Museum Adventures in Boston

Posted November 3, 2022 by Rebecca Devereaux

And the adventures continue! In this post I am going to focus on my obsession with the museums and libraries in the Boston area. Prepare for a lot of Rebecca’s brain in a perpetual explosion.

My list of visits so far: The Central Boston Public Library (BPL), the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the immersive Monet and Impressionist exhibit, the Boston Athenaeum, the Simmons Library, and Emmanuel College’s Library. I have decided that the BPL is my favorite study space in Boston, at least at this point. I love seeing all the people interacting with books, research, and information. I am a fan of studying with the white noise of people moving around in the background, with children walking past, and with so many books at my fingertips.

Beyond my visits to the BPL I also need to share about my visits, yes plural visits, to the MFA. I have been three times so far (each visit lasted multiple hours). I plan to go again tomorrow. And I have STILL not seen the whole museum. I feel so blessed that my Simmons ID will get me into the MFA and the Gardner for free! That means I can go as many times as I want without having to rush through. Tomorrow I am planning to finally see the special exhibit on the TIMES Magazine photographs. I am sure my history brain will absolutely love seeing a visual representation of American history.

In my history class we just read Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook. This history is an attempt to capture the global history of the 17th century by looking at Vermeer’s paintings with an eye to uncovering the history in the objects Vermeer chose to paint. Brook looks at a hat and explores the trade with North America for beaver pelts. He examines the bowl which has fruit tumbling out of it and examines the porcelain trade with China. To be able to read about Dutch art and these objects is cool on one level, but it gets even cooler when I can then go to the MFA and see the paintings or porcelain in person.

If you have any recommendations on further museum explorations, I am all ears!