COVID-19 Case Increase in July
New infections among Cambridge residents have increased in July, with 83 confirmed and probable cases reported so far this month (July 1-20), according to the Cambridge Public Health Department. The City and the Public Health Department are closely monitoring COVID-19 case trends in Cambridge and the Commonwealth, and will continue to issue updates and critical information to the community.
Baker-Polito Administration Orders Use of Mask or Face Covering in Public
The Baker-Polito Administration issued an order requiring the use of masks or face coverings in public places (beginning May 6th) where they cannot socially distance from others. The Administration also announced expanded community health center COVID-19 testing capacity at centers throughout the Commonwealth.
RESCHEDULED Defying the Crown in Early Cambridge: The 1664 Petition Campaign and Grassroots Constitutionalism
This event was rescheduled from May 22 and will now take place on May 28.
The new king Charles II sent royal commissioners to New England in 1664 in order to pressure colonists into compliance with his metropolitan agenda. When these royal commissioners tried to claim full authority over local courts and militias, Cambridge inhabitants were among the first to act in defiance. Their grassroots petition campaign drew on the experience of the English civil wars and pointed the way forward to the American Revolution.
Adrian Chastain Weimer is a Professor of History at Providence College and is currently a Long-term Fellow at the John Carter Brown Library. She is the author of A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) and Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England (Oxford University Press, 2011).