Leif Erikson's Vinland in Cambridge, MA

In the late 19th century, Harvard Chemistry Professor Eben Norton Horsford amassed a fortune by developing a new formulation of baking powder.

In the wake of this financial success, Horsford became captivated by the ideas of Danish scholar Carl Christian Rafn. Rafn had published a book in 1837 called Antiquitates Americanæ, which examined ancient Viking sagas to determine where Leif Erickson had made landfall in North America.

Horsford believed that this landfall site, which the sagas had referred to as Vinland, may have been in New England. He therefore undertook an amateur archaeological dig in the area surrounding Harvard.

To prove that the Vikings had indeed landed in Cambridge, MA, Professor Horsford began digging at a sight which is now situated on a sidewalk between Mt. Auburn Hospital and Memorial Drive. After digging down several feet, Horsford claimed to have discovered Norse artifacts and building foundations. He interpreted this as proof that Leif Erikson's Vinland was in fact Cambridge. Using private resources, he laid a formidable stone marker at the site, claiming that Leif Erikson himself had built a home there 1000 years before.

Not satisfied with this first "discovery", Horsford went on to augment the Viking lore, and to integrate the myth of Norumbega. Although it is no longer a familiar name, Norumbega was once considered to be a famous 'lost' city of silver and gold, akin to El Dorado. It first appeared on a map in 1529, and became famous after English explorer David Ingram claimed to have visited it and found it full of silver, gold, and pearls.

Horsford synthesized this myth into his Viking narrative, claiming that the lost city of Norumbega had been founded by the Vikings and was just a bit further up the Charles, in what is now Waltham, MA. Horsford spent more of his fortune building a grand tower on this site.

Despite doubt among mainstream historians and archaeologists, Horsford continued memorializing the supposed Viking conquest of Cambridge and Boston. He used more of his funds to build a statue commemorating Leif Erikson on Commonwealth Avenue, one of the most desirable and expensive neighborhoods in the city.

Interestingly, Horsford first became engaged by Rafn's theories through poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. As both Longfellow and Horsford lived on Brattle Street, their social circles overlapped. Once, when Horsford was visiting Longfellow, he met the Norwegian violinist Ole Bull. Ole Bull and Longfellow were both captivated by Rafn's ideas at the time, and had previously attempted to form a committee to erect a different Leif Erikson statue. This committee, made up of over 50 prominent Bostonians, had included Harvard President Charles Eliot. Although that committee effort had failed, Horsford took up the cause and privately commissioned the Commonwealth Avenue statue.

A historical artifact that seems to have underpinned Horsford's and Longfellow's theories was a find known as the "Skeleton in Armor". An entire skeleton was purportedly found in Fall River, MA, in the year 1832. What made the find unique was a piece of triangular brass armor on it, which the contemporary discovers doubted Native Americans could have produced and therefore interpreted as proof that the skeleton was from an ancient Viking colonizer.

Present-day interpretation concludes that the skeleton, which was found in a moist matrix, could not have been more than a century or two old. Despite this, and the fact that the specimen was destroyed in a museum fire in 1843, the idea of Norse settlers nevertheless took hold in the imaginations of Horsford and Longfellow. Longfellow would go on to write a poem called "The Skeleton in Armor", which refers to the Fall River skeleton as a Norse explorer.

Unlike the myth propagated by Professor Horsford, contemporary archaeologists believe that the true site of Viking landfall in North America was at L'Anse aux Meadows in northernmost Newfoundland. There, verified Norse artifacts were found in the 1960s, making it the only confirmed Viking landing site in North America. While this might not have been the 'Vinland' referred to in Viking sagas, it is evident that it was at one point occupied by Vikings. The stark geographic distance between this site and Horsford's illustrates the unlikelihood that Leif Erikson sailed the Charles.

I grew up a few blocks from the Horsford Plaque, and walked past it every day on my way to high school. I had always found the inscription peculiar and unbelievable, and I never knew who had paid to have the plaque placed or why it was there at all. Having learned about the nuanced history of Professor Horsford, I find it surprising and disheartening that history can seemingly be written by anyone who has the money to pay for a plaque (or a tower, or a statue). Although the myth that Horsford peddled may appear benign, it has some potentially unpleasant undercurrents. The motivation behind proving that Europeans had colonized North America 1000 years ago may have been used to cast doubt on indigenous American civilizations' achievements. So although the "Vikings in Cambridge" myth may be amusing, it is also ahistorical and pernicious.

 https://needhamhistory.org/features/articles/vikings/ 

 https://www.wbur.org/news/2018/12/27/vikings-boston-history-leif-erikson 

 https://www.straightdope.com/21343139/did-leif-erikson-once-live-in-cambridge-massachusetts 

 https://fallriverreporter.com/the-mysterious-skeleton-in-fall-rivers-closet/ 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26686942 [peer reviewed]