The photos that helped us tell the stories of 2024

As college students protested the war in Gaza and a total solar eclipse captivated the region, WBUR's photographers were there to capture the anger and awe. They spotted Jayson Tatum punching the Celtic's NBA trophy in the air in victory and witnessed families struggling to find shelter in a worsening housing crisis.

Look back through the year in photographs:

Jan. 11 | Patriots owner Robert Kraft hugs Bill Belichick at the end of a press conference announcing the iconic head coach would leave the team after 24 seasons.

Jan. 16 | Mark Jenkin's sculpture of a woman on a swing hangs across Winter Street. The piece was part of a number of whimsical public art installations that popped up in downtown Boston in January.

Jan. 18 | Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event at the Alpine Grove Event Center in Hollis, New Hampshire, during her campaign for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

Jan. 29 | As the number of migrants to Massachusetts increased and family shelters began to enforce a limit, newly arrived families with nowhere to stay settle down for the night at Boston's Logan Airport. State officials later barred families from sleeping at the airport.

Jan. 31 | During Boston's annual homeless census, Mayor Michelle Wu and Jim Greene, the city's assistant director of street homelessness initiatives, talk with a man spending the night next to the Old State House.

Feb. 9 | Outside of Symphony Hall, the B in the BSO sign is shut off to illuminate only Seiji Ozawa's initials the day his death was announced. The Red Sox-loving Japanese maestro led the orchestra for 29 years. He paved the way for greater diversity in classical music.

Feb. 13 | A vehicle wades through seawater flooding Long Wharf in Boston. Instead of dumping 3 inches of snow, the storm brought wet weather and flooding to many parts of Boston and the South Shore.

Feb. 14 | Harlequin, an African penguin and mother of a new egg, goes for a swim at the New England Aquarium. The aquarium is one of about 50 facilities working to protect the penguins from extinction. A key part of the plan is a carefully controlled breeding program to preserve the species’ genetic diversity.

Feb. 14 | A bust of the orator, activist and writer Frederick Douglass is installed in the Massachusetts State House Senate Chamber. It is the first state-commissioned bust of a Black person in the government building.

Feb. 15 | MBTA riders get on and off an Orange Line train in North Station. Thousands of commuters were stuck waiting on cold platforms, in stalled trains and in darkened stations due to a widespread power outage that brought a halt to service on the Green, Blue and Orange lines.

Feb. 27 | Taylor Avitabile is shocked at the condition of the Rockland apartment she and her husband own. They rented it to a tenant who didn't pay rent for nearly two years. After months of legal proceedings and appeals by the tenant, they finally reclaimed the apartment, only to find it in complete disarray. The whole experience cost the couple nearly $80,000 and consumed their lives for two years.

Feb. 28 | Amber Haggstrom sifts through documents related to her mother's body donation to Harvard Medical School. Her mother, Donna Pratt, donated her body after her death for study at the prestigious medical school during the time that Cedric Lodge, the morgue manager, was allegedly stealing and selling donor remains.

March 7 | Protesters with the activist group IfNotNow flood the intersection of Summer Street and Atlantic Avenue in Boston to block traffic in an act of disruptive civil disobedience to call for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address.

March 7 | Graciella Carter and her son, Oscar, climb on logs at a park in Northampton. They'd been sitting on the huge waitlist for a state-subsidized apartment for nearly five years. State officials promised to get more families into public housing after a WBUR investigation in 2023 found that more than 2,000 state-funded units were vacant.

March 25 | Ebony Gill sifts through the archive of Boston-area music fanzines at UMass Boston's Healey Library. She started the popular Boston Urban Archive on Instagram, sharing research on hip-hop and the genre's history in Boston, taking advantage of the college's Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive.

April 8 | Children watch the moon blot out the sun in front of the Vermont State House in Montpelier. People from Texas to Maine, gathered along the path of totality to view the rare eclipse.

April 17 | Artist Jean Shin’s face glows from the reflection off the copper she is attaching to a tree stump as part of her exhibit, "Perch," at the Trustees' Appleton Farms. Shin's project around the farm's fields features 18 sculptures where the migratory bobolinks will perch, highlighting the birds’ ecologically complex habitat.

May 6 | College students in Boston joined protests across the country calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. These students at MIT had set up an encampment to draw attention to the plight of the displaced Palestinian people. After police ordered them to leave their camp, protesters flattened the metal fence to re-occupy the Kresge Oval.

May 26 | Chappell Roan performs at the Boston Calling Music Festival. The pop singer's fame skyrocketed this year after performing at a number of high-profile music festivals.

May 30 | Graduates protesting the war in Gaza walk out of MIT's commencement ceremony. They condemned the university for disciplining protesters involved in anti-war encampments. Ceremonies at several Boston-area colleges saw similar demonstrations.

June 5 | Surya Reis, executive director of the medicinal plant laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, looks at the cells of "mini brains" created from stem cells. She’s trying to see how the cells react to potentially psychoactive compounds.

June 6 | Nancy Schön's duckling sculptures in the Boston Public Garden are dressed in green to support the Celtics in the NBA playoffs.

June 20 | Two people walk through Purgatory Chasm in Sutton on a hot summer day. WBUR traveled around New England with our public radio colleagues, discovering the best things to do and eat in the region as part of our Field Guide "day trips" project.

June 21 | Jayson Tatum hoists the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy during the Boston Celtics victory parade. Thousands of fans lined the streets of downtown Boston to celebrate the team's 18th championship title — a record for the league.

June 24 | Tara and Peter Franklin reminisce over photographs and memorabilia from their days running the Cool Dogs business. Actress Ayo Edebiri went on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" to promote her show “The Bear.” Both performers grew up in New England, so naturally talk turned to things only New Englanders know about. One of them? A novelty ice cream treat called the Cool Dog.

