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Bernie Kramer Slide Collection
Bernie Kramer and Barbara Maysles Kramer lived in the East Fens for more than 25 years. A pioneer in the community mental health movement in the U.S., Bernie taught social psychology over a career of 40 years at Harvard, Tufts, and UMass Boston.
Bernie and Barbara’s daughter Roz recalls that her “parents loved living in the Fenway. And they loved collecting, from a passion for American art pottery, in which they became renowned experts; to paper bags with calligraphy, which my Dad particularly loved (and now belong to the Newark Art Museum’s collection of 20th-century ephemera); to post-Civil War objects that he used to illustrate Jim Crow attitudes in lectures on the role racism played in mental health issues.”
Adopting the Fenway as another collecting passion, Bernie amassed a collection of historic images of the neighborhood and environs, primarily drawn from postcards found at flea markets and yard sales. He ultimately turned them into a slide show, which he gave publicly multiple times in the 1980s and 1990s. The show presented an entertaining look at the Fenway’s evolution from the 1890s through urban renewal in the 1960s.
The Kramer children—Roz, Mimi, and Phil—generously allowed The Fenway News to digitize Bernie’s slides. The Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust underwrote their digitization and the creation of this gallery, which we present as a tribute to Bernie and the fascinating window on the Fenway’s history that he created.
Aerial view taken from above Brookline looking toward the Fenway, probably from the early 1920s. The large vacant space in the center of the photo appears to be the site of the first Beth Israel buildings.
Gardner MuseumNortheastern University—Huntington Ave.Longwood Avenue, looking toward Brookline. Cars suggest the photo was taken in the 1920s.View of Kelleher Rose Garden and Museum of Fine Arts. The garden was installed in the 1930s.View of the Emmanuel College main building from the east side of the Muddy River.Tufts Dental SchoolAerial view of Clemente Field, Gardner Museum, Simmons CollegeHarvard Medical School, view toward Huntington Ave.Boston Arena on St. Botolph Street (Northeastern’s Matthews Arena today)Johnson Gates at Hemenway St. and Westland Ave. View toward the Muddy River and what is today the City’s fire communications center, built in the 1920s.Boylston St. looking east toward the Back Bay prior to construction of the Mass Turnpike.
View of the Gardner Museum from the Fens.
View of the Gardner from the Fens.
Gardner Museum, south facade.
Gardner courtyard facade.
Gardner courtyard.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumHotel Somerset at Charlesgate prior to the 1965 construction of the Bowker Overpass.Bostonia Woman’s OrchestraDemolition in the East Fens for Church Park Apartments. The two large apartment buildings at the center of the photo still stand on Edgerly Road. The cleared lot just to their left is a corner of the current site of Morville House. The Barnes Mansion at Charlesgate East, prior to the construction of the Bowker Overpass.Early Boylston St., showing what today is the Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Jersey and Peterborough Streets in the West Fens. The Simmons College building appears in background.Former Hotel Carlton at Boylston and Hemenway streets, now Berklee School of Music.
