Venture back to the Boston of the 1800s, when Back Bay was just a wide expanse of water to the west of the Shawmut Peninsula and merchants peddled their wares to sailors along the docks. Witness the beginning of the American Industrial Revolution; learn how a series of cultural movements made Boston the focal point of abolitionism in America, with leaders like William Lloyd Garrison; and see the golden age of the arts ushered in with notables Longfellow,...

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was birthplace to the burgeoning "night lunch wagon" manufacturing industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These horse-drawn food carts eventually evolved into classic American diners. For many years, diner builders like the Worcester Lunch Car Company and J.B. Judkins Company operated in the Bay State, while few new diners opened for business after 1960. This left the state with a high concentration...

The idea of a criminal record originated in the early seventeenth century when the magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony began recording dates, places, victims and criminals. Despite, or perhaps because of, the strict code of the Puritans, some early settlers earned quite the rap sheet that landed them either in the stocks or at the end of a noose. With biting wit and an eye for the macabre, local author Robert Wilhelm traces the first documented...

Experience the fairs, feasts and foliage that herald harvest time in the Pine Tree State. Autumn traditions and flavors come alive in this nostalgic journey through New England's favorite season. Nature lore follows the ways of moose and bear and the great fall migrations of hawks and Monarch butterflies. Old-time fairs still feature horse-pulling, handcrafts and pie-baking contests. Apples, pumpkins and potatoes offer a delectable bounty for the...

Embark on a delectable culinary adventure with "New England Clam Chowder Recipes" This comprehensive cookbook takes you on a flavorful journey through the world of chowder, the beloved comfort food that warms the soul. From traditional New England clam chowder to international variations, creative adaptations, and even chowder-inspired desserts, this cookbook is your passport to a world of savory and sweet surprises. Discover the secrets to crafting...

The true story of a woman hanged in colonial Portsmouth for burying her stillborn out-of-wedlock baby. On a cold December morning in 1768, thirty-one-year-old Ruth Blay approached the gallows for her execution. Standing on the high ground in the northwest corner of what is now Portsmouth's old South Cemetery, she would have had a clear view across the pasture to the harbor and open sea. The eighteenth-century hanging of a schoolteacher for concealing...

A historian delves into the legendary story of the baby who saved a ship full of Scottish immigrants from pirates. Meet Mary, ocean-born and named by an infamous pirate. Her birth saved a group of Scottish immigrants aboard a ship bound for New England in 1720. Halfway through the grueling voyage, pirates intercepted and captured the vessel. Upon hearing a baby's cry, the pirate captain promised to spare the lives of all on board if the mother named...

The Connecticut town's past gives rise to a book full of "tales of supernatural possibilities . . . as much about history as it is about ghost tales" (The Day). A hair-raising number of historic haunts-from sea captains who never returned home to servicemen who never left-exist in the half square mile of Groton Bank. Ghostly soldiers of the Revolutionary War roam the Mother Bailey House and march through the basement of a nearby home, and former...

The dark woods of Maine have been the setting for many eerie and unexplained events, none more captivating than sightings of a giant hominid known as Bigfoot. But what makes this corner of New England such a perfect place for this cryptid to live? Learn about the ecology and geography that support the legend and meet the people forever changed by close encounters with it. From previously unpublished eyewitness accounts to modern-day media portrayals,...

"When the body of single mother Melissa Rollins is found trapped inside a bedroom closet in her immaculate suburban home, Detective Jo Fournier races to the scene. The small town of Greenfern is sweltering in a heatwave, and Jo is horrified to find that Melissa's heating was turned up to the max whilst she died of thirst. Who would kill a devoted mother in such a cruel way? Searching the house for clues, Jo's team discovers that the front door was...