Old Boston

More about the book

These thirty photographs of Boston, dating from 1880 to the early twentieth century, show the leadership role this major American city played in architecture, city planning, and transportation. The images were selected from the Library and Archives of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), which owns one of the largest collections of regional photography in the country, comprising more than 350,000 historic images.This collection includes landmarks associated with the American Revolution, such as Paul Revere's House, Faneuil Hall, and Old South Meeting House; architectural monuments including H.H. Richardson's Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library, designed by McKim, Mead, and White; and city views, like the waterfront with a forest of ships' masts, or downtown streets crowded with horse-drawn carts and trolleys. The photographs chronicle the evolution of a city that has been able to preserve many monuments of its past while experiencing dramatic growth and change.