Why was the 54th Massachusetts unique? It was the first black regiment ever raised in the Northern states. On July 18, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment found itself in front of Fort Wagner—one of the strongest earthworks ever constructed. Built to protect Charleston, South Carolina, Wagner contained 1,700 Confederates. This was the moment […]
We’d been climbing Katahdin in the near darkness, lighting our way from Chimney Pond over the boulder-strewn Saddle Trail by flashlight, then by the breaking dawn. On the plateau we paused. My companion, Irvin “Buzz” Caverly Jr., had seen this view hundreds of times. He didn’t gush about its beauty; his feelings ran deeper than […]
In New England, Hollywood producers have found mountains, lakes, lighthouses, small towns and fishing villages, beaches, rockbound cliffs overlooking ocean, opulent mansions, Ivy League colleges, and iconic Colonial architecture all waiting in one compact region. New England has always been ready for its closeup. Imagine a darkened movie theater anywhere in the world. The movie […]
I‘ve visited the USS Constitution during school vacations, crowded with chattering kids. I once sat in an open gunport, close to the water, during one of her annual turnaround cruises. I’ve seen the venerable frigate from below, when she was in dry dock, and I’ve touched her massive keel. But my most memorable visit of […]
No other arboretum in North America is so old. Few boast more trees and shrubs gathered from around the globe. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard’s magnificent library of trees, 281 acres between South and Centre streets in Jamaica Plain, has always had two tasks: first, to provide a museum of well-ordered woody plants; second, to provide random […]
Celebrating the historic Samuel E. Perry Grist Mill in Rhode Island, the joy of jonnycakes, and the couple who loves them.
Since 1926 hundreds of amateur astronomers and telescope makers have gathered on a Vermont hillside at the Stellafane convention, their own “Shrine to the Stars.” I’m standing on Breezy Hill in the black ink of a Vermont midnight in mid-July, surrounded by savants and telescopes. “Switching to M11,” somebody whispers as the barrel of his […]
A collection of nature and New England wildlife photographs from featured photographer John Vose.
Nantucket locals and tourists agree: If you can get a seat at Black-Eyed Susan’s — an island hotspot — the beach can wait.
Over the past decade, photographer Sara Gray’s travel assignments have taken her nearly everywhere in New England. She lives in southern Maine, but her eye finds beauty in any number of other places. Even though many of us have expensive digital cameras, not all travel photography is equal. To find out what goes into making […]
On the edge of the quiet side of Acadia National Park sits Winter Harbor — a fishing village with perhaps the best ocean-view housing deals in New England.
Roosevelt Campobello International Park is a treasure beloved by two countries. Not even a polio diagnosis during the summer of 1921 could keep Franklin Delano Roosevelt from returning to Campobello Island, his family’s beloved summer vacation home of 56 years. Today, 2,800 acres of this remote nine-mile island in New Brunswick, accessed by the toll-free […]
