What's Hot in Massachusetts?
Boston
The Freedom Trail Goes Digital
A grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council is enabling the Freedom Trail Foundation to bring the digital age to the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that leads to 16 nationally significant historic sites in Boston, including museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, the USS Constitution, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond.  The foundation will digitize the historical content of the Granary Burying Ground for a smart-phone application and will create and an official smart-phone application for the entire trail, bringing it into the 21st century without diluting the original story. (Source: Group Travel Leader)
 

Boston Tea Party Museum

One June 25, more than a decade after fire sparked by lightning destroyed the first museum, the Boston Tea Party Museum will open near the spot in the Boston Harbor where the famous act of protest that helped lead to the American Revolution took place.

 

In addition to a larger building, the museum will also feature authentic replicas of the three ships that were boarded by American patriots dressed like Mohawk Indians who dumped crates of tea into the harbor to protest British economic policies toward the American Colonies.

 

The museum will use the latest technology to immerse visitors in the story of the Revolution, including giving everyone the identity of an actual 18th-century patriot.

 

There will be first-person interpreters and interactive areas where virtual versions of King George III and Sam Adams will debate the issues of the day. On the ships, which are being re-created in painstaking detail, visitors will see and hear an animatronic ship’s captain writing in his log and the ships’ crews sleeping in their hammocks.

 

Hands-on activities will include the opportunity to dump a crate of tea into the harbor. An artifact that won’t be dumped again is one of the original tea crates that was tossed into the water. It is one of only two known to exist.

 

The museum tour ends in a re-created tavern and tearoom, where visitors will be able to drink teas similar to those dumped into the harbor. (Source: The Group Travel Leader)

 
 

Salem
The Witches Cottage Presents: Dark Times: Excerpts from The Crucible
A perfect match for school groups studying The Crucible and the Salem witch trials. Enjoy a thrilling 45 minute theatrical program detailing the events that happened in 1692 and how it relates to Arthur Miller's classic book. You'll witness scenes from the play, and experience the fear that surrounded Salem during that year.  The show also includes a question and answer session, as well as a mock trial, where some students are accused of witchcraft! Complete with theatrical 4D special effects, (including witches, ghostly apparitions and even....snow!) this show is a must see to round out your educational visit.
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