This image is the cover for the book Hidden History of Cambridge & Harvard

Hidden History of Cambridge & Harvard

Home to the location where George Washington took command of the troops and to America's oldest Ivy League university, Cambridge is a city that feels like a town.

Hasty Pudding meetings were enlivened with mock trials spoofing happenings in Cambridge and among the faculty; by 1860 the trials had evolved into shows. In a corner of the Cambridge Common, across from Harvard Yard, a Gilded Age statue of a Puritan has been toppled several times. Letters home from Robert Kennedy were found stashed on a high shelf in a college room he occupied, over 30 years after he graduated.

From protests to the "Beer Garden Summit", author Jane Merrill shares the stories behind notable landmarks and some significant but little-known facts in and around town.

Jane Merrill

Jane Merrill began her writing career in New York City during its heyday as a sanctuary for freelance writers. Now she lives in Mid-Coast Maine. Jane is the author of fifty articles and many books, among her favorites to write being those about Aaron Burr's escapades in Paris, the Parisian showgirl's iconic costume, Dr. Benjamin Thompson's inventions and Benedict Arnold's life after his treasonous attempt to sell West Point to the British. She earned her bachelor's degree at Wellesley and her master's degrees at Harvard and Columbia. After several years teaching at an international school in Tehran, she returned to Cambridge, where she headed the North Branch of the Cambridge Public Library. She is drawn to create books that are a kaleidoscope of people, time and place.

History Press