The Trent Affair Comes to Boston

The Trent Affair.

For many Americans, the name probably rings a bell from high school history classes of yore. But do you really remember anything about this dusty relic of history? It was something to do with a politician’s extramarital relationship, right?

Well, no. The Trent Affair was an international incident that occurred during the Civil War when the United States seized two Confederate diplomats, dispatched by Jefferson Davis on a mission to generate support in Europe, aboard a British mail packet RMS Trent. (These days, we’d give the “Trent Affair” a much more memorable and descriptive name that wouldn’t confuse generations of high school students. Right? Eh, never mind, we all know in this day and age it would be lazily and breathlessly branded as “Trent-gate.”)

Political Cartoon of the Trent Affair, likely published in 1861/62

There is a strong Boston connection to the Trent Affair. After being captured by the Union on November 8, 1861, the two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell, arrived at Fort Warren in the heart of Boston Harbor on November 24 to be incarcerated. Mason and Slidell arrived just weeks after the first Confederate prisoners set foot in the woefully unprepared granite garrison.

From Harper's Weekly, January 1862

The British, outraged that one of their ships had been boarded by Union troops, put their fleet on notice, and demanded that the two Confederate commissioners be released from Fort Warren. The British rattled sabers, and the crisis began to boil. Fearing a rift with the British, President Lincoln eventually acquiesced, releasing Mason and Slidell on New Year’s Day in 1862. The pair left Fort Warren on a tug bound for Provincetown to be transferred to a British man-of-war. Not exactly the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it was a tense period in American history to be sure.

This Friday, you can commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Trent Affair (OK, OK, let’s say “enjoy a day in the great outdoors”) on board a special Veterans Day cruise that will include a stop at historic Fort Warren. The special event will focus on the rich military history of the harbor islands, which defended the city from the Revolution through World War II. Veterans are free, and other participants will be charged a nominal $5, which is a great deal. All proceeds from this event will go directly to support the preparation of care packages to send to active duty soldiers serving overseas, particularly those in Troop #1173. Click here for more information.

The Lady in Black and Fort Warren’s Other Halloween Connection

Fort Warren on Georges Island, photograph courtesy of Christopher Klein

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Salem hogs all the limelight when it comes to haunted happenings, but there are plenty of ghostly tales in Boston as well, including out on Georges Island. And this October 31 marks the 150th anniversary of a particularly noteworthy date in the history of Fort Warren, that granite garrison out on Georges Island.

It was on October 31, 1861, that the first Confederate prisoners of war arrived at Georges Island. Colonel Justin Dimick, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican-American War, was told to ready the fort for the arrival of 150 prisoners, so he was understandably shocked when the steamer docked at the island with more than 800 political and military prisoners. Fort Warren was overrun and ill-prepared, which resulted in food rations and prisoners sleeping on floors. A newspaper account from November 1861 reported that when the prisoners arrived at Fort Warren “pity rather than the hatred of the visitors was excited by the sad spectacle.”

What’s remarkable is how Bostonians responded to the plight of the enemy. They donated food, beds, and other supplies to assist the Confederate prisoners, hoping that proper treatment of the prisoners might inspire equal compassion toward Union prisoners of war. The story of Boston’s response to the crisis at Fort Warren and Dimick’s role in ensuring the prisoners were treated humanely is a remarkable one, and you can read more about it in an article I wrote for The New York Times Disunion blog.

While Dimick’s story is little known, if you were to ask anyone familiar with Georges Island what its most enduring story is, they would respond by telling you about “The Lady in Black.” Popularized by historian Edward Rowe Snow, this tale is now an essential part of the island’s fabric. According to the legend, the wife of a Confederate prisoner, dressed as a man and brandishing a pistol, snuck into the fort in an attempt to free her newlywed husband. She succeeded in reaching her husband’s cell, but as they tried to escape the dungeon, Union troops discovered their scheme and notified Colonel Dimick. When the colonel came upon the pair, the wife fired at Dimick, but her gun exploded and killed her husband instead.

To make a bad day even worse, Dimick had no choice but to order the woman to hang as a spy. Before her execution, she requested that she be properly dressed in women’s clothing. She was given black robes and hanged from the gallows.

Now we never like to have history get in the way of a good ghost story, but there are no recorded instances of Confederate soldiers or Confederate sympathizers being executed at Fort Warren. However, from the Civil War through the Second World War, many a soldier stationed on the parapets claimed to see the frightening ghost of the Lady in Black, who is said to prowl through the fort’s many passageways to this day. As far back as January 1862, the Gloucester Telegraph reported that sentinels keeping midnight rounds saw a spiritual phenomena near some of the rebel graves. The soldiers reported spying the image of an old woman “vindictively frisking about the ruins of an old building from which she was ejected some time previous to her death.”

