State-funded normal schools—designed to provide standardized training of teachers—first emerged in Massachusetts in the early 19th century.  By the 20th century, they had morphed into state colleges.  In the 21st …

Josephine Ruffin (1842-1924) was a noted supporter of the Union Army during the Civil War, head of charitable efforts, suffragist, publisher and organizer for women’s rights through club activity. Josephine …

Ralph Waldo Emerson supplied the ideas. Charles Stearns Wheeler helped put them into practice. From 1836 to 1842, Wheeler edited Emerson’s manuscripts, prepared publications and contributed his classical scholarship to …

The New England Women’s Club, formed in Boston in 1868, fostered social interaction through various activities designed for self-improvement.  Although the pioneering club had its heyday in the late-19th and …

During the 1830’s many New Englanders began moving westward, looking for cheaper and more fertile land. This wave of New England westward migration carried families along routes like the newly …

The first colonial American printing press appeared in 1638 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-1691), founded by English Puritans.  The focus was on religious works, legal documents, almanacs and translated …