Peabody/Essex Museum, Salem, MA

We travelled to Salem, which is just a few miles Northeast of Boston.  At one time, Salem was larger than Boston.  This was where the clipper ships came home to port after travelling the world.  This museum was designed by I.M. Pei.  There was an original building which you will see at the end of this blog entry.  The clipper ship captains brought back "curiosities" from around the world and displayed them in cabinets in the building for the people of Salem to see.






















Alll of the furniture on display in this museum
was created around Salem.  Nothing came from Europe.













































Very clever that the designed enlarged the figures on the porcelain pieces for the walls and floor.
















































































































































We took two tours.  The second tour was of 3 historic houses.  The first was built in 1690, the second 1790, and the third 1810.  Our docent was excellent.  She told us shocking things that we had either never known or forgotten.  For instance, no one bathed until 1850.  No one drank water as they believed it would kill you.  They only drank beer, wine and rum.  Must've been a great thing to be filthy and drunk all the time.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The school was founded just at the start of the Civil War and, as a result, didn't open until the Civil War was finished--1865.  There are only 4,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students.  A very select group.








The campus moved from Boston around 1915.  They picked the banks of the Charles River.  I believe they had to reclaim this land; that it was a flood plain, etc.




They have a collection of model ships because many of their students and professors designed America's Cup winning boats.







The campus is very beautiful and many important architects have designed buildings here.







This is Baker Hall, very famous, designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, completed in 1945.  Every dorm room has a view of the Charles River.





This is Rogers Hall, the main building.  Every part of MIT can be reached by underground corridors.







This is the computer sciences building, designed by Frank Gehry.
















Of course, this is a Calder.




This building was designed by I.M. Pei.  It is the tallest building in Cambridge.










This is a Henry More.  I hope there's a course the kids can take explaining to them the wonders they are living among.  Our guide had no clue.







This is the "grand dome."  On this lawn the students have their first freshman convocation and then graduate 4 years later on the same lawn.













This is the non denominational chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen, the same guy who designed the St. Louis arch.  Very beautiful, indeed.















This is a parking garage.

The Gropius House in Lincoln, MA

 Walter Gropius was the founder of the German architecture school "Bauhaus."  In 1936 he was invited to become the head of the architecture department at Harvard, and since Germany was headed in a very bad direction, he took the assignment.  He was followed by his fellow designer, Brauer, the designer of the famous furniture, whose house is next door.  A rich old lady gave them the land to build their houses on and the money to build them.  This house cost $25,000 in 1936.  It is 2300 square feet.  The heating situation is quite "iffy," since all the glass is original, single pane windows.

This property is 10 miles from our apt. in Cambridge.

The Homes of John and John Quincy Adams (and Abigail)

We took "the T" (which is their subway system) to Quincy where the Visitor Center is right across the street.  There is a trolley that takes visitors around to the various Adams homes.








This is the house where John Adams was born.  His father was a farmer.  John was the eldest child and as a result, he was the one the father decided to educate.  He sent him to Harvard.  Originally, he studied to become a minister but later changed his major to law.



After he became a lawyer and married Abigail, they built this house next door to his parents' house.  This is where he wrote his most important early documents, such as the Massachusetts Constitution, which is still in use.































After they came back from France and Great Britain (where John was ambassador), Abigail decided she needed a grander house.  They bought this house which is a block or two from the other property.




















This is her garden, which is a formal, English garden.  She brought many plants back from Europe and they are still growing here.







This is the detached library which houses many, many important books.  There's a lot of history up here around Boston and so many important books.

Of course, their son, John Quincy Adams, was the 6th president of the U.S.  At the age of 10 he went with his father to France and began learning all the European languages.