The Black Heritage Trail Museums
Explore Boston's 19th Century African American History at Ten Sites
The Museum of African-American History includes the first black church building built in Boston and the oldest African Meeting House still standing.
New England’s largest African American history museum is the Museum of African-American History in Massachusetts. The Black Heritage Trail links the museum’s ten archaeologically significant sites in Boston and on Nantucket Island. This trail is a 1.6 mile walking tour of the largest U.S. collection of historic sites about life in a free African-American community prior to the Civil War. Guided tours available year around by appointment.
The museum’s African Meeting House was the first black church building constructed in Boston and remains the oldest African Meeting House standing in the United States. It has served as a church, school, and meeting house and was the site of historical gatherings that eventually terminated black slavery in the United States.
Located at 46 Joy St. in Boston’s Beacon Hill, the Meeting House now exhibits work by African American artists Meta Warrick Fuller and Edmonia Lewis. The museum’s collections include fine art, photographs, documents, manuscripts, journals, and books, and material culture in addition to the archeological history of free black Americans on Beacon Hill and Nantucket.
Exhibits like A Gathering Place for Freedom honor the history of the free and self-emancipated black community of 19th century Boston. This groundbreaking exhibit was made possible by a leadership grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It incorporates collections from the Boston Athenaeum, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Wadsworth Atheneum, Smith College, the National Portrait Gallery, and Harvard University.
This exhibition includes items from the closely held collections of the League of Women in Community Service, founded by prominent black women to aid in the World War I effort, and the Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons, the African-American masons organization.
Before becoming a museum, the meeting house was owned by Francis Higginbotham, an African-American woman formally trained at the Boston Cooking School. Higginbotham lived next door and now her home, the Florence Higginbotham House, has been restored and is part of the museum’s extensive sites on the Black Heritage Trail.
The Higginbotham House is itself a museum artifact preserving early American history. Corroborated evidence shows the house was built after the property was purchased by Seneca Boston on September 13, 1774. Boston was a weaver and formerly enslaved African American who purchased the land a decade before slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. Except for a period of months, African-Americans owned the property for the next 200 years. Absalom Boston, the well-known Nantucket whaling captain, was one of the six children of Seneca Boston and his wife, Thankful Micah, a Wampanoag Indian who all lived in the house.
The Museum of African American History offers several educational programs including archaeology workshops. Children in grades 3 and up get to participate in hands-on, interactive workshops inside the museum. Through digging, washing, mending, and identifying artifacts, children compare contemporary lifestyle with that of African Americans who lived in and contributed to the early history of Boston.
There are several levels of museum membership. The Legacy Society members are given the opportunity to participate in events such as researching the African American family using tools like the Freedman’s Bank database and DNA swab testing.
Museum hours are posted on the museum website, along with information about admission, events, and exhibits. The museum provides a virtual tour of the Black Heritage Trail online.
