AAHM 2025

AAHM 2025 Annual Meeting Boston Visitor’s Guide

Sheraton Boston Hotel Location (Map): 
https://www.google.com/maps/place/42%C2%B020'47.4%22N+71%C2%B005'05.6%22W/@42.346501,-71.084883,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d42.346501!4d-71.084883?hl=en-US&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMyNS4xIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDU1SAFQAw%3D%3D

39 Dalton Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 02199
Tel: +1 617-236-2000

DINING
The conference hotel is connected to the Prudential Center, which is accessible via the conference hotel. Sweetgreen (https://www.sweetgreen.com/) and Clover (www.cloverfoodlab.com), both averaging $15-$20 per person, are immediately accessible when you enter the Prudential Center from the hotel.

For a list of restaurants in the Prudential Center, please visit https://www.prudentialcenter.com/eat/directory/ or view the online map and directory https://www.prudentialcenter.com/visit/.

Other establishments close to the hotel include:

• Bukowski’s Tavern: https://bukowski-tavern.com/menu. 50 Dalton St. (Suite 4). Pub food. $20 per person average (excludes alcohol).

• Flour Bakery and Cafe: http://flourbakery.com/. 30 Dalton St. Coffee, excellent pastries, sandwiches. $10-$20 per person average.

• The Summer Shack: https://www.summershackrestaurant.com/. 50 Dalton St. (Suite 2). Seafood. $30-$50 per person average.

ATTRACTIONS
Note: Street addresses are provided for venues within walking distance (or a short T ride) from the conference hotel.

Aquariums
New England Aquarium
https://www.neaq.org/

Boston Historical Sites

Boston City Hall
https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/17330-boston-city-hall-designated-as-historic-landmark
If you’ve heard of Brutalist architecture, but never experienced it first-hand.

City Hall was designed by Gerhard Kallmann and N. Michael McKinnell (later Kallmann McKinnell & Wood), winners of a national design competition for the commission. Kallmann & McKinnell also designed the nearby Boston Five Cents Savings Bank.

Boston has more of these than you would think: the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center (designed by Paul Rudolph;  https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2017/09/05/boston-landmark-paul-rudolphs-erich-lindemann-mental-health-center/), Madison Park High School in Roxbury (designed by Marcel Breuer), and The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (designed by Le Corbusier with Sert, Jackson & Gourley).

For a slightly kinder and gentler mid-century modern, visit Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library, home to the Center for the History of Medicine, designed by Hugh Stebbins (https://countway.harvard.edu/).

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/
       

Bunker Hill Monument and Museum
https://www.nps.gov/places/bunker-hill-museum.htm         

Christian Science Plaza, Center, and Mapparium [close to conference hotel]
210 Massachusetts Ave.
https://www.christianscience.com/find-us/visit-the-mother-church/visit-the-christian-science-plaza/how-do-you-see-the-world-experience
Regardless of how you feel about Christian Science, this 13.5-acre complex commissioned in the 1960s by The First Church of Christ, Scientist and designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei & Partners is considered to be a masterwork of modernist architecture. It is the largest publicly accessible private open space in Boston. The Romanesque Mother Church is an impressive Romanesque revival cathedral, and the Mapparium has an enormous globe that you can walk inside — an unusual view of the earth.

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground
https://www.nps.gov/places/copp-s-hill-burying-ground.htm
Burial site for early Bostonians of African descent. Many enslaved and free African Americans are buried on this hill, including Black educator, community leader, and Masonic Grand Master Prince Hall. In Boston, Prince Hall and his fellow masons led their community as activists for the abolition of enslavement and for the recognition of their rights as equal citizens in Massachusetts.

Granary Burying Ground
https://www.boston.gov/cemeteries/granary-burying-ground
Burial site for three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine; Peter Faneuil, benefactor of the famed downtown Boston landmark (and slave-trader); patriot and craftsman Paul Revere; James Otis, Revolutionary orator and lawyer; and five victims of the Boston Massacre.

New England Holocaust Memorial
https://www.nehm.org/the-memorial/
Open air memorial near Faneuil Hall, dedicated in 1995 to pay tribute to Holocaust victims, honor survivors, and offer reflection on the importance of human rights.

Museum of African American History
https://www.maah.org/boston-location
New England’s largest museum dedicated to preserving, conserving and interpreting the contributions of African Americans. In Boston and Nantucket, the Museum has preserved two historic sites and two Black Heritage Trails that tell the story of organized Black communities from the Colonial Period through the 19th century.

Old South Meeting House
https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/historyculture/osmh.htm
Old South Meeting House served as a gathering place for citizens to challenge British policies. Bostonians met here before the fated Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 

Old State House Museum
https://www.bostonhistory.org/
Built in 1713, the Old State House was a seat of British power, and became a point of origin for vital debates about self-government that sparked the Revolution.

