What happens when a storied town in Massachusetts, one of the first English towns founded by the new colony, decides to challenge the myths of its history? What are the debates, discussions and struggles that take place when you seek to challenge received wisdom – without throwing out all of the colonial past? Life-long Concord resident Joe Palumbo, historical interpreter and guide, explains why Concord no longer believes its 1635 settlers were the “first” residents. Click here for an 88-minute video of his presentation posted by the Partnership of Historic Bostons on January 29, 2024.

Palumbo begins with a tea towel that contains a “word cloud” of Concord history as he talks with Partnership Board Member Roxanne Reddington-Wilde about the common myths about the history of Concord, MA.

Though early English maps properly label Concord as the Indigenous settlement of Musketaquid, historic signage from the 1930s (which has recently been removed) makes no reference to the people who inhabited that land for thousands of years.

An early marker in the town and a number of local depictions fail to honor the Indigenous inhabitants and tell a sanitized depiction of colonial settlers replacing the people who have “vanished from the land, leaving scarcely a trace of themselves, except a few arrow-heads and stone pestles, and, here and there, a mound or a heap of clam shells.” Palumbo is urging the town leaders to engage in dialogue with leaders of the Nipmuc Nation to tell an accurate history of the Town.