For this exhibition, the Map Center hired three high school students from Boston Public Schools as teen curators. We asked them to choose a place in the city and explore that site’s history going back to the nineteenth century, using our urban atlas collection to kick off their research. We wanted them to consider how things change and how the present came to be the way it is today.

Over the course of eight weeks, the students chose their locations and dug into their research using maps, historical documents, local histories, interviews with scholars, and trips to the sites to photograph and observe. They wrote up their findings, selected images to accompany their words, and gave video presentations on their process and what they learned, which you can watch on the wall behind you. We hope that what you learn raises ideas and questions about our contemporary world and inspires you to research places that are important to your own life.

Maleeha Wasim

Hathaway Mansion

Senior at the John D. O’Bryant High School in Roxbury

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Nadia Madaoui

Kelleher Rose Garden

Senior at the John D. O’Bryant High School in Roxbury

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Anh Do

Ronan Park

Graduate of the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, current freshman at Northeastern University

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