The day of our expedition to the Adams’ National Park here in Quincy, MA marked the first snowfall of the winter. This did not, however, detract from our experience but made it that much more interesting and fun. We first toured the two Adams’ birthplaces that had once stood on large tracts of farmland (difficult to imagine considering all that is around the two quaint homes today is the traffic and noise of suburbia.) Even John Adams described his home as, “but the farm of a patriot.” After a quick look around, we made our way to the Old Mansion, a few blocks away, that became the home to four generations of the Adams family. The beautiful home’s best feature was the personal library of John Quincy Adams who enjoyed learning and was an avid reader. (This library was recreated for the film Amistad, starring Anthony Hopkins as an elderly John Quincy.)  Thousands upon thousands of books ranging from classical literature to philosophy to science were neatly stacked. Our final stop of the day was the First Parish Church that holds the four cement coffins of John and Abigail Adams and their son John Quincy and his wife. The old gentleman who showed us the coffins eagerly spoke of the remarkable stories of our second and sixth Presidents. Their years of service through the American Revolution, the special and important partnership that John and Abigail Adams shared, the willingness of John Quincy to serve as Congressman after he had already been President (the only President to ever do so), and his passionate defense of the black slaves on The Amistad before the Supreme Court are just a few of the contributions that the Adams family made to the development of early America. They were patriots of long ago, but we can still see and experience the legacy of this family's unwavering service. 
 

For more on local exhibits, museums, historic sites, etc., see our "Studying History in the Boston Area."

For those interested . . . Tues, Jan 10, 6:30 p.m. WGBH Presents “The American Experience: John and Abigail Adams.” Boston Public Library, Copley, Rabb Lecture Hall.  The Boston Public Library, in partnership with the Massachusetts Historical Society and WGBH invites you to meet the original power couple.  Come to a sneak preview and discussion of American Experience’s latest presidential biography, John and Abigail Adams.  The film will be followed by a discussion featuring Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, James Duncan Phillips, Professor of Early America History at Harvard University; Kelly Cobble, Curator at Adams National Historic Park; Jonathan Chu, Associate Professor of History at UMass Boston, and moderated by Peter Drummey, Stephen T. Riley Librarian, Massachusetts Historical Society.