Errata

Mistakes happen, and there were a few made in the research, editing, and production of Always Something Doing and of Scollay Square.  The ones of which I am aware are listed here.  If you believe you have spotted any others, feel free to bring them to my attention in an email.

1) Due to an error in research, in ASD on page 12, paragraph 3, John Scollay (Boston's Fire Marshall in 1747 and later a member of the Sons of Liberty,) is incorrectly identified as the same man who leased the Winnisimmet Ferry in 1692.  He wasn't, and it has since been assumed that he was actually John's father (as he is identified in a number of sources.)  But research by descendants of the Scollay family now place the assumption in doubt.  It's possible that the ferry owner was "actually a son of William Scollay (brother of 7.James Scollay) who also emigrated to Boston," according to one researcher.  We continue to press for the final answer.

2) An error in research led to the following, also in ASD, at the top of page 30, where P.T. Barnum is incorrectly identified as a co-owner of Austin & Stone's Dime Museum.  Mr. Barnum, who had great success with Dime Museums in New York and elsewhere, was not connected with Austin &Stone's in Boston.  (In fact, he was good friends with Moses Kimball, who owned the competing Boston Museum on Tremont Street, and was therefore disinclined to such a venture.)

3) In the second edition of ASD, a production error reversed and printed in negative the image on the bottom of page 160.

4) On page 79 of the Arcadia book, Lilly Ann Rose's receipt from Simpson's Loan Company is identified as being for a diamond necklace.  It is for a watch.

5) On page 95 of ASD, dates for the Crawford House's founding on Brattle Street (1848) and expansion into Scollay Square (1860) are incorrect.  Shame on me, because in the very first thing I ever read on the Square (Walter Muir Whitehill's pamphlet "The Metamorphosis of Scollay and Bowdoin Squares) says that the Crawford House was opened on Brattle Street in the 1860s.  King's Handbook of Boston, published in 1895, says that the Crawford House was opened in December of 1865 on Brattle Street, and expanded into Scollay Square in 1874, and with no other source to confirm the dates in my book, I must assume that the 1865 and 1874 dates for opening and expansion, respectively, are correct.