Nail from Old South Meeting House

Boston, 1700s
Iron
Gift of Linda Diver

This nail from Old South Meeting House was treated like a relic by the donor’s late mother, an amateur historian from Lynn, Massachusetts, who created dozens of labels for her collection of historic artifacts. Old South played a prominent role during the American Revolution as a site of protest and commemoration: It was from this building that the Sons of Liberty launched the Boston Tea Party in 1773. In 1872, facing threats of demolition, Old South was saved by a group of Boston women who formed the Old South Association. They raised funds to purchase the building by rallying public figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott to speak up for the preservation effort. Old South Meeting House became a museum in 1877.