PATH I: The Massachusetts Historical Society

 Boston Massacre > Massachusetts Historical Society > Gutman Library > Mass. State Archives > Judge Hiller Zobel

Our visit to the Massachusetts
Historical Society was made possible by Jennifer Tolpa, Peter Drummey, and Bill Fowler, who made us all feel welcome
in perhaps

PATH participants Kate Murdock and James Bower with MHS director Bill Fowler.

the most important repository of history in the Commonwealth. Being the home of the Adams papers, we were fortunate to see the original court transcript of John Adams, who represented the British soldiers in the trial.  Students passed around an iron shackle that was once clamped to the necks of slaves in colonial times.  Perhaps Crispus Attucks once wore one?

Jennifer Tolpa explained how researchers use the collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Bill Fowler, director of the MHS, gave us a brief history of the Society.  Librarians Peter Drummey and Jennifer Tolpa helped us understand the Boston Massacre
through such sources as newspaper accounts, diaries (both British and Colonial), and autopsy reports of the deaths of the five colonists. We also analyzed and interpreted a print of the event
from the etching of Paul Revere.

Next stop: Monroe C. Gutman Library at Harvard University >