Big Dig Exhibit

West End Museum about page with historic Boston image.

My association with the West End...

....goes w-a-a-a-y back to when I began researching Scollay Square at the West End Library. Librarian Paula Posnick, who was very generous with the library's archives, asked me to join the West End Historic Association. The WEHA would morph into a group which would later create the West End Museum on Lomansey Way. In 2025, after donating several boxes of memorabilia I had saved from my days as a project spokesperson, I was asked if I would curate an exhibit at the West End Museum on the Big Dig.

Exhibit about airport challenges and projects in a museum.

The exhibit ran from February to May of 2026

Working with Bob Potenza, Jaydie Halpern and Sebastian Belfanti we created a series of illustrated informational displays, as well as several cases filled with memorabilia, including objects from the tunnel's construction.

Exhibit about the Ted Williams Tunnel at The Story of Boston's Big Dig.

Museum exhibit about city planning and history.

Artifacts and publications on Boston's archaeological digs.

The exhibit's opening night was well-attended.

Attending the exhibit's opening night were several people with connections to the project. On the left is Fred Salvucci, who was Secretary of Transportation under Mike Dukakis during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Fred is widely acknowledged as one of the driving forces behind the Big Dig. On the right is Tom Palmer, who was the transportation reporter for the Boston Globe during my tenure at the project. He is retired from journalism, and is on the board of the West End Museum.

I later gave my talk on the Big Dig here at the museum. (This talk, in which I tell all about the challenges of building in a major city, is also about how Boston grew and the decisions which led to the need for Big Dig, can be booked for your group by emailing David.)

I was humbled to receive this from the Boston City Council.

The exhibit drew some media attention...

Channel 5

A reporter came by the museum to do a feature on the exhibit, and in the course of our interview I uttered a bit of local vernacular which got me "bleeped!" (It rhymes with pothole...) You can see the video of my foul-mouth here.

Boston Globe

This article resulted from the Channel 5 appearance. I laughed when I saw the the word which Channel 5 felt compelled to bleep the Globe had no problem putting in the headline. My favorite line comes later in the piece, when writer Billy Baker wrote “I got on the phone with Kruh, who was sorry to inform me that it was a joke, one he uses because people’s attention tends to drift when he’s giving a tour of the exhibit. Such a Masshole move.”