Win a FREE Boston Duck Tour and a Visit to the Old State House for Your Class

To promote an appreciation for our state's history, The Bostonian Society and Boston Duck Tours sponsor a yearly essay contest for greater Boston area school children in grades 5-8. Students in grades 5-6 are asked to submit an essay of 300-500 words, Students in grades 7-8 are asked to submit an essay of 500-700 words. The First Place student in each grade group receives a Duck Tour and a visit to the Old State House for his/her class (up to 36 people including chaperones). Winning schools are responsible for providing transportation to Boston for the Duck Tour and visit to the Old State House. The tour must be booked for a date no later than May 31, 2012. 

2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the ‘Bread and Roses’ strike in the Lawrence textile mills. This year, we are asking students to write an essay on an event or person associated with the labor movement in Massachusetts. Feel free to contact Jim Healy at Boston Duck Tours if you have any questions about the topic. Jim may be reached at 617-438-4915 or jhealy@bostonducktours.com. Entries should be received no later than November 2, 2011.  Send entries to Jim Healy, Boston Duck Tours, 4 Copley Place #4155, Boston, MA 02116.

Judges for the 2011 Essay Contest will be Martin Blatt, Supervisory Historian, Boston National Historical Park; Professor Robert Allison, Chair, Suffolk University History Department; and Samantha Nelson, Director of Education, Bostonian Society.

The Bostonian Society operates the Old State House as an historic site and museum. Built in 1713, the Old State House was the seat of colonial government, home to the Massachusetts Assembly, the Supreme Court of the Colony and the office of the Royal Governor. It was here that many of the basic principles of American democracy, later enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, were first expressed. John Adams described it as the site where "the child Independence was born." The Bostonian Society seeks to foster a understanding of the world-changing ideas and events associated with the Old State House, and the ways in which they influence our lives today. The Society was founded in 1881 to save the Old State House from demolition, since that time the Society has preserved the structure and kept it open to the public as a museum dedicated to Boston's history.