Numerous freely accessible books on diverse aspects of Boston History are linked from here.
Use BC Libraries catalog Holmes to find relevant print and online books. Below are some print books in O'Neill Library on Boston and its history:
Bacon, Edwin M. Rambles Around Old Boston. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1914. O’Neill F73.5 .B14 1914 Also Online
Binford, Henry C. The First Suburbs: Residential Communities on the Boston Periphery, 1815-1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. O’Neill HT351 .B54 1984
Chamberlain, Samuel and Marjorie Drake Ross. The Book of Boston: The Victorian Period, 1837 to 1901. New York, Hastings House Publishers, 1964. O’Neill F73.44 .R823
Clarke, Theodore G. Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and the Building of Boston's Golden Age. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010. O’Neill F73.68 .B4 C53 2010
Crawford, Mary Caroline. Old Boston Days & Ways: From the Dawn of the Revolution Until the Town Became a City. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1913. O’Neill F73.44 .C89 Also Online
Crawford, Mary Caroline. Romantic Days in Old Boston; the Story of the City and of its People during the Nineteenth Century. Boston, Little, Brown and Co, 1922. O’Neill F73.3 .C9 Also Online
Drake, Samuel Adams. Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston. Rutland, Vt., C. E. Tuttle, 1971. O’Neill F73.37 .D78 Also Online
Howe, M. A. D. Boston: The Place and the People. New York: Macmillan, 1903. O’Neill F73.3 .H85 Also Online
Kennedy, Lawrence W. and Walter Muir Whitehill. Boston: A Topographical History. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000. O’Neill F73.3 .W57 1968
Koren, John. Boston, 1822 to 1922: The Story of its Government and Principal Activities during One Hundred Years. Boston: City of Boston Printing Dept, 1923. O’Neill F73.3 .K84 B7 Also Online
Mann, Albert W. ed. Walks & Talks about Historic Boston,. Boston, Mass.: The Mann Publishing Co, 1917. O’Neill F73.37 .M28 Also Online
O'Connor, Thomas H. The Athens of America: Boston, 1825-1845. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006. O’Neill F73.44 .O245 2006
O'Connor, Thomas H. Bibles, Brahmins and Bosses: A Short History of Boston. Boston: Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1991. O’Neill F73.3 .O25 1984
O'Connor, Thomas H. The Hub: Boston Past and Present. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001. O’Neill F73.3 .O26 2001
Porter, Edward G. Rambles in Old Boston, New England,. Boston: Cupples, Upham and Company, 1886. O’Neill F73.4 .P84 Also Online
Prindle, Frances Carruth. Fictional Rambles in & about Boston,. New York, McClure, Phillips and company, 1902. O’Neill F73.5 .C3. Also Online
Puleo, Stephen. A City so Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900. Boston: Beacon Press, 2010. Available Online
Rawson, Michael. Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010. O’Neill F73.44 .R39 2010
Rogers, Alan, Mary M. Whelan, and Andrew Bunie. Boston, City on a Hill: An Illustrated History. Sun Valley, Calif.: American Historical Press, 2007. O’Neill F73.3 .R64 2007
Schultz, Nancy Lusignan. Fire & Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834. New York: Free Press, 2000. O’Neill F74.C4 S35 2000
Seaburg, Carl. Boston Observed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. O’Neill F73.3 .S44 1971
Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet. A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston. Boston: Printed by request of the City Council, 1871. O’Neill F73.3 .S56 1871a Also Online
Thwing, Annie Haven. The Crooked & Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston, 1630-1822. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1970. O’Neill F73.3 .T54 1920a Also Online
Ticknor, Caroline, ed, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Dr. Holmes's Boston. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. O’Neill F73.37 .T5 Also Online
Warden, G. B. Boston, 1689-1776. Boston: Little Brown, 1970. O’Neill F73.4 .W37
Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston: a Topographical History. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968. O’Neill F73.3 .W57
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Full-text of most major titles printed in the UK and America between 1701 and 1800.
HathiTrust
This is a very large digitized book collection from the University of Michigan and partner libraries (including BC). Using Advanced Search you can limit to full-text books, a specific date range, e.g. 1790-1860, "Boston" in the title, etc.
Google Books (Advanced Search)
This tool provides access to a very large, and growing, number of full-text books in digital format. It's particularly good for locating 18th and 19th century works. There is a fair amount of duplication with HathiTrust above.
Project Gutenberg
Digitized collection of books in the public domain. Individual titles are available for download for reading online, or as PDF, EPUB, Kindle, and more.
Open Library
A new search interface for the content digitized by the Internet Archive/Open Content Alliance.
Railroad Jubilee on Boston Common, 1851; painting by William Sharp.
