• Book: Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North, by James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton
• Article: The Forgotten Legacy of Boston’s Historic Black Graveyard by Dart Adams
• Book: Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in New England, 1780–1860 by Joanne Pope Melish
• Book: Memoir of Mrs. Chloe Spear, a native of Africa, who was enslaved in childhood, and died in Boston, January 3, 1815

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

In this episode we welcome Sarah McDonough of the Lexington History Museums. We discuss what happened when Paul Revere reached Lexington, some individuals’ stories from that revolutionary moment and that era, and the magic that happens in both costumed interpretation and large reenactments like the ones coming up. In the Our Favorite Questions segment, Revere House interpreter Jay shares some details of 18th-century daily life.

Please note that the episode includes discussion of some of the violent realities of both war and slavery. 

• Lexington History Museums
• 1825 book that includes William Munroe’s account
• A History of the Fight at Concord, by Ezra Ripley (Google Books link)
• Dolly Hancock’s account
• “Mark Hung in Chains:” Slavery & Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride” from our Revere Express blog
• Liberty and Servitude at the Hancock-Clarke House
• Patriots’ Day events in Lexington
• April 18th events in Boston and Charlestown

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

This episode’s guest is Nikki Stewart, Executive Director of Old North Illuminated. She says that Old North Church is famous for just one minute, when Paul Revere’s signal lanterns shone, but there’s a lot more to the church’s long history. Nikki shares information that research has uncovered in the past five years and how it has reshaped their interpretation of the historic site. In the Our Favorite Things segment, interpreters Corbin and Derek talk about historical legends and how people in different eras could have markedly different ways of viewing the world. 

• Old North Illuminated
• Hub history podcast
• Play: Revolution’s Edge
• Lanterns and Luminaries event honoring Ken Burns
• 250th events at Old North and beyond
• Upcoming events at the Paul Revere House, including April 18 events
• Dr. Jaimie Crumley on Beulah Speen: “The Social Construction of Race in Early Massachusetts History”
• Dr. Jaimie Crumley’s PRMA lecture "Old England in New England: Contradictions in the History of Boston's Old North Church"

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/