Cantabrigians, like their counterparts throughout the nation, expressed ambivalence to the workers in their midst in the wake of Chicago’s violent Haymarket Affair and the trial of the so-called “Chicago Eight.” Over the next three decades, workers tried to ease tensions while advocating for better conditions.

Although George Washington and his contemporaries in military and political leadership are widely recognized and lauded for their accomplishments, it was the vast legions of ordinary people, women and Blacks chief among them, who fueled the engine of Revolution in Cambridge and beyond.

The Irish community’s first U.S. celebrations honoring St. Patrick were described in Cambridge papers as an excuse for drunkenness, violence and other unsavory behavior. It wasn’t long before the events were filled instead with breakfasts, lectures and concerts – all very publicly devoid of alcohol and on the path to mainstream acceptance.

A virtual History Café on Feb. 3 about “Local History and the Black Experience in Slavery and Freedom” will speak with Barbara Brown of Hidden Brookline about how Cambridge can learn from work done across the river – including a look at Florida Ruffin Ridley, whose life and work intersected closely with that of Cambridge’s own Maria Baldwin.

History Cambridge’s Fall Conversation heard from four speakers about the local food scene from the 20th century to the present, exploring how we ate, drank and found community in the restaurants, coffeehouses and ice cream shops.

At Thanksgiving, people blessed with plenty were called upon to extend aid to those less fortunate through donations of food, clothing and money. In its emphasis on family unity and charitable giving, it was a more prominent holiday even than Christmas.

Heated discussions of vaccine mandates and the class and racial tensions inherent in these conversations may seem like a contemporary dilemma, but Cambridge engaged in similar debates around the issue of smallpox vaccination and public accommodation more than 100 years ago.

Cambridge’s Basket Club was a women’s community service organization in the 19th and 20th centuries that sewed linens for donation to hospitals, orphanages and other charities – like many Cantabrigians did during the spring and summer of 2020.

Statues, plaques and memorials across the city commemorate people and events from its nearly 400 years of settlement. But who decides what is worthy of commemoration, and how does the memorial landscape of the city reinforce certain narratives of Cambridge history and exclude others?

As the only teacher of color in the city, an ascent to principal and its attendant public scrutiny was more than Maria Baldwin felt capable of taking on. But she allowed herself eventually to be persuaded and moved from being one of its most beloved teachers to becoming its beloved leader.