The Paul Revere House and the city as a multilayered cultural palimpsest

pal·imp·sest

/paləm(p)ˌsest/ 

noun

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

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Cities are the source and setting of sociocultural life. With their paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks –as Kevin Lynch would describe them-, cities can be said to represent a dynamic canvas where human life constantly unfolds and mutates, taking some of what it found and leaving new traces behind. Cities are thus the ultimate cultural palimpsest, the accumulation of times past, the stage for the present, and the raw materials for the future.

But cities are not necessarily unitary or uniform entities. Like a Russian doll, cities are made of multiple layers of continuously evolving cultural palimpsests: from the city as a whole, to the different districts that comprise them and give home to evolving communities, to specific buildings, landmarks or objects that are being constantly repurposed, to the very individuals that inhabit them, who might take on manifold roles and personas across their lifetime. Cities are thus the product of multiple components and intricate interrelationships: the changes in each of the layers go to influence the others, thus forming a complex network of ever-evolving urban culture. 

This exhibition will explore the idea of the city as a multilayered cultural palimpsest by focusing on the study of a historical landmark in Boston: the 18^th century house of Paul Revere, famous patriot in the American Revolution. By analyzing the evolving history of the North End -the district in which the house is located-, the Revere House itself and the several uses it has been given, and the life of Paul Revere, a man of manifold personas, this exhibition aims to provide some insight into the ways in which the different elements of the city influence each other to form a beautifully complex cultural palimpsest, a seemingly endless source of creation, reinvention, and transcendence of human life.