This fall, the Red Sox will have to share the spotlight with a new player in town — the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The ICA, which has moved from its Boylston Street location to an ultramodern 65,000-square-foot building on Boston’s harborfront, is the first art museum to be built in the city in nearly […]
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Magazine
The Pitcairn-Putnam Pistols
In 1879, the granddaughter-in-law of Revolutionary War hero Major General Israel Putnam (1718-1790) donated “these memorials of the opening scene of the Revolutionary Drama” to Lexington. Now displayed in the Hancock-Clarke House of the Lexington Historical Society, these elite Scottish officer’s pistols originally belonged to Major John Pitcairn (1722-1775), a Scot who commanded the advance […]
By Wayne Curtis and Christina Tree The Tidewater Motel, Vinalhaven Finding a motel on an island an hour’s ferry ride offshore is an odd thing. Weren’t motels designed for cars, and islands for boats? Anyway, there it is, and what makes it even more appealing, and unusual, is that the name “Tidewater” is no flight […]
Magazine
Cooking Aboard Sailboat
“It was our love for the ocean that brought us together in the first place,” says Helen Gallo Bryan. She met her husband, Dave Bryan, manager of the Boston Sailing Center, more than a decade ago when she first signed up for sailing lessons. “We quickly figured out we had a passion for wine and […]
If we told you that in 1629 this place became the first town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, would you be able to name it? How about if we said that it was the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne and that he wrote his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, here? Still not sure? We could […]
Yankee
Nantucket Baskets | History
The earliest forms of Nantucket baskets were utilitarian creations, made free-form using wooden splints woven to a round pine-board bottom. During the 1860s, basket making aboard the lightships became an art form. I tip my hat to those plucky 19th-century seamen who first manned the lightships off the shores of Nantucket. Unlike the world’s great […]
Most cast-iron door stops you’ll find today were likely made in America sometime between the turn of the last century and 1940. Perhaps the only things more welcoming than open doors are the brightly colored cast-iron door stops holding them ajar. Like the best collectibles, these seemingly indestructible household objects are as visually appealing as […]
Last month, we wondered why Henry Wadsworth Longfellow omitted the name of Paul Revere’s horse in his famous poem that begins, “Listen my children and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” After all, every horse has a name. Well, now it turns out that’s not the only reason New Englanders […]
Like Lisa, you can learn decorative painting techniques from professionals. In a 1,000-square-foot studio in Boston, the Institute of Surface Design offers classes in areas ranging from wood graining and marbleizing to creating traditional Venetian mosaics and designer plaster. To help you concentrate exclusively on developing your new skills, classes include full breakfast and lunch, […]
It takes a creative person to make a house a home. Artist Lisa Nelthropp did more than that when she purchased a property near New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee seven years ago. After evicting families of squirrels and bats who’d been in residence for years, Lisa realized maybe the former inhabitants didn’t really have it so […]
It has been said that art is the signature of a civilization. Like all signatures, it is unique and personal and binding. When a civilization vanishes, it is art that leaves an indelible imprint to tell the story of a people’s existence and their eventual demise. Such is the story of Tomah Joseph, a Passamaquoddy […]
Massachusetts
Cape Ann, Massachusetts: The Other Cape
It happens often as you drive around Cape Ann, the rocky headland jutting into the Atlantic 30 miles north of Boston. You round a corner or crest a hill and wham! — suddenly you’ve driven into a painting. It’s something about the way the light refracts off the ocean on all sides, making ship masts […]