Inventing the Boston Game: Football, Soccer & the Origins of a National Myth

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This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin 6:00 PM.

Please visit here to register.

The MHS collection contains little-known treasures from the beginnings of football, from correspondence to commemorative medals. In an exciting talk, Kevin Tallec Marston and Mike Cronin will reveal Boston's founding role in US sporting culture and share the MHS collections that informed their new book. This program unveils the back story of the Oneida Football Club and its "Boston game"—an early version of soccer and football in the United States. The game developed as Boston was transforming from urban change and immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. In conversation with Louisa Thomas, Marston and Cronin will examine the frontier between memory and history in early Boston sports and offer insight into how and why origin stories are created.