I’ve yet to have the pleasure of meeting the Lady in Black. But if any of you have seen her, let me know!

New Map and Poster Exhibit Celebrates the Golden Age of Travel

I’m definitely a map geek. Mercator is a rock star to me, and I can’t wait to dig into Maphead, the new book from Ken Jennings (the Jeopardy! guy). I also love vintage travel posters. I’ve got a few of them hanging up around the house, including this great one from the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

So I’m really looking forward to the October 14th opening of a new exhibit at Boston’s Grand Circle Gallery: “Journeys through the Mediterranean: Maps, Guides and Posters from the Golden Age of Travel.” The exhibit will pair Grand Circle Gallery’s collection of vintage travel posters from the region with a selection of antique maps and pocket travel guides from WardMaps.

Not only are the vintage travel posters so colorful and evocative of a different age, but the rare maps that will be on display, including those from German publisher Wagener & Debes that depict cities and historic sites as they were in the late 1800s and early 1900s, are works of art as well.

Of particular interest will be a display from WardMaps’ collection of antique Baedeker travel guides and maps covering destination sites in Italy, France, Greece, Northern Africa, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. The Baedeker travel guides date from the mid-1800s. With their red leather cover and regal, gold lettering, Karl Baedeker’s guides were considered superior to other travel guides of the day due to their detailed and accurate information on accommodations, transportation, pricing and rating system of the given destination.

The opening of the exhibit coincides with the Fort Point Fall Open Studios the weekend of October 14-16. More than 150 artists’ studios in the district will be open to the public for this popular weekend event; there is no charge for admission and free parking is available.

While it may not rise to the level of Venice’s Grand Canal, the Fort Point Channel neighborhood will also be represented in the exhibit as a small selection of antique maps of the neighborhood will be on display.

The Grand Circle Gallery is located at 347 Congress Street. Hours are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 11:00am-6:00pm and Thursday, 11:00am-8:00pm. Admission is free, and the gallery is handicap accessible. The exhibit runs through January 28, 2012.

For more general information, to schedule a private tour, or for more details about special programming, please visit www.gct.com/grandcirclegallery or call 617-346-6459.

Georges Island Visitor Center Wins a Preservation Award!

Photo courtesy of Justin Knight and McGinley Kalsow Associates

Congratulations are in order—the Georges Island Visitor Center is winning an award! The Boston Preservation Alliance has named the center, along with 11 other sites, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Brewer Fountain on Boston Common, and the Fan Pier Public Green, as a 2011 Preservation Achievement Award winner.

The awards are presented for both historic preservation and compatible new construction. The Alliance is recognizing the Visitor’s Center for excellence in Rehabilitation/Restoration Preserving Boston’s Architectural Heritage. Georges Island is the home of the Fort Warren, a National Historic Landmark. The fort, which was active from the 1850s through World War II, served as a prison for Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. (It’s also the infamous home to the legendary Lady in Black). The new center is housed in the rehabilitated Mine Storage Building, and features an interpretive museum focused on the Island’s military role in protecting Boston Harbor over the last 300 years.

Sarah D. Kelly, executive director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, commended the project, saying, “The Boston Harbor Islands are truly outstanding natural and historical treasures, and the [Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation] and Boston Harbor Island Alliance have done the public a tremendous service by undertaking this exceptional project.”

Christopher Klein, author of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, reviewed the center when it opened last summer, detailing the representations of the lives of the Union soldiers and their Confederate captives, as well as enthusiastically endorsing the new playground and the outdoor Summer Shack outpost.

“Anyone who hasn’t been to Georges in a while will be amazed,” said Tom Powers, president of the Boston Harbor Island Alliance. We agree! With just a few weeks left of the 2011 season, now’s the time to take a trip to Georges Island and see this award-winning project for yourself!

Congratulations again to the project team behind the Georges Island Visitor Center, and especially to our hardworking friends at the Boston Harbor Island Alliance. The Boston Preservation Achievement Awards will be presented at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 6 at the Paramount Center in Boston. Tickets are $50.

For more information about Georges Island, check out Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, by Christopher Klein.  

