Sunday, May 16, 2021

A plant genus named after Quaker scientist John Fothergill

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Fothergilla major   (Large Fothergilla or Mountain Witch Alder) John Fothergill (1712-1780) was born into a Quaker family in Yorkshire, Eng...
Saturday, May 1, 2021

A lighthouse name originating from the Narragansett language: Pomham Rocks Light

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Pomham Rocks Lighthouse , constructed in 1871: Happy 150th Birthday! The Pomham Rocks Lighthouse ( Pomham Light , for short) was constructe...
Sunday, March 14, 2021

Seven Hills Park: Somerville's history in the sky

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Going with the wind: “Ploughed Hill wane” in Seven Hills Park   We learn at school that Rome was founded on seven hills . There are many ot...
Saturday, February 27, 2021

Once with an abundance of beavers, now with an abundance of people: Boston's Jamaica Pond

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Map showing a section of the Emerald Necklace including Jamaica Pond   Jamaica Pond is an ice-age kettle pond , or kettle hole —today, pa...
Sunday, January 31, 2021

Frequently lampooned: Harvard's Lampoon Castle

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  Cartoonish round-tower of  Harvard's beloved Lampoon Castle (End of January 2021) S tanding my first time in front of the Lampoon Cast...
Saturday, November 28, 2020

Scituate: an Irish mossing town in New England got its name by spell-changing the Native American word of a local brook

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Satuit Brook widening along its flow into Scituate Harbor The seacoast town of Scituate in Plymouth County , Massachusetts , is known for i...
Monday, September 7, 2020

Why we have Guppies and not Peters

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Wilhelm Karl Hartwig Peters (1815-1883) was a German naturalist and explorer, who, in 1859, described fish he discovered in Venezuela, whic...