Boston Public Library Research Services

Boston Public Library Research Services The Research Services team at the Boston Public Library provides reference and research expertise across multiple subjects and disciplines.

The BPL’s collections of historical newspapers, government documents, and local history resources are extensive and fascinating, and our librarians are available to assist you with using our scholarly and popular resources. Follow this page for highlights from the BPL’s collections, recommendations of research tools, and interesting and quirky historical facts dug up by the Research Services team.

Born in Norwood in 1864, Fred Holland Day, better known as F. Holland Day was the only child of a wealthy Boston merchan...
06/13/2026

Born in Norwood in 1864, Fred Holland Day, better known as F. Holland Day was the only child of a wealthy Boston merchant. The wealth he inherited from his father allowed him to freely pursue his interests in photography and literature without worrying about making a living. He was a major proponent of photography as an art form, with his own work being part of the pictorialist and symbolist movements. His career as a photographer essentially ended in 1904, when a fire destroyed most of his prints and negatives.

Day was also an avid book reader and collector, and self-financed a publishing house in Boston which was in operation for about nine years. He published works by Oscar Wilde, Stephen Crane, and Aubrey Beardsley among others.

While Day kept his personal life private, he is widely believed to have been homosexual. He never married or had children, and his manner of dress and otherwise eccentric behavior led many of his contemporaries to assume he was gay. Many of his photographs also featured male nudity in ways that many consider to be an indication of his preferences.

West End Museum, F. Holland Day- https://tinyurl.com/mrxkhwne
Archives of American Art, F. Holland Day papers, 1858-1977- https://tinyurl.com/yjuc3yhx
Getty Museum, F. Holland Day- https://tinyurl.com/mxr2rdby
Books at the BPL- https://tinyurl.com/hmbxskmw

Image Credit:
Title: [Self-portrait, F. Holland Day in medieval costume with arm on antique chair]
Creator(s): Day, F. Holland (Fred Holland), 1864-1933, photographer
Date Created/Published: [ca. 1893]
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005675767/

First opened in 1838, Hopkins Observatory in Williamstown, Massachusetts is the oldest existing astronomical observatory...
06/12/2026

First opened in 1838, Hopkins Observatory in Williamstown, Massachusetts is the oldest existing astronomical observatory in the United States. It was hand-built by Professor Albert Hopkins and his students over the course of two years. Hopkins had previously been given permission by the administration of Williams College to obtain astronomical equipment in Europe.

The building has been moved twice, first in 1908 and again to its current location in 1961. While the original telescope was replaced about 20 years after being installed, much of the equipment remaining is original. Since the 1960s its primary use has been as a planetarium, hosting free shows that are open to the public.

Williams College Astronomy Department, Hopkins Observatory- https://tinyurl.com/48wv8z92
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Williams College’s Hopkins Observatory: the oldest extant observatory in the United States- https://tinyurl.com/4x8e9tky
Books at the BPL- https://tinyurl.com/3k9ncbfb and https://tinyurl.com/3thu83wx

Image Credit:
Williams College - Hopkins Observatory. Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.
17 April 2008
Via Wikimedia Commons

"Barney Frank speaks at Gay Pride rally at Parkman Bandstand in the Common, Boston," Photo, 1976, Spencer Grant.Barney F...
06/11/2026

"Barney Frank speaks at Gay Pride rally at Parkman Bandstand in the Common, Boston," Photo, 1976, Spencer Grant.

Barney Frank served in the MA House of Representatives (1973 – 1981) and the U.S. House of Representatives (1981 – 2013). He recently passed away in April 2026. He is being remembered as a gay rights pioneer — and indeed here is photographic evidence of Frank rallying with his fellow Bostonians during Pride 1976 🏳️‍🌈

🏳️‍🌈 Boston's LGBTQ+ History guide: guides.bpl.org/LGBTQhistory/LocalCreatives
🏳️‍🌈 Image: arts.bpl.org/collection/bpl/detail/b8f7204e-8ddc-46e5-897c

The World Cup is starting tomorrow. Maybe you are planning to attend a match or two, or maybe you are a fan of a team n...
06/10/2026

The World Cup is starting tomorrow. Maybe you are planning to attend a match or two, or maybe you are a fan of a team not playing at Foxborough, such as Cabo Verde or you can’t afford tickets. Do not fret. The City of Boston will be hosting watch parties throughout the tournament at City Hall Plaza. More information on the fan festival can be found at https://bostonfwc26.com/fifa-fan-festival/.
City Hall Plaza is an oft maligned space, but it works for events like this. The photo of the space being used to celebrate the Boston Celtics’ 1984 NBA Championship is from the Raymond Flynn Collection at the Boston City Archives. It, and other photos of the event, can be accessed online at https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:1544fx18m.

