About Historical Boston

A city, a pencil, and a fascination with the details that disappear.

Historical Boston grew from Ed McCarthy’s long interest in Boston history and drawing — two interests that eventually became a single map-making project.

Why maps?

Maps do more than locate streets. They show what a community chose to build, preserve, remove, fill, connect, or forget. The project treats each Boston neighborhood as both geography and narrative, with historical notes placed directly around the mapped landscape.

Research before decoration

The maps are assembled through extended research and drawing rather than generated as decorative reproductions. Neighborhood history, unusual facts, important buildings, local institutions, physical geography, and historical events are worked into the margins and map face where space allows.

Why seven Downtown maps?

Downtown Boston could not be reduced to a single static map. The original peninsula, landmaking, wharves, railroads, fires, highways, renewal, and the Big Dig altered the city too dramatically. The Downtown Boston Through History collection therefore uses seven pivotal eras to show the city changing over nearly four centuries.

A collection meant to be explored

The website gives the collection a clear digital structure: neighborhoods can be explored as an atlas, paired historical and modern prints are cross-linked, and the Downtown series can be read chronologically without losing the personality of the original project.