Art & LiteratureImmigrant Neighborhood Bernard Berenson at 90 inside a museum gallery. He sits in front of a marble statue of a reclining nude.

Bernard Berenson

Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) was a Lithuanian-born, West-End-raised art historian and commercial art dealer specializing in the Italian Renaissance. His knowledge and expert connoisseurship greatly impacted the art world of the 19th and 20th centuries, and his dealings with wealthy Americans bolstered the flow of Old Masters into the country. His publications on Italian Renaissance artists were hugely successful and are still used in classrooms today.

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Immigrant Neighborhood A 1917 street map showing Nims Square at the corner of N. Russell and Cambridge Streets.

Ormand F. Nims

In 1916, Boston’s Committee on Public Lands voted in favor of naming the junction at Cambridge, North Russell, and South Russell Streets “Nims Square,” in honor of Ormand F. Nims, a distinguished Civil War veteran and longtime West End business owner.

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New FieldsSocial & Religious Institutions Eighteenth-century engraving of a man in his 40s, wearing a minister's uniform.

Jonathan Mayhew

Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) was a minister and influential theologian who was a foundational figure in the philosophy that spurred revolutionary sentiment in the colonies. He preached at Old West Church from 1747 to 1766, where he would deliver sermons on politics and share his unorthodox theology.

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