The Paul Revere House & The Pierce/Hichborn House
https://www.paulreverehouse.org/

Trinity Church [close to conference hotel]
https://trinitychurchboston.org/tours/
Copley Plaza
Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, Trinity Church is a National Historic Landmark, recognized as one of the ten most important buildings in America by the American Institute of Architects, and home to an active parish of the Episcopal church. This is a quintessential example of “Richardsonian Romanesque” design.

USS Constitution
https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/historyculture/ussconst.htm
Built in Boston and launched in 1797, USS CONSTITUTION is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world today. During the War of 1812 the ship gained fame and its name “Old Ironsides.” CONSTITUTION remains both a training and ceremonial ship for the Navy, as well as an educational experience for visitors. 

Exhibits & Tours
Black Heritage Trail
https://www.maah.org/boston-location
Walking tour of the largest collection of historic sites in the country relating to the life of a free African American community prior to the Civil War.    

Boston Public Library [close to conference hotel]
https://www.bpl.org/
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/events
Central Library, Copley Square
BPL’s McKim building, named for architect Charles Follen McKim, opened in 1895 and is considered one of the finest examples of 19th-century architecture in America. The adjoining Boylston Street Building, opened in 1972, is newly renovated. See https://apps.bpl.org/tourbooklet/. It is the third-largest public library in the United States and home to numerous special collections.

The BPL’s Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center will be hosting a new exhibition, Terrains of Independence, in their gallery at the Central Library. Terrains of Independence poses a central geographical question: what was it about Boston and Massachusetts in the last half of the eighteenth century that made the region such a tinderbox for Revolutionary activity?    

Freedom Trail
https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/
The Freedom Trail is a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond. Many sites listed in this guide are part of the Freedom Trail.    

Gallery of the Center for the History of Medicine [close to conference hotel]
Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
https://countway.harvard.edu/center-history-medicine
695 Huntington Ave.
The Gallery of the Center for the History of Medicine exhibits selections from the Center's extensive museum, archival, and manuscript collections, including 19th -21st  century medical instrumentation and diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals and drug delivery devices, examples of public health interventions and testing tools, and perhaps most famously, the skull and tamping iron of Phineas Gage. An exhibition on the work of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its founders is currently on display on Floors L1 and L2. Open to the public on Saturdays from 10:00-4:00. Free admission.    

Massachusetts Historical Society [close to conference hotel]
http://masshist.org/
1154 Boylston St.
The oldest organization in the United States devoted to collecting materials for the study of American history. Attendees are invited to drop by the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) to see a 250th exhibit on the start of the American Revolution. Exhibition hours are Wednesday-Friday from 10:00-4:45 and Saturday 10:00-3:00. MHS is a seven-minute walk from the hotel. Free admission. More information about MHS will be available at the Registration Desk.    

Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation
https://www.massgeneral.org/museum
The Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation presents the 200-year evolution of health care and medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Open Tuesday-Friday 10:00-2:00 and Saturdays 11:00-4:00 April through October. Free admission.      

Please note: The Ether Dome at Mass General, the site of the first successful public surgery using ether as an anesthetic, is not housed within the museum. The Dome is often used for meetings. To find out when the Dome is not in use, call the museum at 617-724-8009 during its open hours. For a virtual tour of the Dome and the rest of the Bulfinch Building, click here.

The Innovation Trail: Boston & Cambridge STEM History Tour
https://www.theinnovationtrail.org/
Stroll through the history of science, medicine, entrepreneurship, and technology. Tour info: https://www.theinnovationtrail.org/take-a-tour 

Fine Arts and Museums
Boston Children's Museum
https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/
Exhibits and programs that emphasize hands-on engagement and employ play as a tool to spark the inherent creativity, curiosity, and imagination of children.

Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
https://chsi.harvard.edu/
Instrumentation for a broad range of disciplines, including astronomy, navigation, horology, surveying, geology, calculating, physics, and biology. Open Sunday-Friday, 10:00-4:00. In Cambridge. Free admission.

Harvard Art Museums
https://harvardartmuseums.org/
The collections of Harvard’s Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00-5:00. In Cambridge. Free admission to all museums.

Harvard Museum of Natural History
https://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/
Home to the internationally acclaimed Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, better known as the “Glass Flowers." This unique collection was made by Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939), a father and son team of Czech glass artists. Over fifty years, from 1886 through 1936, the Blaschkas produced 4,300 glass models that represent 780 plant species. Open daily 10:00-5:00. In Cambridge. $15 adult admission, $13 senior admission, $10 youth/student admission.

Institute for Contemporary Art
https://www.icaboston.org/
Thematic exhibitions, surveys of leading contemporary artists, new commissions, and emerging artists.     

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [close to conference hotel]
https://www.gardnermuseum.org/
35 Evans Way
You know, the place where the infamous art heist took place. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s collection of more than 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, 3000 rare books, and 7000 archival objects-from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world and 19th-century France and America.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum & Library
https://www.jfklibrary.org
Dedicated to the memory of the nation's thirty-fifth president and to all those who through the art of politics seek a new and better world.

