Harvard Hall 2008

     July 2008: The next day, after my visit to Harvard, I saw the sights along Boston's Freedom Trail. My favorites included the Old State House, Washington St. and State St. (617-720-1713) and nearby Faneuil Hall. First, I found that Boston seemed to differ from Philadelphia concerning its historic buildings. Whereas Philly in most cases put some distance between many of their historical buildings and more modern buildings, Boston in many cases had skyscrapers build very close to their historical buildings. I also found this true with the Old State House. Inside, however, the building contained a museum of Boston history. They especially included exhibit items and multi-media presentations about Boston just before and during the American Revolutionary War. Later, I entered Faneuil Hall and at first, I wasn't very impressed with the ground floor; it looked like a tourist-trap shopping center. Then, as I walked through, I saw a closed-circuit video showing the floor above. Therefore, I walked upstairs and stepped into their 18th-century-interior meeting hall. Here, a National Park Ranger told the story of the events that happened in this room, especially in the 1700s.

Massachusetts Hall 2008

   July 2008: I can finally say that I've been to Harvard! To tell the truth, I spent three nights in Boston, Massachusetts, and I rode their subway, that the locals call the T, across the river to Cambridge, MA. Once there, I made a beeline to Harvard Yard long enough to take pictures of the two oldest buildings at Harvard University: Massachusetts Hall (1720) and Harvard Hall (1765). Then, I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St. (617-495-3045). Although the museum offered its share of the history of Earth via floral, fauna, and minerals, the one area that made this museum unique was the display of about 3,000 realistic glass flowers and plants. This was no guidebook hype. They looked so much like real plants, but they couldn't be because real plants would have dried up in those glass display cases long ago. In the area displaying rocks, minerals, and meteorites, I found it interesting to note that the museum still used old-fashioned, wood-and-glass cases. Admission also included the adjoining Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. This place had a sizable collection of exhibit items as well as texts and pictures covering past civilizations and the Peabody showed exhibits areas about more recent groups of people, especially Native Americans.