Last year I started giving historical talks to local museums and senior centers. What started out as a one off presentation blossomed as more groups wrote or called me to do a presentation for them. This year my calender has filled with a good number of talks.
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Massachusetts Connections to the Titanic
April 15, 2025 (113th anniversary)
Harvard MA senior center
Although not well known these were a great number of residents of Massachusetts who sailed on the Titanic. They included businessman returning from sales trips, families on tour of Europe, immigrants looking forward to joining families already in America and a best selling author.
The Sudbury Fight
April 22, 2025 (349th anniversary)
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
On April 21, 1676 over five hundred Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Narragansett warriors attacked the frontier settlements of Sudbury (today Sudbury and Wayland) in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Various companies of English militiamen from nearby settlements marched to that town's defense and were drawn into ambushes and suffered heavy losses. The battle was the largest fight and the last major Native American victory in King Philip's War before their final defeat in southern New England in August 1676. All but forgotten today, the sites and stories of this battle are still there to be found by the curious who look for them.
April 19, 1775: The British View Point
April 19, 2025 (250th anniversary)
Fort Devens Museum 1:00 PM
Although the events and story of Lexington and Concord are well known, the British side is too often dismissed or ignored. What did the British know about the supplies at Concord and the countryside? How was the march to Boston conducted? This presentation will explore the British side through the use of first person documents and accounts to provide a new and complimentary account of the days events.
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Battle of Bunker Hill: A Tactical View
May17, 2025 1:00
Fort Devens Musem
The Battle of Bunker’s Hill is a milestone in American history; but also a terribly misunderstood battle. Far too often folklore and myth have replaced fact so that today most narratives are confused and misleading. Why didn’t the British outflank the Americans on Charlestown neck? Were there really three frontal assaults? Did the British outnumber the Americans? And did the Americans really only lose the battle because they ran out of ammunition?
This presentation will look at why the leaders made the decisions they did based on facts at the time. Rather than British arrogance and American inexperience, most decisions were based on sound reasoning at the moment.
