Rainy Boston

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Geo: 42.3521, -71.0513

I think we are experiencing the peripheral effects of Hurricane Matthew here today. We had planned an adventurous walk around North End but the rain drove us to several Uber rides instead. Uber now has a 'ride sharing' option that further reduces costs, but also time predictability.

First to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum and then to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

This evening we had a tour introductory drinks and dinner. There are 26 people on the tour, including three Aussie couples. The conversation flowed freely (along with the drinks) and it was a convivial start.

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Photos

Boston Tea Party Museum
On 16 Dec 1773 the Sons of Liberty, a group protesting against British taxes (taxation without representation!) chose to destroy 340 tea chests to avoid paying the mandatory taxes due upon their landing. This event is credited with being a catalyst for the American Revolution.

Replica ship
Three brigs contained the tea (and other goods). The museum includes faithful replicas of the ships and they portrayed the history in a very imaginative manner. We participated in the town meeting that decided to destroy the tea (with actors in period costumes), then went on board for a description of the ships and the actual events that fateful night. Then on to the museum where actors, holograms and film portrayed the events 16 months later when things came to a head following King George III's reaction to the mutinous behaviour. Paul Revere's ride was explained and the ensuing Battles of Lexington and Concord. Fascinating!

Tea tossing...
The wooden tea chests each contained up to 400lbs of tea. The tea was sealed in thin lead sheeting to prevent contamination from the salt air. Over four hours the ships were boarded by colonists, many of them 'disguised' as local Indians. They broke open the chests and dumped the contents into the bay. One smaller chest washed up on shore and it has been treasured ever since. It is the only known original chest that remains and it is a centre-piece of the museum.

Museum of Fine Arts
I confess to a 'Philistine' tendency when visiting museums. Unless the guide is really good and the artefacts truly amazing (such as the Vienna Fine Arts Museum, or the Palace of Versailles) my attention span wavers after a couple of hours. The MFA brochure identified a dozen or so "important" pieces which we found very helpful.

Ganesh
This thousand year-old wooden statue is one of the museum's major pieces. It's about 1500mm tall. I have included it for Michael Saunders, who gifted his golfing mates with miniature Ganeshs, several years ago.

Mummies
The MFA also sponsored several archaeological expeditions to Egypt, a hundred years ago. They retain a huge collection of artefacts from those explorations. I was amazed that the wooden sarcophagus shown here dates from 700BC! It was in such good condition. PS. In The Met we saw a plain wooden sarcophagus that was a thousand years older still!

Comments

[Lowie]

Make sure you walk the freedom trail. Watch out for Redcoats!

[robselclark]

Nah! They were no big deal. One offered to hire his coat to me for a photo...