Video library

Based on oral histories with 20 individuals growing up in the neighborhoods of Chelsea, Dorchester and Roxbury, and Lynn in the 1920s through the 1950s, this exhibit combines recorded stories with photographs and archival material from JHC collections—to bring these historical Jewish neighborhoods to life.

The Committee on Heraldry at American Ancestors is the oldest non-governmental heraldic body in the world. Established in 1864, its purpose is to “collect and preserve information in regard to heraldry.”

Settlement houses first appeared in the United States in the late 1880s, modeled after London’s Toynbee Hall. Located in neighborhoods largely comprised of poor and immigrant populations, the purpose of these houses was to help improve the condition of area residents, both young and old, by offering educational programs and assisting with social services.