After returning in 1864 from work as an army nurse, Emily Parsons’ attention turned to the absence of a hospital in the city. To create one, she relied on a spirit of volunteerism and cooperation she had encountered throughout the Civil War.

Think you know Harvard Square? Now you can see it in a whole new light with this self-guided tour. Brush up on local history by stopping by all the spots on this loop.

This sophisticated Black man lived in the United States at a time most people who looked like him were enslaved and considered subhuman. Even those who were free were usually limited to a small set of occupations. Aaron Hewlett, however, managed to find a way to prosper here in Cambridge.

Why do people uproot their lives, move far from friends and family and suffer the indignities that often come with being “new” to a place? There are themes that play out time and again and together form the story of a city, from Native Americans onward.

Throughout “Love Story,” viewers can glimpse Cambridge before urban renewal, cellphones and personal computers, and much of the film’s visual honesty comes from director Arthur Hiller’s portrayal of star-crossed lovers’ newlywed life in the Agassiz neighborhood (before gentrification).

History Cambridge hosted Harvard and Simmons educators at History Cafés in the spring exploring the history of the city’s Black community, including abolitionist Harriet Jacobs, who ran boarding houses in the city, and threads of the Black experience through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The first mention of slavery in Cambridge is from 1639, in a reference to a “Moor” living in the household of Nathaniel Eaton, master of Harvard College. By the 1770s, several of the wealthiest residents of Brattle Street (otherwise known as Tory Row) held multiple people in bondage.

The lineage of formerly enslaved people in Cambridge and their contributions to African American history may begin in the 18th and 19th centuries, but they continue to shape the city and the wider metropolitan area.

There was a moment when a one-of-a-kind personality brightened our streets, parks and squares with his presence – a bard whose lyrical musings came wrapped with musical sounds and a simple message of love for nature, life and one another. His name was Brother Blue.

In his own recounting of his historic April 18, 1775 ride, Paul Revere uses the body of an enslaved person as a landmark. To today’s reader, the reference is likely shocking.