The Medford Historical Commission presents "Keeping the Memories Alive," an evening full of history, near and far. Hear Hamilton resident Vern Chandler share his extraordinary journey in the footsteps of his relatives who participated in World War II. Among them was Private Kenneth E. Miller of Medford. He gave his life in defense of freedom and never returned home. Miller is memorialized overseas and a local family has adopted the grave of this fallen American liberator. Chandler will share the…

The Medford Public Library is presenting an online program, "Discovering American Drag," hosted by Matthew Wittmann, curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection. Wittmann will offer a virtual look at the history of drag performance in the United States through photographs, ephemera, and a variety of other archival materials held by Houghton Library at Harvard University. Register for the Zoom link through the library's online calendar.  

The Medford Historical Society & Museum present the program “ 'Coming Together' with Frederick Law Olmsted," with speaker Isabel Schulman of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline. As the nation's first landscape architect, Olmsted designed parks with purpose: to better connect people with their health, their spirit, with nature and with each other. Olmsted wrote how time spent in a public park could animate local citizens “with a common purpose . . ., each individual adding by his…

Medford historian Dee Morris's summer walking tour for 2023 is "The South Medford Experience," where famous horse racing tracks became a community of homes. In the summer of 1866, two investors threw open the gates of Mystic Trotting Park to a crowd in love with harness racing. The South Medford race track, supplied with over 100 horses, fronted on Main Street at Tufts Square. By the 20th century, these acres evolved into streets filled with comfortable homes owned by Italian…

Historian Dee Morris continues her four-part series, "Medford's Compass Points," in which she discusses the city's four "cardinal point" neighborhoods. Today's focus will be on East Medford. Stories about East Medford often highlight the Mystic River. Thatcher Magoun and his skilled craftsmen began in 1803 to build wooden ships on the banks of this serpentine waterway. Our city gained international fame plus welcome prosperity. Over time, two large areas became informal subdivisions: Glenwood and Wellington. The land was divided into…

Medford historian Dee Morris's summer history program for 2023 is "The South Medford Experience," where famous horse racing tracks became a community of homes. In the summer of 1866, two investors threw open the gates of Mystic Trotting Park to a crowd in love with harness racing. The South Medford race track, supplied with over 100 horses, fronted on Main Street at Tufts Square. By the 20th century, these acres evolved into streets filled with comfortable homes owned by Italian…

The Royall House and Slave Quarters is hosting its first-ever Reading Frederick Douglass Together program on the museum grounds. Community members are invited to gather on the lawn in front of the historic Slave Quarters building to read/listen to Douglass's "What, To The Slave, is the Fourth of July?" to honor the long history of Black activism, critique, and abolition. The program will begin with a libation ceremony to honor the people who were enslaved on the plantation. Scholar/activist David…