As we get close to Patriots Day, let us remember that the fighting along "Battle Road" and the entire siege of Boston involved thousands of men from hundreds of communities.  On April 19, 1775 as the "Lexington Alarm" spread throughout the region, towns mustered their militia and they marched towards the fight.  Needham sent 185 men to fight the Redcoats that day, losing five men in the process.  Join Gloria Greis of the Needham History Center & Museum in conversation with Professor Robert Allison on the history of Needham's role in the revolution and their plans to commemorate these "Moments that Changed the World." 

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

On the afternoon of April 19, as the people of Plymouth and Barnstable counties heard of the battles at Lexington and Concord, they mustered their militia and sent them. .. to Marshfield.  We talk with Patrick Browne of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society about the "almost battle of Marshfield," the only town outside of Boston that had a detachment of Redcoats.  We hear about why the British were in Marshfield, and what the militia did to force them, and Marshfield's many loyalists out.  We also hear about other events on the South Shore, and about how Plymouth is commemorating its local heroine, Mercy Otis Warren.  

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

For 50 years the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington has been telling the story of America and the Masonic traditions that are interwoven with that narrative. The museum has a collection of more than 17,000 objects and manages another 11,000 objects belonging to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Objects from that collection and pieces from their world-class library are being used to launch a new exhibit on April 13, 2025 entitled Protest & Promise: The American Revolution in Lexington. Join Professor Allison in conversation with Assistant Curator Stacey Fraser on this iconic museum, its connection to the Bicentennial and the special exhibits and projects they have planned for the 250th.

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

 Loyalty and Patriotism in the American Revolution:  Which side are you one?   Are "loyalist" and "patriot" useful terms in deciphering the sides to the American Revolution?  A conversation with Robert A. Gross, author of The Minutemen and their World, about the changing meanings of loyalty and patriotism in the era of the American Revolution. 

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Christina Carrick, an editor at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, formerly an editor at the Robert Treat Paine Papers, joins us to talk about Jefferson and Paine.  She also talks about the loyalist family networks she has studied--New England merchants sent into exile who maintained connections with home.  She also discusses editorial projects, and how to become part of these important projects through organizations like the Association for Documentary Editing. 

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Some of the bloodiest fighting on April 19, 1775 happened in the village of Menotomy, the community lay along the main road from Cambridge to Concord.  It had numerous mills, taverns and a meetinghouse and burial ground along this road, some of which still show scars from that day.  We talk with Matthew Beres, Executive Director of the Arlington Historical Society, based in the Jason Russell House, about the fighting there and in the rest of Arlington, and the town's commemorations of those events'

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

There is a lot of focus on the events of April 19, 1775, events that set in motion America's call for Independence from Great Britain.  Securing our independence took 8 long years of war.  What is the impact of the war for American independence on a community?   Beth van Duzer of the Concord 250 Subcommittee on History and Education tell us about the community of Concord's project  to gather up  Revolutionary war stories of the people who lived and died in that town.  

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

"Place is of very little consequence," Mary Sewall of Marblehead wrote to her sister in Nova Scotia in 1799," except as it brings you near to those whom by nature you are most nearly allied."  The Sewall sisters had been separated by war, yet family ties endured and complicated their relationships in the post-Revolutionary world.   Patrick O'Brien of the University of Tampa, writing about the divided families of Marblehead, joins us to talk about the ties sundered by the Revolution and those that remained.

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

As word spread of the British march to Lexington and Concord,  communities from all over Massachusetts and greater New England responded.  Historian Alan Foulds tells us about the Lynn End (now Lynnfield) militia, who were warned by medical student Martin Herrick, and their march to Menotomy, where they fought the British at the Jason Russell House.  The Lynnfield Historical Society has told these stories in a series of videos, and will re-enact these events, and will put on a play, "Shadows of 1775," in which the men and women in the town of 1775 will tell their stories to their townsfolk and visitors today.  

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Acting on intelligence that the Provincial militia had cannon in a Salem blacksmith shop, Beneral Thomas Gage sent Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie and the 64th Regiment of Foot to Marblehead and then to Salem to find the weapons. We talk with Charlie Newhall and Jonathan Streff about this expedition, known as "Leslie's Retreat," which is re-enacted in Salem every February.  Leslie did not get the cannon, but he and the people of Salem avoided war.  

Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!