Christopher Klein on the Callie Crossley Show

We are delighted to share this clip from the Callie Crossley Show (WGBH radio), where Union Park Press author Christopher Klein was a featured guest on Monday.  Chris recently published an article on the subject in the Boston Globe, where he focused on the local history of the term “gerrymandering”. Callie invited Chris on to the show to discuss the timely topic of political redistricting.

Click on this link to hear Chris and Callie’s lively conservation about this fascinating subject. Congrats, Chris!

Christopher Klein is a Boston-based author and freelance writer specializing in travel, sports, and history subjects. His most recent book is The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston , the ultimate handbook to spectator sporting events in and around Boston. He is also the author of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands: A Guide to the City’s Hidden Shores.

World’s End in Hingham

In just a few weeks, the majority of us will only be able to visit the Boston Harbor Islands that are connected to the mainland. When regular ferry service ends after Columbus Day, those of us without private means to get to the islands will need to turn our focus back to the islands that are accessible from the mainland by foot or by car. This is not entirely bad news. These peninsula areas: Deer Island, Nut Island in Quincy, Webb Memorial Park in Weymouth, and World’s End in Hingham— are spectacular.

I found myself driving through Hingham on a recent weekend afternoon, and decided to check out World’s End, a Trustees of the Reservations property I had heard about, but had never visited. I thoroughly enjoyed the rolling hills, the beautiful carriage roads through fields and meadows, and the drop-dead gorgeous views of the Harbor Islands and the Boston skyline in the distance. I found myself blown away at this treasure of a resource, and immediately wanted to know more about it.

How was this land preserved? Why does it look this way? How did it not get developed over the years? Luckily for me, I have a copy of Christopher Klein’s Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands at home (I am now thinking that I might need to keep a copy in my car’s glove box). Upon reading the section on World’s End, I learned that this land has a fascinating history and was threatened with a wide range of development schemes over the years. In the 1880s, Hingham landowner John R. Brewer hired Frederick Law Olmsted to prepare the land to be subdivided into a residential community. Olmsted created a charming set of curvilinear roads that lead to nowhere— because the 163 subplots were never built upon. This left the land available for another land development idea: to build the United Nations headquarters on this site. This odd plan thankfully never happened, due to a last-minute gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who offered up a plum (and free) site on the east side of Manhattan.  After spending the better part of a gorgeous early fall afternoon at World’s End, I am thrilled that history was on our side this time.

While I think you all need to plan a trip to World’s End immediately, I have another suggestion. Head out for one last jaunt to Spectacle and Georges Island before they close up for the season. World’s End will be waiting for you when we are all stuck on land again. (I hear it’s a great place to go cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, but let’s enjoy those pretty leaves first!) For more information about World’s End and the other Boston Harbor Islands—those accessible by boat AND car—pick up a copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands today.

OR, you can enter our twitter contest!  With just a quick tweet, you win a copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands along with two ferry vouchers so you can enjoy end-of-season events such as the Second Annual Summer Shack Chowder Cook Off, the 7th Annual Boston Harbor Islands Regatta, or an island escape of your own design. Use Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands to help plan your adventure, whether it’s tracking down the park’s colony of breeding seals or hiking along scenic trails as the leaves begin to change color.

Here’s How to Enter: Follow us on twitter @unionparkpress and tweet: “I want to Discover the Boston Harbor Islands with @unionparkpress!” Please be sure to include @unionparkpress in your tweet or we won’t see it! We will randomly select a winner and announce it on Twitter at noon on Wednesday, September 21^st.

Twitter Contest: Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands

Anyone who knows Union Park Press knows that we have a bit of a thing for the Boston Harbor Islands. Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, by Christopher Klein, was the first book published by the Press back in 2008, with an updated 2^nd edition released this past spring.

With the Mass Memories Roadshow focusing gathering old photographs and personal stories about the Boston Harbor Islands this weekend, we knew we had to get in on the action. (See author Christopher Klein’s great blog post here for more details on the roadshow.)

So in honor of the Boston Harbor Islands Roadshow, we’ve decided to hold our own little event to celebrate our beloved islands.  Enter our twitter contest to win a copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands along with two ferry vouchers so you can enjoy end-of-season events such as the Second Annual Summer Shack Chowder Cook Off, the 7th Annual Boston Harbor Islands Regatta, or an island escape of your own design. Use Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands to help plan your adventure, whether it’s tracking down the park’s colony of breeding seals or hiking along scenic trails as the leaves begin to change color.

Here’s How to Enter: Beginning today, follow us on twitter @unionparkpress and tweet: “I want to Discover the Boston Harbor Islands with @unionparkpress!” Please be sure to include @unionparkpress in your tweet or we won’t see it! We will randomly select a winner and announce it on Twitter at noon on Wednesday, September 21^st.