July 11 | Kaili Turner screams during a scene of Company One's "Hoops" during a dress rehearsal at the Strand Theatre in Boston. The performance shared a collection of vignettes exploring the complicated relationship between people of color and the iconic earrings.

July 31 | Bumper-to-bumper traffic snakes along Airport Road into the Ted Williams Tunnel — a result of the Sumner Tunnel's weeks-long closure for repairs. The scheduled work caused epic delays for drivers traveling from Logan Airport and East Boston.

Aug. 8 | Protesters at the Massachusetts State House call on Gov. Maura Healey to reconsider new restrictions to the family shelter system. She had just implemented a five-day limit on stays in “temporary respite centers,” which were backups for the already-full shelter system.

Aug. 27 | Timothy Edwards uses a power drill to fasten a frame for solar panels together as Narkeisha Gilbert and Lhoucine Bouhaddou hold it in place during a solar installation training in Boston. Organizers said the program's goal is to tackle poverty through climate action centered on clean energy.

Aug. 29 | Retired Andover High School teacher Tom Meyers leaves literature in support of the Question 2 ballot question at a home in Lawrence. The initiative, which ultimately passed in November, sought to end the use of the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement for high schoolers.

Sept. 1 | A sign notifies people that Carney Hospital in Dorchester is closed. The hospital as well as Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer shut down on Sept. 1 as part of the bankruptcy proceedings for Steward Health Care.

Sept. 20 | A woman sits among her belongings near South Common Park in Lowell. The city has seen an increase in people living on the streets in recent years. Data from the city's annual homeless census in January show the number of people living outdoors in Lowell almost doubled since early 2020.

Sept. 24 | A decommissioning crew works above a pit filled with nearly a million gallons of filtered wastewater in the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station reactor. The nuclear waste has been sitting there in the half-decade since the plant shut down. Getting rid of it has become a flashpoint in communities around Plymouth.

Oct. 1 | At Cape Gun Works, owner Toby Leary shoots a tactical pistol banned, along with other guns, under a state law that took effect in October. Leary and others hope the law will be repealed, either by courts or a possible ballot measure.

July 15 | Saxophonist Jonathan Suazo plays the Charles River Jazz Festival at Herter Park Amphitheater in Boston. The musician was selected as one of WBUR's Makers, local artists of color pushing boundaries in their crafts.

Sept. 23 | Photographer and multimedia artist Feda Eid holds up and examines a piece of fabric she hemmed for a new gown. Also selected as one of WBUR's Makers, Eid had created the garment for her next self-portrait inside her Boston Center for the Arts studio.

Oct. 24 | The view over Franklin Park toward downtown Boston on a fall evening. In the center is White Stadium, a 75-year-old venue where Boston high school athletes play. Efforts are underway to renovate the stadium to become home to Boston's new professional women's soccer team, BOS Nation FC, starting in 2026.

Oct. 28 | A smoke haze hangs over the Massachusetts State House and Beacon Hill as wildfires blazed in towns nearby. Drought conditions and warm temperatures this fall sparked fires with notably devastating effects across the state.

Oct. 30 | Artist Jeffrey Gibson looks at his piece titled "Your Spirit Whispers in My Ear" suspended over a stage at MASS MoCA in North Adams. It's part of the immersive experience "Power Full Because We're Different" at the museum, exploring the two-spirit experience embraced by many Indigenous people.

Oct. 31 | After two decades, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston installed a new leader: Archbishop Richard Henning. In this photo, he walks into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston for his installation Mass. He replaced retiring Cardinal Sean O'Malley.

Nov. 5 | Voters wait in a long line down a spiral staircase before the polls open at 7 a.m. at the Charlestown Boys and Girls Club in Boston to cast their vote in the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Nov. 5 | Massachusetts Democrats cheer for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on election night in Boston. Warren handily defeated her Republican challenger John Deaton.

Nov. 5 | Simmons University student Bella Santos reacts to results coming in during a watch party at the school on election night.

Nov. 14 | A new sculpture depicting Nipmuc descendant Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines Jr. is placed onto a large plinth outside the Museum of Fine Arts entrance in Boston. The sculpture is one of two created by Alan Michelson, collectively called "The Knowledge Keepers," on display outside the museum. They join a century-old sculpture by Cyrus Dallin, "Appeal to the Great Spirit," that has been criticized for its depiction of Native Americans.

Nov. 15 | Teachers walk through Marblehead Center during their two-week strike. Three teachers unions walked out of the classrooms this fall on the North Shore, advocating for higher wages and better parental leave benefits among other conditions.

Nov. 16 | In the wake of Donald Trump's re-election to the presidency, anti-abortion activists hosted a so-called "Men's March" along a roughly three-mile stretch in Boston. The demonstrators stand behind a row of police after counter-protesters, many dressed as clowns to mock the men, meet them in Kenmore Square.

Dec. 3 | Worcester firefighters march to Franklin Street Firehouse, the site of a former abandoned warehouse where a tragic fire broke out 25 years ago. Six Worcester firefighters lost their lives.

Dec. 6 | Michaela Wellman, a Mass Audubon animal care technician, carefully picks up a loggerhead turtle. Staff and volunteers with the group's sea turtle rescue program save endangered turtles that wash up cold-stunned on Cape beaches every year.

Dec. 6 | Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson leaves federal court after her arraignment on public corruption charges. Federal investigators allege she stole thousands of dollars in public funds in a "kickback scheme" orchestrated with a family member on her staff.

Dec. 11 | A man walks over Longfellow Bridge during a winter storm that brought heavy rainfall, gusty winds and a surge of unseasonable warmth to the Boston area.