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All politics is local — and a lot of Massachusetts museums are, too – The Boston Globe

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All politics is local — and a lot of Massachusetts museums are, too – The Boston Globe


The Peabody Essex Museum installed “Salem Stories” in September 2020. The exhibition, which has an open-ended run, consists of 26 displays, or “vignettes,” presented in alphabetical order. The accompanying items are drawn from PEM’s permanent collection. All relate to Salem’s history.

“A” is “always for Indigenous,” paying tribute to the original residents of the area. “Z” is for “zoology” and features a very large leatherback turtle. In between come more than 100 objects, ranging from a 19th-century fire bucket to a Monopoly game (Salem was long home to Parker Brothers, which made the game) to a Kiss-o-Meter, once in use at the Willows Park arcade.

Installation view of “Salem Stories,” at the Peabody Essex Museum.Courtesy Peabody Essex Museum

PEM isn’t a town or city museum, of course. The 1.3 million objects in its collection literally span the globe, thanks to the city’s storied maritime past. Instead, “Salem Stories” is a nice nod to the museum’s hometown.

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There are, however, numerous museums in Massachusetts dedicated to their own hometown. The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History has not one but two Rolls-Royce roadsters in its collection (who knew that Rolls-Royce ever made roadsters?). The Middleborough Historical Museum has extensive Tom Thumb holdings. The Gardner Museum, in Gardner, is not to be confused with that other Gardner Museum, in Boston.

Fire bucket, Adroit Fire Club, 1830–40, part of “Salem Stories,” at the Peabody Essex Museum.Courtesy Peabody Essex Museum. Photo Mark Sexton/PEM

Places you might expect have their own historical museums: Worcester, Northampton, Lynn, Somerville, Newton. So do places you might not. The Wenham Museum collection includes some 58,000 items, including 21 model trains and 10 working model-train layouts — not bad for a town with a population under 5,000.

What follows is an extensive, if not exhaustive, list of Massachusetts cities and towns with museums devoted to the history of those cities and towns.

Amherst History Museum

Ashfield Historical Society Museum

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Auburn Historical Museum

Blackstone Historical Museum

Boylston Historical Society Museum

Brewster Historical Society Museum

Brockton Historical Society

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Buckland Historical Society Museum

Burlington Historical Museum

Centerville Historical Museum

Clinton Historical Society Museum

Cohasset Historical Society

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The exterior of the Concord Museum.Handout

Concord Museum

Dedham Museum & Archive

East Brookfield Historical Museum

Fairhaven Historical Society

Fall River Historical Society Museum

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Framingham History Center

Freetown Historical Society Museum (Assonet)

The Gardner Museum

Great Barrington Historical Society Museum at the Wheeler Family Farmstead

Groton History Center

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Heath Historical Society Museum

Historic Northampton

Historical Society of Phillipston Museum

Jackson Homestead and Museum (Newton)

Leominster Historical Society Museum

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Long Plain Museum (Acushnet)

Lynn Museum & Arts Center

Manchester-by-the-Sea Museum

Marblehead Museum

Mattapoisett Museum

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Meetinghouse Museum (Orleans)

Mendon Historical Society Museum

Middleborough Historical Museum

Milford Historical Museum

Museum of Lenox History

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The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History

Natick History Museum

North Andover Historical Society Museum

Oakham Historical Museum

Orange Historical Society

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Pilgrim Hall Museum (Plymouth)

Visitors to the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum pause in front of a model of the Mayflower inside a new exhibit that explores the early interactions between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe.

Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum

Quaboag Historical Society (West Brookfield)

Quincy Historical Society

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Royalston Historical Society

Sharon Historical Society & Museum

The Somerville Museum’s Bulfinch staircase seen from underneath. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Somerville Museum

Shelburne Historical Society (Shelburne Falls)

Shirley Historical Society Museum

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Stoneham Historical Society & Museum

Wakefield Historical Society Museum

Waltham Museum

Warwick Historical Society and Museum

Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum

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One of the Wenham Museum’s model-train dioramas.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

Wenham Museum

West Bridgewater Historical Museum

Westford Museum

Whately Historical Society Museum

Worcester Historical Museum

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Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.





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Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit

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Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit


Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.

Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.

Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”

Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.

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“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”

Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.

“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”

The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.

It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.

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Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.

Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.

The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”

“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”

Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.

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He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”

It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.

Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”



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French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston

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French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston


BOSTON, MA — An international restaurant group with locations across the globe is preparing to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this year.

LPM Restaurant & Bar, a French Riviera-inspired restaurant founded in London, is set to open on the second floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street in Back Bay, according to Four Seasons. The hotel lists the restaurant as “Opening Summer 2026,” while the Boston Business Journal reported the restaurant plans to open in September.

The Boston restaurant will mark LPM’s debut in the Northeast and its third U.S. outpost, following locations in Miami and Las Vegas, according to a Four Seasons announcement.

LPM, also known as La Petite Maison, was founded in London in 2007 and is known for French-Mediterranean food, Mediterranean ingredients and dining rooms influenced by Belle Époque design.

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The business operates locations in London, Dubai, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Limassol, Doha, Mykonos, Kuwait, Boston, Maldives and Bangkok.

Four Seasons said LPM will take over the space that formerly housed One Dalton’s breakfast concept, One + One. The restaurant will join other dining options at the hotel, including Zuma and Trifecta.

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Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer

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Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer


A Massachusetts high school is under investigation after “several” teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions.

The state Department of Public Health is set to visit Uxbridge High School on Thursday to “conduct a series of air quality tests,” to determine whether the multiple cases are potentially connected.

Superintendent David Ljungberg and Principal Michael Rubin alerted families and district staff on Monday of the “sombering news,” after Uxbridge High School’s graduation over the weekend.

“We are writing to inform you about a concern we are investigating at Uxbridge High School,” Ljungberg and Rubin stated in the letter. “Several female teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions over the past few years.”

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“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” the leaders added, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”

The 123,000-square-foot school, with an enrollment of roughly 600, was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $45 million, including a $22-million state reimbursement.

Uxbridge school leaders say they notified the state Department of Health and local health board as soon as they became aware of the cases, seeking “counsel about how best to proceed.”

“Massachusetts DPH officials have indicated that there is no evidence of immediate danger in the building and no reason to limit access to or use of the facility at this time,” they wrote in their letter. “In fact, the public health officials have commended our decision to approach them with these concerns, our readiness to partner with them in support of the evaluation process.”

Health officials are assessing the school’s interior and exterior to “ensure there are no issues with the infrastructure that would present risks (including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and other systems)” and the indoor and outdoor air quality on campus.

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The superintendent and principal said that state officials have ruled out water supply as a “risk factor” after “thorough testing.”

“The team has reached out to the women who have been diagnosed, requesting data to evaluate whether there may be a connection among their cases,” Ljungberg and Rubin wrote. “We are grateful for their cooperation.”

They added that the state has said discovering an environmental “smoking gun” is “rare” in workplace investigations.

“However, even if a direct causal link is not established,” the leaders wrote, “the administration is utilizing this process to rigorously test the building and guarantee that it meets all safety standards moving forward.”

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