It cannot be proven that this chest was not in the Tea Party

This Sunday will be the 239th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.  For many tour guides it is inescapable to discuss the Boston Tea Party of 1773, but many of us decline to send visitors to the Museum due to its affiliation with Old Town Trolley Tours, which for some of us is a competitor; and many others decline to visit the site in person because of the cost ($25.00, and apparently there is no discount for tour guides, though I had been told otherwise).  This morning, Bostontourguide.org, accompanied by Segway tour guide Jay Arr of Boston by Segway, checked out the Museum so that you can be in the know.

First of all, something free.  On the 16th, the Museum will be free for all visitors from 10am to 1pm.  Then at 4pm there will be a re-enactment beginning at the Old South Meeting House and following the traditional route to the sea.

Many of us gazed in passing during the recent season to see how the new Museum would fare, having last year garnered 27 million dollars for the construction of the new site (18M in loan from the MCCA, 3M from a grant from the city, and 6M in their own money).  From my trolley, crawling along the Moakley Bridge like a stalker, the Museum looked pretty slow.

But inside there was magic.  It begins with a fiery speech by an actor, who is “Sam Adams.”

Sam Adams makes clear to us that we are being treated unfairly

After this short rally, Adams’ assistant leads the group out a back door, down the gangway, to one of the ships.  Here the audience is rallied by another patriot, and throws some tea chests into the harbor, our chaperone helping to contrive a general hue and cry, before leading us back into the building to see a fascinating 3D presentation.  The rooms exude colonial elegance, and one feels one could really be in period rooms.  Next our chaperone leads us into a room full of 18th century portraits, and we see the “Robinson half-chest,” an actual chest from the tea party of 1773 (I had been skeptical of this, but Shawn Ford convinced me of its authenticity based on extensive forensic analysis.  Check tomorrow for an article on the Robinson Half Chest).  The audience is now asked to turn around, and suddenly two prominent portraits, one of King George III, the other of Sam Adams, come alive in vivid Harry Potter style and begin a poignant, several minutes-long, relevant debate.  We are lead into a neighboring room where a film is presented depicting the outbreak of Revolution in April 1775.

The museum presents information before and after the Tea Party, going as far forward as the 20th century and backward to just a little before the Tea Party.  In this way, the museum offers a lens that goes back and forth through time over the Tea Party from one direction, then the other, in order to place the event in context.

The scholarship is tour guide worthy, the media presentations are theatrically sophisticated, and the “cast members” are warm and responsive.  As the final film ends, the National Anthem is explained, then sung, and one person in the room struggled to wipe tears from his eyes before the lights came up in order to explain to the executive director, Shawn Ford, that he had come to write a story for bostontourguide.org.

One last word.  If you want to learn about the Boston Tea Party for any reason, the museum’s website is an impressive resource.

– Thank you to Executive Director Shawn Ford for his assistance.