Events › Author Talk: Stephanie Schorow - A Boston Harbor Islands Adventure

Author Stephanie Schorow discusses her 2023 book A Boston Harbor Islands Adventure: The Great Brewster Journal of 1891.

Take a trip to the Boston Harbor Islands … in the 19^th Century. In July 1891, four intrepid women from Lowell, Massachusetts, set off for Great Brewster Island in Boston Harbor for an adventure they would remember all their lives. Calling themselves “the Merrie Trippers,” the women created a journal of their 17-day sojourn with entries, illustrations and photographs – like a 19th Century Facebook page. But they did not include their names. 

Volunteers from the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands, led by author Stephanie Schorow, did a deep dive into the mysteries of the journal, now at the Schlesinger Library of Harvard. The result is A Boston Harbor Islands Adventure: The Great Brewster Journal of 1891, published by History Press. In an illustrated lecture on the book, Schorow will explore the journal’s discovery, its intriguing entries and photographs, and how volunteer researchers managed to identify the writers.

This author talk will be held in a hybrid format with seating available in the Community Room at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library, along with the ability to join via Zoom.

To register for Zoom, please use this link.

This event is co-sponsored by the Jamaica Plain Historical Society.

The book was written by volunteers with the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands a non-profit environmental and educational organization that encourages public use of the islands, balanced with the need to protect their fragile ecosystem and historic environment. The project coordinator was Stephanie Schorow.