#boston tea party
Happy 4th ya filthy animals
My obsession with tea makes me wonder if I’m secretly British. Ever since I can remember, I have loved tea. I would say that tea and coffee are both a huge part of who I am. There’s nothing I love more than going out for high tea or hosting my own tea party. I read Lisa Vanderpump’s book, “Simply Divine: A Guide to Easy, Elegant and Affordable Entertaining.” In it she said that there’s no reason…
Ray Davies photographed backstage at the Boston Tea Party on October 23, 1969. © Peter Simon.
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Another 1773 Bostonian! I’m obsessed with the way my colleague portrays 17-year-old Elizabeth Bradlee, the youngest of 10 siblings, half of whom directly participated in the tea destruction that December 16th. We portray her & Lucy Brown as fair-weather friends who get on each other’s nerves on-site, though we have no historical evidence that the two girls actually knew each other.
The actual Mrs. Elizabeth Bradlee Spear is buried somewhere beneath what is now the Primark clothing store downtown, and I hope, like our Lizzie, she also used to borrow her older brothers’ too-large coats on cold days.
Boston Tea Party, 1773.
Sometimes by the last tour of the day when I’m really tired, I fantasize about just going out onto the balcony and shouting, “Three pennies per pound of tea isn’t a huge tax, it’s fine, just go home.” and then taking a nap in the museum break room.
Happy British Tea Day (April 21st)! Steep in this interesting bit of tea history and these tea titles from your James Smith Noel Collection!
It is difficult to believe that the United Kingdom have not always been the hosts of tea though it is now deeply woven into English culture and society. It was not until exploration and trade opened to the Far East (Asia) when the later Elizabethans began to hear tales of brewed cups of chai leaves in Japan and China through the East India Company in 1598. There is an urban legend of when tea first arrived in England. Lady Mary Douglas of London was given a dried bouquet by her lover , a member of the trading company , who had returned from China with the bouquet. Lady Mary dunked the collection of faded blossoms into a vase of water. Then during the night she awoke thirsty and drank the vase water. It is said that the bouquet’s blossoms were from a tea plant, however, there is no date that correlates with the urban legend.
The East India Company began to introduce tea to England and other parts of Europe in the mid-1600s. Tea was first offered for commercial sale to the public in 1657 at a coffee house in Exchange Alley in London. The first coffee house, introduced by the Greeks to the English around 1650, was opened in Oxford. Tea and coffee are common drinks for the English though the type of coffee being popularized among the English was the Turkish style of coffee, and also (hot) chocolate was being offered and popularized. It was in 1666 when the East India Company gifted 23 pounds of a “rare” type of tea to the king and also to the Russian tsar.
The use of “cupp of tee (tea)” was first noted by a clerk of British navy, Samuel Pepys on September 25, 1660, when he met with his colleagues. And his wife had her first cup of tea seven years later according to his personal writings on June 29th. And so the rise of tea drinking society began and the enjoyment of coffee began to fade out thanks to Charles II marriage to the Portuguese Princess Catherine in 1662. While tea-drinking was already a custom of the Portuguese royals and nobility, Princess Catherine’s dowry included rare teas such as Tangier and Bombay for court use. Tea began to become a regular import for commercial use in 1669 with the East India Company.
Americans are not unfamiliar with the history of unfair taxing of common goods. Let us remember the Boston Tea Party when crates of tea were tossed into the Boston Harbor as a reaction to taxes from the crown! Britain also taxed tea and chocolate in 1660 and the taxes on tea gradually increased until the 1720s when the import tax was lifted since tea was a common drink of the higher social class, until the 1730s.
It was until the 1730s that tea was a popular drink held at court and coffee houses in England. However, the common family was beginning to enjoy a cup of tea at their daily table. This tea was normally black tea which did not have any additional tax unlike the herbal counterpart of green tea. Another interesting closing fact is that tea joined the smuggling trade along with tobacco, silk, and brandy.
Woodward, N. H. “The English Discover Tea.” In Teas of the world. New York: Collier, 1980: pp. 48-70.
Here is a small selection of books about the United Kingdom, the Boston Tea Party, and Tea. In celebration of British Tea day check the J.S. Noel Collection for other musings about tea! (Tea set was loaned by one of our catalogers)
OTDIH, Jan 10, 1774 The Boton Gazette publishes a letter from Baltimore detailing what residents of that city had heard about the Tea Party. Included among this is the claim that 2,000 men were signed up to destroy the tea if needed.
This claim is quite baseless on the face of it, since a large number of participants were apprentices and such who joined the activities that night without being involved in the process beforehand.
OTOH, there were probably at least 2,000 in the crowd.
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IF WE HAVE THE SMEGGING COMPASS JEREMY,, YOU DONT NEED TO LOOK AT THE FARTING SUN, BECAUSE YOU HAVE A COMPASS IN YOUR SHITTING HAND JEREMY,