Mass. Memories Road Show on Boston Harbor Islands

Farm School Boys on Thompson Island, photograph courtesy of the Healey Library, UMass Boston

Granted I’m pretty sure I couldn’t construct a dollhouse, let alone a single-family home, without at least one trip to the ER, but I do see some similarities between writing about history and building a home. To me, I find that major historical events–and the newspaper accounts and government records associated with them–provide the basic framework to structure a narrative. They are the foundation and walls of the house, if you forgive the analogy.

But just as it’s the personal photographs, family heirlooms, and treasured items that make a house your home, I’ve found that small details unearthed from personal histories–photographs, diaries, etc.–add the necessary finishing touches that really add character to a story.

When I was writing Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, I felt fortunate that I was able to view the personal photographs and hear the stories of not only present-day Bostonians, but of those of generations past. It reminded me that the history we learn in textbooks engages the mind, but the history we find in scrapbooks can tug at the heart. And both sources have the equal capacity to inspire our spirits.

Farm School Band on Thompson Island, photo courtesy of the Healey Library, UMass Boston

Needless to say I think it’s important that we capture these personal histories, and great work is being done every day in compiling digital histories. And if you happen to have photographs and stories related to the Boston Harbor Islands, I would encourage you to bring them with you to the Massachusetts Archives on Columbia Point in Dorchester this Saturday (September 17) for the Mass. Memories Road Show. This is an initiative of the Massachusetts Studies Project at UMass Boston and co-sponsored by Mass Humanities.

The organizers are encouraging anyone with family photographs of the Boston Harbor Islands (be they yours or your ancestors’) to bring a handful of them to the Road Show where they will be scanned and immediately returned them to you. You will be invited to share a 3-4 minute story about your photographs on camera. All photos and stories scanned at the event will become part of the UMass Boston digital archive, online at www.MassMemories.net.

The hours of the Road Show are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for more information or contact Project Manager Heather Cole at heather.cole@umb.edu or 617-287-5929. Who knows? The memories you share might provide the perfect finishing touches for authors and historians writing about the Islands hundreds of years from now.

FREE FERRY DAY!

Spectacle Island, photograph from http://www.jaycashman.com

Enjoy the summer while it lasts! If you haven’t been out to the Boston Harbor Islands yet this season, take advantage of this great offer. Visit either Georges or Spectacle Islands and enjoy a free boat ride to get there. Ferries depart every half hour from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. A return time will be assigned based on departure time when tickets are allocated. Due to high demand, all tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are available starting at 8:00 am on the day of the trip at Boston’s Best Cruises Long Wharf-North Ferry Center. No advance reservations. Parties are limited to five.


First time out to the Islands or simply want to know more about this amazing treasure in Boston Harbor? Be sure to pick up a copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, by Christopher Klein, on sale at the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and at various places throughout the islands.

Can’t make it out to the Boston Harbor Islands today? Plan to head out this Sunday and catch Meg Muckenhoupt, author of Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces, at 1:00PM on Spectacle Island! More details here.

 

Meet Meg Muckenhoupt, Author of Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces

As we approach the last few weeks of summer (sob!), Union Park Press is pleased to present an engaging talk and book signing event with Meg Muckenhoupt, author of Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces. Bring your friends and family to Spectacle Island on Sunday, August 21 at 1:00 PM for a fun and refreshingly unique summer afternoon.

With just a few days remaining in August, you will be able to cross off a few more items on that Boston summer bucket list, such as:

• Visit the new Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion on the Rose Kennedy Greenway!
• Hop on a ferry, climb to the upper deck, and soak up the sun and surf while motoring through beautiful Boston Harbor.
• Disembark at Spectacle Island, where you can hike through wildflowers, catch incredible views of the Boston skyline, and cool off with a swim from one of the island’s sandy beaches.
• Listen as Meg Muckenhoupt shares fascinating tidbits about the origins of Boston’s spectacular parks — such as the history of Spectacle Island, a former landfill that once smelled so foul that ships could navigate the harbor in foggy weather by its stench… (happily, this is no longer the case)

While you’re there, be sure to make the best of the last days of summer with Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces, an in-depth guide that will always give you a reason to get outdoors.

For more information about the event, the Boston Harbor Islands, and how to get there, visit this site.

Can’t make it to Meg Muckenhoupt’s talk on Spectacle Island this weekend? Not to worry! Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces is available in bookstores and online– and check back here for upcoming author events.