Bean Town Built by Bostonians
[C]ities remain the main battleground on which societies articulate their sense of time past and time present . . . Cities, after all, are palimpsests of history, incarnations of time in stone, sites of memory extending both in time and space.
—Andreas Huyssen, “Memory Sites in an Expanded Field”
A study of Boston would be greatly lessened in quality if it were to neglect the acknowledgement of the theory of the palimpsest. What is a palimpsest? Simply, it is the idea that a place or situation with layers of history superimposed with its present to form the basis of its identity. What better way to look at a place like Boston than to account for the hugely significant impact of its American Revolutionary history in its present day character? There cannot be a Boston without its past, and likewise, there cannot be a Boston without Bostonians. Two case studies of Boston culture, Looking Backward, 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, serve to reinforce this idea of Boston as a palimpsest and an urban center written by its people.
Looking Backward, 2000-1887 is a unique, science-ficiton-esque novel in which Bellamy explores the nature of the city of Boston in what he imagines to be the year 2000 (keep in mind, the novel was published in 1888). The main character, rather than noticing much about the city of Boston in the year 2000, spends the majority of time entranced by a quasi-socialist society that Bellamy has imagined for this utopian version of Boston. Aside from occasional mentions of street names, it is difficult to tell from the descriptions that Bellamy’s city is Boston. Devoid of people, the streets were described as empty, the stores automated, and the buildings homogenous. The concrete wasteland that Bellamy paints is far from the dingy and magnetic city that 21st century Boston is.
Looking to current landmarks within the city today, the Museum of Fine Arts serves as an excellent example of a palimpsest, as well as a medium through which Bostonians have been able to “write the city.” Boston’s MFA began its life in the iconic Copley Square before moving to its current location on Huntington Avenue in 1909. On the topic of individuals who shape a city, a native Bostonian was responsible for the re-design of the new museum, and the classical architectural gesture is hugely reminiscent of the city’s academic and historical character.
Another point that should not be taken for granted is this idea of a “Bostonian”—which ties in with the theme of writing the city (and who does that writing). Bostonians are an interesting breed, stereotypically known for their gruffness, blue-collar work ethic, and intense loyalty to family (and with that, native Bostonians). This identity as a Bostonian coincides with the identity that the city holds as its own. There is no Boston without its people, the ones who through their spirit and regionalism have constructed a city all its own: Bean town, Baahhhstin, Boston.