News & Events
2024 Stanley Paterson Research Fellowship –
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Application Deadline: April 15, 2024
The Friends of Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters are now accepting applications for the 2024 Stanley Paterson Research Fellowship.
The Paterson Fellowship supports research by scholars using the archives and collections at Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA. The fellowship consists of a $1,600 stipend to support expenses for research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Past Fellows have studied a broad range of topics, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s influences and poetic career, architecture and design from Colonial Cambridge to the Colonial Revival, and the motivations and interests of gay and lesbian historic preservationists in the 20th century. These projects draw on the surprisingly diverse and wide-ranging archival material related to the extended Longfellow family held by Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site.
The 2024 Fellowship Call for Entries has more information and directions on how to apply. Applications are due on April 15, 2024, with notification to applicants on May 3, 2024.
Thomas M. Paine Collection
Evacuation Day Lecture:
The Stories of the Washington Elm
Thursday, March 14 | 6:00-7:00 PM
J. L. Bell
In-person event at 105 Brattle Street – register to attend in-person
Cambridge Common has multiple monuments to the “Washington Elm,” a tree held up (eventually by steel rods) as a symbol of American patriotism. Henry W. Longfellow is said to have composed the text on one of those markers: “Under this tree WASHINGTON first took command of the American Army, July 3, 1775.” After the elm finally collapsed in 1923, more skeptical researchers concluded that its fame was based on little more than legend. In this talk, historian and author J. L. Bell digs into how the Washington Elm came to be celebrated, what its story says about the national memory of the Revolution, and why we really should remember this tree.
2023 Longfellow Holiday Open House
The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site at 105 Brattle Street.
The Lincoln Institute for Land Policy at 110 Brattle Street.
The Lincoln Institute for Land Policy President's residence at 115 Brattle Street.
Friends begin to gather for the 2023 Holiday Open House.
Big Smile Entertainment’s Holiday Victorian Carolers on the front porch of 115 Brattle Street.
Main staircase of 115 Brattle Street.
Cider, hot chocolate, and treats.
Friends president, Tom Paine and event planner, Faith Moore.
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Henry Longfellow's study decorated for the holidays.
A lemon tree grows in Cambridge
A new sled for Charley.
A letter to Santa.
Past and present. Longfellow house.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly...
Homemade Christmas cards.
A closer look at some of the cards.
Another card.
19th century gifts for children.
Presenting Rosalita's Puppet Shows!
The puppets performed...
...and the children laughed and cheered.
Setting the table before Fanny and "The Children's Hour."
...and to all a goodnight.
The United States of America
On January 2, 1776, Gen. Washington asked his secretary Stephen Moylan to write a letter on his behalf to his aide Col. Joseph Reed, then meeting with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to update him about the siege of Boston. Among his many points in the 7-page letter, Moylan writes “I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain”, and with that penned the earliest known appearance of the name of this soon to be declared independent nation, 6 months and two days before July 4, 1776.
View the full letter online from the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library
Letter from Stephen Moylan to Joseph Reed, dated January 2, 1776