Nat Geo Day Tour: Boston, Hub of Innovation

While Boston is renowned for its Freedom Trail, it also boasts an Innovation Trail showcasing the city's history of technological and scientific advances. Both Boston and neighboring Cambridge have been at the forefront of world-changing discoveries for centuries, from the invention of the telephone to medical breakthroughs. On this walking tour through Boston, you will visit significant sites of innovation and discover stories of famous figures like Alexander Graham Bell, and lesser-known pioneers who shaped our world.

Starting in downtown Boston you’ll visit a "lost museum" of communication history that isn't ordinarily open to the public, the Verizon Museum of Communications. As well as a re-creation of Alexander Graham Bell's lab, the museum houses a variety of antique telecommunication devices. Next, you will stop at Massachusetts General Hospital, where you can step inside a 19th-century operating theater – the very place where anesthesia was first used. Crossing the Longfellow Bridge into Cambridge, visit the MIT campus and learn about its illustrious alumni.

Throughout the tour, your National Geographic-trained guide will reveal the stories behind groundbreaking achievements like Technicolor, ice shipping, Polaroid, and smallpox treatment, which all feature Boston in their histories. Tales of science, technology, and innovation are often overshadowed by Boston's revolutionary past, but by following this trail you are celebrating the city's continuous spirit of change, a testament to the societal shifts and educational opportunities that fostered a hub for groundbreaking ideas in the modern world.