MIT Museum
https://mitmuseum.mit.edu
Exhibits that present the intersection of science, art, and innovative thinking. The exhibit "Gene Cultures" may be of particular interest to AAHM members. In Cambridge. Free admission.    

Metropolitan Waterworks Museum
https://waterworksmuseum.org/
The Waterworks Museum interprets the unique stories of one of the country's first metropolitan water systems through exhibitions and educational programs on engineering, architecture, social history, public health, and Safe Water Access. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00-4:00. Free admission.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston [close to conference hotel]
https://mfa.org/
465 Huntington Ave.
One of the most comprehensive art museums in the world with a collection that exemplifies the breadth, richness, and diversity of artistic expression, from prehistoric times to modern day.

Museum of Science
https://www.mos.org
Exhibits that strive to equip and inspire everyone to use science for the global good. Great for kids.  

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (Harvard)
https://peabody.harvard.edu/
The Peabody Museum cares for a large and historic collection of anthropological materials from across the globe, including more than 1.2 million individual cultural items, 500,000 photographic images, and associated archival records. Open daily 10:00-5:00. In Cambridge. $15 adult admission, $13 senior admission, $10 youth/student admission.
           

Independent Film
Brattle Theatre
https://brattlefilm.org/
In Cambridge.

Coolidge Corner Theatre
https://coolidge.org/     

Somerville Theatre
https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
In Somerville 

Open Spaces
Arnold Arboretum
https://arboretum.harvard.edu/
A 281-acre preserve in the heart of Boston, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University stewards one of the world’s most comprehensive and best documented collections of temperate woody plants, with particular focus on the floras of eastern North America and eastern Asia.        

Mount Auburn Cemetery
https://www.mountauburn.org/
Recognized as one of the most significant designed landscapes in the country, Mount Auburn Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. Medicine-related individuals buried at Mount Auburn include: Jacob Bigelow; Richard Cabot; Walter Channing; Ernest Amory Codman; Dorothea Dix; Mary Baker Eddy (an entire monument by a pond); Oliver Wendell Holmes; Harriot Kezia Hunt (along with a statue of Hygeia by Edmonia Lewis); Charles Thomas Jackson; William T.G. Morton; Emily Elizabeth Parsons; Johann Spurzheim; and Benjamin Waterhouse.

Use Mt. Auburn’s “locate a grave” feature (https://www.mountauburn.org/locate-a-grave/) to get directions to specific plots. For a list of notable internees, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burials_at_Mount_Auburn_Cemetery). In Cambridge.

Forest Hills Cemetery
https://www.foresthillscemetery.com/
Founded in 1848, Forest Hills Cemetery was part of the 19th-century rural garden movement and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Famous people buried there include Dr. Marie Zakrewska, Dr. Susan Dimock and Linda Richards, first trained nurse in the United States.    In Jamaica Plain.

Boston Public Gardens [close to conference hotel]
https://www.nps.gov/places/boston-public-garden.htm
The first public botanical garden in the United States, founded in 1839. Swan boats are a lovely and inexpensive experience. Check out the Ether Monument near the junction of Beacon and Arlington Streets, erected in 1868 to commemorate the first public demonstration of anesthesia at Mass General Hospital.    

Other Things
Boston Athenaeum
https://bostonathenaeum.org/ 

Museum of Bad Art
https://museumofbadart.org/  

Historic Houses
Descriptions of notable historic house museums in Boston can be found in this article: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2018/08/02/house-museums-boston/

Prudential Center Observation Deck [close to conference hotel]
https://www.prudentialcenter.com/2023/06/20/view-boston-is-now-open/


Performing Arts
American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.)
https://americanrepertorytheater.org/

Berklee Performance Center [close to conference hotel]
https://www.berklee.edu/events/performances
136 Massachusetts Ave.
Hosts concerts by students, faculty, and visiting artists, as well as a wide variety of productions presented by outside promoters, arts presenters, and community organizations.

MGM Music Hall at Fenway [close to conference hotel]
https://crossroadspresents.com/pages/mgm-fenway-music-hall
2 Lansdowne St.
National touring acts.

Symphony Hall [close to conference hotel]
https://www.bso.org/symphony-hall
301 Massachusetts Ave.
Home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops, Symphony Hall has world-renowned acoustics.

Wang Theater at the Boch Center
https://www.wangtheatreboston.com/         

Other theater offerings:
https://www.boston-theater.com/

Sports 
Fenway Park [close to conference hotel]
https://www.mlb.com/redsox
4 Jersey St.
Historic baseball stadium. The Red Sox are playing home games against the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park during the meeting Friday, 7:10pm, Saturday, 4:10pm, and Sunday, 1:35pm. Tickets, which start at $38, are available here.

Zoos
Franklin Park Zoo
https://www.zoonewengland.org/franklin-park-zoo