Learn about the scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs who made Cambridge and Boston two of the most innovative cities in America on a walking tour of the Innovation Trail. With dozens of sites spanning Boston’s Downtown Crossing to Cambridge’s Central Square, the Innovation Trail gives everyone the chance to experience, learn about and be inspired by four centuries of world-changing breakthroughs from Greater Boston. Think it’s just boring science? Think again. Destinations include Boston’s first clinical trial, a response to a smallpox epidemic in the 1600s; the place where Thomas Edison launched his career as an inventor with a complete flop; where Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone; how a company founded in a railroad car in Cambridge led to “The Wizard of Oz”; plus how a Boston entrepreneur introduced ice to gin-and-tonics around the world. The Innovation Trail shows a myriad of discoveries and advancements from a diverse group of men and women, how gaining independence as a nation after the Revolution was just the beginning. What happened in Boston after America became an independent nation is equally as astounding.
Kendall Square Walking Tour
September 6, 10:30 a.m.; September 27, 10:30 a.m.; October 18, 1 p.m.
Interested in how Cambridge came to be one of the most innovative places in the world? Take a walk with guest tour guides, including Gavin Kleespies of Gore Place, co-authors Michael Kuchta and Karen Weintraub of “Born in Cambridge” and Scott Kirsner of WBUR and MassLive, and explore Cambridge’s scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs. During this tour, visitors will learn about the first long-distance phone call, MIT’s most famous pranks or “hacks,” an MIT lab that contributed to the war effort in WWII, the history of NASA in Cambridge, Google’s role in Cambridge, the Human Genome Project, Confectioner’s Row and more!
This tour is a special donation-based series. Guests can donate any amount of money to participate in the tour, and help support The Innovation’s Trail’s mission of “telling the story of past pioneers and breakthroughs, and getting future generations excited about careers in STEM.” The 90 minute tour will start in front of the MIT Museum (314 Main Street) in Kendall Square and end near Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Central Square.