The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has made some pretty incredible acquisitions recently. In the last year alone, the museum received an important collection of 113 Dutch paintings. It also expanded its collection of 2oth-century painters. But as Steve Annear at The Boston Globe reports, the museum’s latest addition, Riley, is the story that’s currently fetching the most attention. Riley is a Weimaraner puppy. He will help the museum search for insects and pests that might harm artworks.

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Throughout these early years before the revolution, the ancient elm across from the distillery where John Adams met with a radical secret society became Massachusetts' most potent symbol of revolt. In the decade before the Revolutionary War, images of the Liberty Tree, as it became known, spread across New England and beyond: colonists christened other Liberty Trees in homage to the original. Yet unlike Boston's other revolutionary landmarks the Liberty Tree is nearly forgotten today.

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On May 16, 2019, hundreds of public school teachers, students and supporters joined union leaders on the Boston Common. Their purpose: make Massachusetts lawmakers provide more funding for local schools. The first step would be to change the formula that the state uses to determine how much funding goes to which schools.

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Opened in 1835, the Abiel Smith School served as a segregated public school for African American students in Boston. Following the integration of the schools in 1855, the Abiel Smith School briefly closed then later reopened for a time as an integrated primary school. From 1887 to 1941 it served as a Grand Army of the Republic chapter and following that, the James E. Welch Post #56 of the American Legion.

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Paul Revere is famous for his midnight ride on April 18, 1775. He rode to warn the American revolutionaries that British troops were approaching Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts as the Revolutionary War was about to start. Revere gave accounts of his ride to the Massachusetts Provisional Congress. But the most complete account of the ride is Paul Revere’s letter to Jeremy Belknap.

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In Boston, a meeting at the Old South Meeting House addressed the delay in sending the ship ‘Dartmouth’ back to London with East India Tea. When the ship's owner, Mr. Francis Rotch, learned that the governor had denied permission for the ship to leave, a group of determined patriots took action by dumping 342 chests of tea into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party. This defiant act was celebrated by the townspeople as a necessary stand against oppressive British policies.

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The town of Boston has seen a tragic example of the destructive consequences of quartering soldiers. On March 5th, 1770, a group of British soldiers clashed with unarmed citizens, resulting in the death of five people and wounding of several others. The people were immediately alarmed with the report of this horrid massacre and great numbers soon assembled at this tragic scene. Their feelings were deeply felt but could not be expressed; and while some were taking care of the dead and wounded, the rest were talking about what to do next.

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On April 19, 1775, Paul Revere got the task of warning Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and Hancock that they were likely targets of the British. Revere arranged for warning lanterns to be hung in the Old North Church to alert Patriot forces to the route of the British advance. One lantern would indicate that British troops were coming by land, and two would warn that the route was across the Charles River.

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