National Parks of Boston

The National Parks of Boston is a constellation of three unique National Park Service sites - Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site, and Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. The National Parks of Boston works in partnership to preserve the resources associated with each site, provide meaningful place-based teaching and learning experiences, and engage our communities to encourage them to act as stewards for the future of their parks.

Boston National Historical Park is a unique collaboration of federally, municipally, and privately owned and operated historic sites associated with the colonial struggle for independence and the birth and growth of the nation. These nationally significant attractions include the Old South Meeting House, Old State House, Faneuil Hall, the Old North Church, the Paul Revere House, the Bunker Hill Monument, the Bunker Hill Museum, Dorchester Heights, and the Charlestown Navy Yard - including USS Constitution, the USS Constitution Museum, and USS Cassin Young.

Boston African American National Historic Site works in partnership with the Museum of African American History, the City of Boston, and private property owners to promote, preserve, and interpret the history of Boston's free African American community on Beacon Hill in the 1800s. It includes the homes, businesses, schools, and churches of a community that struggled against the forces of slavery and injustice.

Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park is a partnership park, bringing together federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies - including Boston Harbor Now, the City of Boston, and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation - to manage and protect a very unique and diverse environment. The 34 islands and peninsulas vividly illustrate the region’s complex past and the continual effect of natural and human processes on their habitats, their uses, and even their shapes. The islands are a highly effective laboratory in which to learn about natural change, cultural history, and stewardship.

Site Program Offerings - Black Heritage Trail

Sarah Roberts

On a walk following in the footsteps of Sarah Roberts, students will explore the Black Heritage Trail and learn about the struggle for equal education through the eyes of a fellow Boston student. Their program will conclude at the school Sarah attended, now the Museum of African American History, with a reading of The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial.

Poetry in Place

Students will explore the sites and stories associated with the historic abolitionist community of Beacon Hill’s North Slope through three distinct activities. At Boston Common, students will work together to solve a challenge in the spirit of the men who fought in the MA 54th regiment. Students will then explore the Black Heritage Trail (BHT), recalling historic sites and figures who stepped out to lead their community in the pursuit of positive change and social justice. They will finish their tour of the BHT by stepping into the African Meeting House, and will each read aloud a characteristic or quality of a robust community affecting positive change.

Anthony Burns

Students and teachers will participate in a facilitated discussion focused on the Fugitive Slave Law, flashpoints in Boston’s abolitionist community and the unique experiences of Anthony Burns. Using primary resources, including broadsides, quotations and illustrations, students will retrace the footsteps and observations of witnesses to the rendition of Anthony Burns, an enslaved fugitive captured under the federal Fugitive Slave Law, from Boston to Virginia. Following the walking program down State Street to Long Wharf, students will examine a series of primary resources to further analyze the events associated with Burns’ experiences from multiple perspectives.

Site Program Offerings - Spectacle Island

Shore to Summit

Students will explore Spectacle Island while participating in several activities that promote teambuilding and a sense of community. Students will use Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to discuss images and hike to the summit of Spectacle Island’s south drumlin. Using historical images, observation skills and clues within the landscape, students work together to assemble a timeline of Spectacle Island’s modern history and explore the concept of community and how individuals can come together to create lasting change. Additionally, students engage in a team challenge where communication, trust and cooperation are reinforced and reflected upon.

Site Program Offerings - Bunker Hill Monument

Heroes on the Hill

Using a large floor map of greater Boston in 1775, students analyze the local geography of the city and its surrounding area. Students use map reading skills to identify notable features, label locations and recreate the positions of the British Regulars and American Colonists in the events leading up to, during and following the Battle of Bunker Hill. Throughout the “reenactment” of the battle, students consider how the geography of Boston influenced the events and decisions surrounding the battle.

Site Program Offerings - Charlestown Navy Yard

Life in the Yard

In partnership with the USS Constitution Museum, students explore the three groups of people who lived and worked in the Charlestown Navy Yard over its nearly 200 year operation. By examining historical images, students interpret primary resources which help to illustrate the lives of sailors, workers and families who called the working landscape home, if only for a short while.