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Resources supporting the John Adams Courthouse Visitors Film Companion Guide

Part of the companion guide to the John Adams Courthouse Visitors Film, providing resources about cases, lawsuits, documents, historical figures and other information referenced in the Visitors Film.

This section of the companion guide offers online resources to further explore the film’s content, and to serve as a springboard for subsequent history and civics projects. 

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Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)

The seven Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices in 2025

Current Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justices[1]

Interviews with SJC Justices

Related cases

References and links to information about Massachusetts and United States cases that relate to the Film. 

Salem Witch Trials

Oil painting of a crowded courtroom, people are pointing at each other, some have fainted

Oil painting depicting a case of the Salem Witch Trials, entitled "Examination of a Witch"[2]

painted portrait of Elizabeth Freeman

Watercolor portrait of Elizabeth Freeman, entitled "Mumbet," 1811[3]

Freedom lawsuits

Engraving of an authority figured turning Sarah Roberts away from school due to segregation

Engraving of Sarah Roberts entitled "Turned Away from School," 1839[4] 

Desegregation lawsuits

Desegregated school classroom with two young girls of different races looking at each other

Photograph from the first day of school in Virgina, entitled "Times are Changing," 1955[5]

Murder trials

Painting of Crispin Attucks being killed by British Soldiers at the Boston Massacre

Depiction of one of the first people killed by British Soldiers, Crispus Attucks, in this painting entitled "Boston Massacre," 1770[6]

Portait of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti sitting in suits with very serious faces

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1921)[7]

Legal document references

Antiqued front cover page of "Thoughts on Government" by John Adams

Cover page of "Thoughts on Government" by John Adams[8]

Key figures

Black and white bust portrait of former president John Adams

John Adams of Massachusetts: Continental Congress delegate, diplomat in Europe, vice president to George Washington, and 2nd president of the United States.[9]

Contact

Online

Supreme Judicial Court Contact Information

Phone

Supreme Judicial Court main phone: Call John Adams Courthouse Contact Information, Supreme Judicial Court main phone: at 617-557-1000

Hours: Mon. - Fri., 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Appeals Court main phone: Call John Adams Courthouse Contact Information, Appeals Court main phone: at 617-725-8106

Hours: Mon. - Fri., 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Social Law Library main phone: Call John Adams Courthouse Contact Information, Social Law Library main phone: at 617-226-1500

Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.

For information on emergency or weather-related closures and delays call: Call John Adams Courthouse Contact Information, For information on emergency or weather-related closures and delays call: at 617-557-1000
MassRelay: Dial Call John Adams Courthouse Contact Information, MassRelay: Dial at 711

Address

1 Pemberton Square, Boston , MA 02108
Directions

Image credits

  1. Current Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) Justices (Top row left to right: Justice Gabrielle R. Wolohojian, Justice Elizabeth N. Dewar, Justice Serge Georges, Jr., and Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt, Bottom row left to right: Justice Frank M. Gaziano, Chief Justice Kimberly S. Budd, and Justice Scott L. Kafker). Photo from the SJC. 
  2. "Examination of a Witch," by Thompkins Harrison Matteson. Oil painting on canvas representing the Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts (1853), from the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum.
  3. "Mumbet" portrait of Elizabeth Freeman, born as "Mum Bett," painted by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick. Watercolor on ivory painting (1811). Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.  
  4. "Turned Away from School," engraving, the Anti-Slavery Almanac, Boston, 1839. From the Long Road to Justice education section on Sarah C. Roberts vs. The City of Boston.
  5. "Times are Changing," first day of school in Virgina, 1955, desegregation, issued by the United Press, photo for public use from the Library of Congress.
  6. "Boston Massacre, March 5th,1770," artwork by William L. Champney in 1855, modeled after a hand-colored engraving created right after the event. Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
  7. Photograph of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, whose robbery and murder convictions started a radicalized movement, by an unidentified artist in 1921, from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. 
  8. Photograph of the front cover page to "Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies" by John Adams (1776). Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
  9. Bust portrait of President John Adams, photo for public use from the Library of Congress. 

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