Bottle Trees Return to Brattle Street, Connecting Past and Present in Many Ways

This meaningful installation ends on February 28, so I’m posting now without trying for photos that truly convey the beauty and significance of blue bottle trees! I hope the photos, quotes, and links here will guide you to visit in person if possible or at least appreciate the art, history, goals, and collaborative work on the lawn of 159 Brattle Street.

“The Rebirth of the Forgotten Souls of Tory Row is an outdoor installation co-created by installation artist Gail Bos and interdisciplinary artist Pam Goncalves, presented on the historic grounds of 159 Brattle Street, the current headquarters of History Cambridge. ” (quote from History Cambridge website, events, rebirth )

“Expanding upon their 2022 collaboration, the artists continue the essential work of honoring the enslaved African and Indigenous people whose labor shaped Tory Row—individuals long omitted from Cambridge’s written history. Through sculptural forms and gestures of remembrance, the land itself becomes a site of truth-telling and acknowledgment.“(quote from History Cambridge website, events, rebirth )

“This renewed collaboration is deeply connected to Echoes in Blue, Goncalves’s evolving series grounded in ancestral memory, the symbolic power of indigo, and the belief that blue glass wards, heals, and remembers. Extending this visual language into the open air, the bottle trees create a contemplative landscape where history is not only studied but felt.“(quote from History Cambridge website, events, rebirth )

“Rooted in public humanities and memory studies, the installation intentionally expands beyond traditional exhibition spaces and boundaries by shifting remembrance outdoors—onto the soil where these forgotten lives once moved. By centering humanity over omission, Bos and Goncalves call for a more expansive, honest, and ethically engaged understanding of Cambridge’s layered past.“(quote from History Cambridge website, events, rebirth )