A photograph from the 132-year-old journal shows four women sitting out on the island. The journal inspired a group of modern-day sleuths to try to uncover their identities. Photo from Harvard Schlesinger Library.
A group of researchers came together amid the pandemic to solve a century old mystery. The community they created was as valuable as the story itself.
Excerpts from a story written by Jennifer Moore for GBH
“On the toasty morning of July 15, 1891, four middle-aged women met at Rowes Wharf in Boston, boarded a boat and set sail for one of the outermost harbor islands: Great Brewster.
At the time, its rugged landscape was home to little more than a smattering of structures — including “huts of refuge” for potential shipwreck survivors — and a single cow that roamed the island.
The women were leaving their husbands, children and responsibilities behind for more than two weeks in search of adventure and the joy of female friendship.
Their provisions included food, art supplies, literature and one leather-bound journal.
And it’s that journal that, over a century later, mesmerized Boston-based author Stephanie Schorow when she came across the volume in Harvard’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.”
Find out more about the women who ventured to Great Brewster in 1891, and the women who came together to solve the mystery of their identities over a century later, here.