A Once and Future Shoreline facts for kids
Quick facts for kids A Once and Future Shoreline |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Artist | Ross Miller |
| Year | 1996 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | etched Quincy and Chelmsford granite |
| Dimensions | 1.2 acres (4,900 m2) |
| Location | Faneuil Hall Boston, Massachusetts |
| Owner | Public Art Collection / City of Boston |
A Once and Future Shoreline is a unique outdoor artwork. It permanently marks where the edge of Boston Harbor was around the year 1630. You can find it etched into the stone ground near the historic Faneuil Hall building in Boston. This 850-foot-long artwork shows the old shoreline. It does this by etching pictures of things you'd find at the beach, like seaweed and shells, right into the stone. The artwork helps you imagine how this busy city spot used to be a salty marsh by the sea.
Discovering Boston's Old Shoreline
The area where this artwork is located was once a very important landing spot. It was called Town Dock. Over time, people filled in parts of the harbor to create more land. This happened a lot starting in the 1600s. The process is called "wharfing out." The area then became known as Dock Square.
The idea for A Once and Future Shoreline came from a lot of research. Experts from the Boston Art Commission and the Boston City Archeologist helped. They looked at old maps from the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center. They also studied writings by historian Nancy Seasholes. This artwork shows one small part of Boston's original shoreline. It's right in the middle of the busy downtown area.
Artistic Details and Design
The artwork shows where the old shoreline was at high tide. This line is cut into the granite stone. The artists used special stencils made from things found at the high-tide line. These include:
- Sea grass
- Bladder Wrack seaweed
- Skate egg casings
- Quahog shells
- Blue Mussels
- Feathers
- Sea cucumber
- Sea Robin (a type of fish)
- Rock crabs
- Pieces of old rope
The plaza's stone pattern also shows more history. It has an overlay from an 1820 map of the area. This map shows old street layouts in grey granite blocks. Building plots from that time are marked with etched dash lines and pink granite blocks. The A Once and Future Shoreline artwork is also close to a sculpture of Samuel Adams by Anne Whitney.
Boston's Changing Landscape
The land where this artwork is, in downtown Boston, was once much closer to the ocean. About 5,000 years ago, early Native American people lived on grassy plains and hills. Today, these areas are under the water of Boston Harbor.
This artwork marks a shoreline that is now far from the ocean. However, it might show where the shoreline could be again in the future. This is because of rising ocean levels. These rising levels are a result of global climate change.
