Albert Champion

Cambridge, MA

This Cambridge tribute honors Dr. Edwin Herbert Land (1909–1991), the inventor and entrepreneur whose experiments with light and polarization led to the Polaroid Corporation and the instant camera that made a photograph appear in seconds. A largely self-taught scientist, he held hundreds of patents and advised the nation on science and defense, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His maxims — undertake only what is 'manifestly important or nearly impossible' — capture a restless, world-changing curiosity.

Cambridge, MA

In 1638, on ground near this spot, Stephen Daye operated the first printing press in Britain's American colonies. From it came almanacs, legal forms, and the famous Bay Psalm Book — the earliest books printed in English North America.

Boston, MA · est. 2009

At Dover and Fay Streets stood the Boston Social Club, chartered by the American Federation of Labor in August 1919 as a union for the city's police patrolmen. When the commissioner suspended the union's newly elected leaders, 1,117 officers walked off the job on September 9, 1919, touching off three days of rioting that ended only with a call-up of the National Guard. In a harsh coda, none of the striking officers were ever rehired.

Boston, MA

Since 1897, the Boston Marathon has drawn runners to the roads west of the city each spring, making it the world's oldest annual marathon. This monument marks the race's storied finish, its inscription borrowed from Tennyson's "Ulysses" — a vow "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" that has come to speak for the endurance the course demands. Organized by the Boston Athletic Association, the marathon has become one of the great rituals of American sport.