Who would YOU call to hang the lanterns?

Rather than simply illustrate the historical narrative of Boston's Old North Church using primary sources, HyperStudio’s Tories, Timid, or True Blue? asks students to fully assume the role of an historian. The recently launched educational resource, developed in partnership with the Old North Foundation, provides visual access to the social, political, and personal dilemmas of real people at the time of the American Revolution. As the inevitability of the Revolution grew, every person in the American colonies was faced with a difficult dilemma, whether to remain loyal to the Crown, avoid taking sides, or join the fight for liberty and freedom. Their choice: tory, timid, or true blue?

As investigative historians, users of this resource explore the experiences of four members of the Old North congregation on the eve of the Revolution through primary and secondary source documents.

Guided by questions, students consider the specific choices these congregation members faced as the war loomed and, ultimately, interpret the historical record, supporting their take on the past with evidence from the documents. MIT’s HyperStudio for Digital Humanities advised on and contributed to the conceptual and pedagogical design, defined functional requirements, and led the project team in gathering standards based information (metadata) on historical documents. To explore the site, visit Tories, Timid or True Blue?