Boston, Massachusetts
AA-2026-6F5E40
On the image
Someone stood at the base of Boston's Christ Church — better known as Old North Church — and pointed a camera straight up at the bell tower, which is exactly what tourists had been doing since the building became a mandatory stop on the American historical conscience circuit. The church was built in 1723, making it the oldest surviving church in Boston, but what really secured its place in the itinerary was Paul Revere and two lanterns hung in 1775, an act of signal intelligence that the building has been dining out on ever since. The tiered white Georgian steeple rising from its dark brick tower was actually a replacement — the original was lost to a hurricane in 1954, which is the kind of detail the tour guides mention to give visitors the feeling of inside knowledge. The steep upward angle of this shot, almost certainly taken with a pocket camera by a visitor who couldn't quite back up far enough to get the whole thing, is a perfectly preserved record of how Americans in the postwar decades approached their own history: with reverence, a sense of civic obligation, and insufficient distance.
Visually related — by likeness
Christ Church (Old North Church) Bell Tower, Boston, mid-20th century. 1955–1975. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-6F5E40. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/christ-church-old-north-church-bell-tower-boston-mid-20th-century.
@misc{aaAA20266F5E40,
title = {Christ Church (Old North Church) Bell Tower, Boston, mid-20th century},
year = {1955–1975},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-6F5E40},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/christ-church-old-north-church-bell-tower-boston-mid-20th-century}
}TY - ART TI - Christ Church (Old North Church) Bell Tower, Boston, mid-20th century PY - 1955–1975 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-6F5E40 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/christ-church-old-north-church-bell-tower-boston-mid-20th-century ER -
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