Leventhal Map & Education Center

❗Join us this Friday, Aug 8, for a Map Collections Showing as we dive into some of the longest and tallest maps in the Leventhal Center collections❗

This free showing will be Friday, Aug 8 in the Leventhal Map & Education Center with staff members available to answer questions.

Boston is incredibly lucky to have this kind of connection to our sister communities, and we wish them all a happy National Sisters Day!

The purpose of these exchanges is to create international exchanges, understanding, and goodwill. Citizens from both communities learn about each other's culture and become directly involved in developing unique solutions to common problems.

The City of Boston defines a Sister City to be “when two communities from different nations join together to develop a friendly and meaningful relationship. The two cities exchange people, ideas, culture, education, and technology.

Today is National Sisters Day, and we’d like to celebrate Boston’s 11 Sister Cities! While Kyoto, Japan became our first Sister City in 1959, Boston currently has eleven total Sister Cities: Kyoto, Strasbourg, Barcelona, Hangzhou, Padua, Melbourne, Beira, Taipei, Sekondi-Takoradi, Belfast, and Praia

👯“A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.” - Isadora James

Maps: Map of Japan (1905), Siege of Strasbourg, 1870 (1872), Melbourne (1895), The Cape Verd Islands... (1775)
Image: Digital Commonwealth

#bpl #LMEC #maps #bostonmaps #localhistory

Each of these scales draws attention to different sets of spatial patterns and historical forces. Explore the use of scale in our exhibit, Terrains of Independence. On view through March 2026, this exhibit is open to the public 6 days a week, Tuesday - Sunday.

These scales offer ways of thinking about size and location that help us understand how places connect, from the expansiveness of empire to the small details of buildings and landmarks.

Unlike the scaly skin of a reptile or the scales of judgement represented by libra, our Terrains of Independence exhibition unfolds across a series of geographic scales: Empire, Region, City, Landmark, and Nation.

🦎♎🗺️ What do lizards, libras, and our exhibit on the Revolutionary War have in common? Scales!

#AmRev #americanrevoulution #Mass250 #MA250 #revwar #bpl #LMEC #maps #bostonmaps #localhistory #bostonhistory #bostonmuseum #thingstodoinboston #bostontourism

The link should now be updated and working!

You teach about the American Revolution every year—but not every year is the 💥semiquincentennial💥

This virtual program will take place Wednesday, August 13 at 10 AM and you can register via the link in our bio.

We hope to see you this summer!

#bpl #LMEC #AmRev #MA250 #revwar #teacherpd

Maps: Aspect général de Paris [1860–1869], Plan de la Riviere de Seine dans Paris (1760), Carte du cours de la Seine pour servir à l'intelligence de l'ouvrage la Seine et ses bords (1836)

Images: Digital Commonwealth, NBC

The Charles River is opened one day a year for public swimming and this year’s planned date (July 13) was canceled due to heavy rain and “elevated bacterial counts above acceptable swimming standards”. So if anyone understands, Paris, it’s us 🥲

The Seine was closed just a day after its official open date due to heavy rain and concern over overflow of Paris' old sewage system. Nevertheless, the river will remain open going forward. The Seine will be monitored for bacteria daily — a clean, swimmable river is something we Bostonians aspire to

The current mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, made some big promises (over $1.6 billion) to get the river back into clean condition. And she’s succeeded! The Seine was used in the 2024 summer Olympics, and just a few weeks go was officially opened for public swimming.

Water pollution in the Seine got significantly worse in the 1900s due to heavy industrialization happening in the city, similar to the Charles River. Since the early 1920s, swimming in the Seine had been banned. Since the late 1980s, however, there has been persistent demand for a swimmable river.

Coming from one city with an infamous river to another, Paris, we feel your pain🫂

The River Seine in Paris reopened publicly to swimmers after a century-long ban… and immediately closed the next day. Much like Boston’s Charles River, the Seine had long been used for waste and… refuse (💩) disposal.

You can find it by searching "Cape Ann and the North Shore" in our digital collections or by following this link: collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commo...

❗Join us this Friday, July 25, for a special Map Collections Showing in partnership with @abettercity , @seaporttma , and @lowermystictma❗

This free showing will be Friday, July 25 in the Leventhal Map & Education Center with staff members from all organizations available to answer questions.

Source: @emeraldnecklaceconservancy
Maps: Proposed improvement of Back Bay (1880), Back Bay park (1877), Emerald Necklace Parks: Detail of Back Bay Fens (2012)
Images: Digital Commonwealth

While the sanitary issues posed by dirty water were fixed in 1910 with the construction of the Charles River Dam, Olmstead’s park remains a distinctive local landmark. Fenway Road, running across the Fens’ southern border, inspired the name of the Fenway neighborhood and the famous stadium.

A landscaping engineer named Frederick Law Olmstead, known for designing NYC's Central Park, had a brilliant solution. By redirecting overflow from nearby rivers and brooks directly into the Charles River, he prevented the hazardous waste from polluting the streets.

In the 19th century, this area was a salty marshland, another term for which is a “fen.” The area of today's Back Bay and Fenway-Kenmore neighborhoods were underwater until the city conducted a huge land reclamation project. However, this battle against nature created serious health hazards.

The Back Bay Fens is a beautiful park in the middle of what is today’s Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood. The Muddy River flows through the park all the way from Jamaica Pond and into the Charles. The Fens are part of the Emerald Necklace, a chain of parks stretching throughout Boston.

🔍Did you know that Fenway Park is technically named after a patch of mucky marshland? Boston sure draws name inspiration from some interesting places🥴

#bpl #LMEC #maps #bostonmaps #localhistory #bostonhistory #bostonmuseum #thingstodoinboston #bostontourism #backbay #fenway #fens

Notice the glimpse of Ireland and Great Britain in the map’s top right corner. This small detail illustrates the vast reach of the British Empire and serves as a reminder of how political changes rippling across the Atlantic could affect territories thousands of miles apart.

#AmRev #Mass250 #MA250

Ten inset diagrams of major ports, including Boston alongside Caribbean, Latin American, and other North American harbors, depict active sites of slave labor. Imperial jostling over land and labor connected colonial Boston to the wider world.

This map [A new map of North America (1763)] includes text with British political commentary, noting French “incroachment” and emphasizing the need for British colonial officials to monitor land claims along the Mississippi River.

💂🏽⛵🗺️ Colonial-era maps served many purposes beyond indicating boundaries 💂🏽⛵🗺️

Consider how this view influenced the Bostonian (and British) view of the New England colony in our exhibit, Terrains of Independence. Up through March of 2026, the exhibit is open to the public 6 days a week, Tues-Sun.