Cambridge, Massachusetts, possesses photographic documentation that is probably unparalleled for a city of its size. In 1980, The Photo Search Project, a community-sponsored effort led by the Cambridge Historical Commission, unearthed thousands of photographs in archives, attics, and family albums. A curated selection of these images, dating from the 1840’s to 1946, appears in our publication, A Photographic History of Cambridge (1984).
Within its pages, we see the exterior and the interior of a workers’ cottage as it appeared in 1860. We meet two of the founding members of the Cambridge Sewing Circle and the survivors of Company C, Third Regiment, who marched off to the Civil War in 1861. We are invited to a noontime English class for immigrants at a local factory in the early 1900s, and to a Polish wedding in 1913. Harnessmakers’, carriagesmiths’, and soapmakers’ portraits recall occupations of the past.
With a forward by renowned historian Oscar Handlin, introduction by CHC Executive Director Charles M. Sullivan, and text by historical experts, this publication provides not only an invaluable record of Cambridge’s history but a review of a century of developments in popular photography as well.
Researchers, historians, photography enthusiasts, and those curious about the city’s rich ethnic, occupational, and architectural heritage will appreciate the diversity of subject, scene, and neighborhood beyond the well-known historic landmarks of our city.
To obtain your own copy of A Photographic History of Cambridge for only $12.50, stop by our office at 831 Mass Ave, or email us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov. A limited number of hard cover copies are also available for $20!
