Boston’s history, mapped.

Boston at the founding of the colony: the early peninsula, harbor, Great Spring, Beacon Hill, and the first decades of settlement.

A growing colonial Boston with an emerging local identity, expanding streets and wharves, and stories ranging from commerce to duels and fraud.

Revolutionary Boston: patriot activity, British fortifications, the siege, and the geography of a city at the center of independence.

A city transformed by fill, railroads, annexation, abolitionism, immigration, literature, and the Civil War.

Post–Civil War Boston rebuilt after fire, expanding rail terminals and parks while politics, invention, and modernization reshape downtown.

Postwar Boston confronts decline and renewal as expressways, redevelopment, public works, and planning decisions dramatically alter the city.

The modern city: skyscrapers, waterfront redevelopment, the replacement of the elevated expressway, the Big Dig, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.