J. S. Bach's 6 Suites for Violoncello Solo are some of his most well-known works, and any cellist worth their salt will ...
06/09/2026

J. S. Bach's 6 Suites for Violoncello Solo are some of his most well-known works, and any cellist worth their salt will have performed at least one of them in their lifetime. The Boston Public Library's music research collection has twelve different editions of the works, which should make any researcher of these works happy. Not all of them are currently listed in the online catalog at this moment, but most of them are. If you're interested in seeing this full score (notable for being edited by the cellist Jacqueline du Pre), you can request it to use while at the Central Library by visiting the Book Delivery Desk and requesting M52.B2 BWV 1007-1012 1981x. In the meantime, here's Ms du Pre performing the Prelude of the 1st suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50XbIqoLJos

Founded through the merger of the Attleboro Sun and the Evening Chronicle of North Attleboro in 1971, the Sun Chronicle ...
06/08/2026

Founded through the merger of the Attleboro Sun and the Evening Chronicle of North Attleboro in 1971, the Sun Chronicle covers an area of Massachusetts stretching from Foxborough to the state line in Attleboro. The Boston Public Library holds the newspaper on microfilm from its founding until 2017. For more information on the Boston Public Library’s newspaper holdings, check out our guide at https://guides.bpl.org/newspapers.
The Sun Chronicle did cover the 1994 World Cup, but its coverage of the first game was from a Patriot Ledger reporter. Several area newspapers had sports reporters covering the games at the time.

A poster advertising Harpers Magazine. To see other digitized graphics from the collection of the Boston Public Library...
06/07/2026

A poster advertising Harpers Magazine. To see other digitized graphics from the collection of the Boston Public Library please go to www.digitalcommonwealth.org.

Born in Watertown in 1830, Harriet Hosmer was primarily raised by a widowed father who encouraged her to pursue her inte...
06/06/2026

Born in Watertown in 1830, Harriet Hosmer was primarily raised by a widowed father who encouraged her to pursue her interests in athletics and the arts. After showing a talent for sculpting the human form, in a rare opportunity for women of her time she was able to study anatomy at a medical school in Missouri. In the 1850s she moved to Europe to study sculpting and eventually opened her own studio in Rome. She became one of the most celebrated sculptors of her day, and today her work is on view in museums all over the world.

Having been encouraged to pursue what was then considered an “unladylike” profession as a sculptor, Harriet also lived her life openly as a le***an among her circle of friends. Her initial move to Italy was made possible largely due to her then partner Charlotte Cushman, who was one of the most popular stage performers of the 19th century. Harriet’s longest relationship was with Louisa Caroline Baring, Baroness Ashburton, a Scottish aristocrat and patron of the arts.

After spending most of her adult life in Europe, Harriet moved back to Watertown in her later years. She passed away in 1908 at age 77 and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908): Neoclassical Sculptor- https://tinyurl.com/4mxw93xb
The Huntington; Q***r Artist, Q***r Courage- https://tinyurl.com/ytexeybb
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Sleeping Faun: Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (American, 1830–1908)- https://tinyurl.com/8zpvrwfc
Books at the BPL- https://tinyurl.com/yt8wv4ck

On this day in 1851, the first installment of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly” firs...
06/05/2026

On this day in 1851, the first installment of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly” first appeared in the abolitionist newspaper The National Era. The story unfolded over the course of 40 subsequent issues and became instantly popular. It was published in book form the next year and has been in print ever since.

The plot of Uncle Tom’s Cabin concerns enslaved African Americans at a plantation in Kentucky, the main character being the titular Tom. Stowe was inspired to write it after reading narratives of and interviewing formerly enslaved individuals. The book was praised by abolitionists and criticized by pro-slavery southerners who accused Stowe of exaggerating or outright fabricating her depiction of slavery.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was almost immediately adapted into several plays, which were seen by more people than had read the book. The depiction of the characters in the plays, and in the book, led later critics to accuse Stowe of creating exaggerated stereotypes of African Americans and to downplay the literary merit of the work. In more recent years the book has been reassessed, with some scholars arguing that Stowe’s work is an important work of protest literature.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly (1852)- https://tinyurl.com/3smnzyzz
American Battlefield Trust, Uncle Tom’s Cabin- https://tinyurl.com/4d4p9svm
National Women’s History Museum, Harriet Beecher Stowe- https://tinyurl.com/w9azvbnk
History.com, Harriet Beecher Stowe- https://tinyurl.com/35hhmbdr
Books at the BPL- https://tinyurl.com/ysz7ajd8 and https://tinyurl.com/ye2ycfh3

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