HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

This episode examines the life of Walter Dodd, who started his career as a janitor at Harvard Medical School before becoming a pharmacist, physician, and the Father of American Radiology. Though as you will hear, his journey was not without great per ...

Your humble hosts are out of town and off the air this week. Never fear, Jake is here, and he has this week’s historical anniversaries for your enjoyment. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/047

Early Boston aeronauts used balloons to perform scientific experiments, cross the English channel, take the first aerial photographs, and provide public entertainment.  Whether by hot air or hydrogen, these pioneers made their way into the air, and i ...

The Skin Book was written by highwayman George Walton and dedicated to the only man to best him in combat.  While he was a prisoner at Charlestown Penitentiary, Walton wrote a memoir.  According to his wishes, after his death, the book was bound in W ...

Since 1651, Boston has had a legal responsibility to mark and measure its boundaries every few years.  Despite advances in technology, the practice of "perambulating the bounds" means that someone has to go out and walk the town lines.  This law is o ...

When young Albert Tirrell killed his lover Maria Bickford on Beacon Hill, it sparked a scandal that rocked Victorian Boston in the 1840s.  It was a tale of seduction, murder, and the unlikeliest of defenses.  In the end, he would be found not guilty, ...

While your humble hosts are away chasing the total solar eclipse, enjoy this show about the history of eclipses in Boston. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/042 (We're aware of some glitches in this recording and trying to fix it with our podcast h ...

During a late nineteenth century canoe craze, recreational canoeing became Boston's hottest leisure time activity.  Young lovers took advantage of the privacy and intimacy of a canoe to engage in a little bit of illicit romance, leading a humorless s ...

Despite our liberal reputation today, for years Boston was a bastion of official censorship. Authors and playwrights whose works were considered obscene had to create a watered-down "Boston version." The Watch and Ward Society decided what art, theat ...

492 people were killed in a 1942 fire at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub that lasted barely a half hour. It was the deadliest disaster in Boston history. Only the smallpox epidemics of the early 1700s and the 1918 Spanish flu rival it for loss of ...