Winslow Homer painted this scene of a country school in 1871, nearly two decades after Massachusetts became the first state to pass a compulsory education law in the United States. …

Years after Julia Ward Howe wrote the martial anthem of the Civil War she campaigned for a ‘Mother’s Day for Peace.’ Before the Civil War started, and before Howe wrote …

For many years during the 19th century, the simple, self-sufficient Shakers of Sabbathday Lake, Maine, mingled happily with the luxury-loving guests and the owners of the Poland Spring Hotel. It …

Newport, Rhode Island owes its founding to William Coddington and Anne Hutchinson, early colonists in Massachusetts, and one of the oldest theological debates there is. Are souls saved by grace …

Had it not been for his May Day party with a giant Maypole, Thomas Morton might have established a New England colony more tolerant, easygoing and fun than the one …

Sylvester Graham was such a severe critic of meat and refined flour that he provoked a near-riot in 1837 among Boston’s bakers and butchers. Graham believed in whole grains, fresh …