Congratulations!

I'm happy to report that you all passed the AP exam! Our class average was 3.667. Pretty impressive. Come see me in August when we get back to school. Til then, enjoy the rest of your summer!

American Dream Source (Really Late)

This is an interesting video interview with Ron Reagan, Ronald Reagan's son, about how the American Dream is an overused cliche:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12903190

54th Regiment

The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th regiment memorial is located across from the Massachusetts statehouse. It serves to commemorate the first African Americans to fight in the civil war newly allowed by the Emancipation Proclamation. African Americans were allowed to volunteer, and the whole regiment served under the memorial's focal point, Robert Gould Shaw. This memorial is made of high-relief bronze and unveiled in 1897. The physical representation is that of the regiment marching south, along Beacon street.

Vendome Firefighters Memorial

This memorial was erected in memory of the nine firefighters who lost their lives attempting to stop the fire in the Vendome Hotel. On Father's Day, June 17, 1972, a tremendous fire erupted just a few steps away from where the memorial is today; although the firefighters stopped the flames, the Vendome collapsed with Firefighters inside due to a combination of fire damage and faulty construction. The black stone memorial points to the location of the fire and has a timeline of the event inscribed upon it. The stone bench nearby allows people to sit down and observe both the timeline and the site of the fire.

Anne Hutchinson Memorial

Anne Hutchinson was banished from Boston in the first decade of settlement because her religious views were different from those of the ruling ministers. She believed that both men and women could receive grace only from God and accused the ministers of preaching that “good works” signified holiness. She attracted women to prayer meetings she held in her home in part because her beliefs put women’s souls on an equal footing with men’s souls. She was banished in 1638 for heresy and killed in New York in 1643 by Siwanoy Native Americans. This statue was sculpted by Cyrus E. Dallin and depicts Hutchinson and her daughter Susanna.

The Boston Women's Memorial

Dedicated on October 25, 2003, the Boston Women's Memorial features three important contributors to Boston's history - Abigail Adams (President John Adam's wife), Lucy Stone (first woman to earn a college degree), and Phillis Wheatley (first published African-American poet). These three women, living in the 18th and 19th centuries, were committed to social change and women's rights. They are commemorated today for their writing and their impact on society. The memorial depicts their bronze statues in stages of "coming down off their pedestals" (as women have, symbolically) in order to use the pedestals as work surfaces.
Artist: Meredith Gang Bergmann

The Irish Famine Memorial

The Irish Famine Memorial was erected in downtown Boston, along the city's Freedom Trail, on June 28, 1998. It's purpose was to mark the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine.
The memorial is made up of two statues - one depicting a family that is famished, poverty-stricken, and desperate, and a second depicting the same family, hopeful and determined. The intention is to picture the family leaving a starving Ireland and arriving in the thriving city of Boston. Around these two statues are eight plaques, each giving a small amount of historical insight.