FIGURES IN BOSTON HISTORY
1.John Winthrop (1587–1649)
Acting on a daring plan put together by English Puritans in 1629, John Winthrop led approximately 800 settlers to the New World to build a godly civilization in the wilderness. He settled his Puritan charges at Boston in 1630 (for further details see 1630: Boston Founded) and served as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until his death.
John Winthrop
2.Increase Mather (1639–1723)
Harvard-educated preacher Increase Mather solidified the hold of Puritan theologians on the Massachusetts government. When William III took the English Crown, Mather persuaded the king to grant a charter that gave the colony the right to elect the council of the governor in 1691. His influence was later undermined by his support of the 1692 Salem witch trials.
3.Samuel Adams (1722–1803)
Failed businessman Samuel Adams became Boston’s master politician in the eventful years leading up to the Revolution (for further details see Samuel Adams’ Tea Tax Speech (1773)). Adams signed the Declaration of Independence and served in both of the Continental Congresses. He later became the governor of Massachusetts, and joined Paul Revere to lay the cornerstone of the State House in 1795.
Samuel Adams
4.Paul Revere (1735–1818)
Best known for his “midnight ride” to forewarn the rebels of the British march on Concord, Revere served the American Revolution as organizer, messenger, and propagandist. A gifted silversmith with many pieces in the Museum of Fine Arts, he founded the metalworking firm that gilded the State House dome and sheathed the hull of the USS Constitution.
5.Harrison Gray Otis (1765–1848)
In the 1790s, Harrison Gray Otis and James Mason transformed Beacon Hill from a hilly pasture into a chic neighborhood that embodies the Federal building style. Otis championed the architecture of Charles Bulfinch, and three of his Bulfinch-designed houses still grace Beacon Hill, including the one now known as Harrison Gray Otis House.
6.Donald McKay (1810–1880)
McKay built the largest and swiftest of the great clipper ships in his East Boston shipyard in 1850. The speedy vessels revolutionized long-distance shipping at the time of the California gold rush and gave Boston its last glory days as a mercantile port before the rise of rail transportation.
7.Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910)
After recovering from a major accident, Eddy wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the basis of Christian Science. She founded a church in Boston in 1879, and in 1892 reorganized it as the First Church of Christ, Scientist (for further details see Christian Science Center). Eddy also established the Pulitzer prize-winning Christian Science Monitor newspaper in 1908.
8.James Michael Curley (1874–1958)
Self-proclaimed champion of “the little people,” Curley used patronage and Irish pride to retain a stranglehold on Boston politics from his election as mayor in 1914 until his defeat at the polls in 1949. Known as “the rascal king” he embodied political corruption but created many enduring public works.
James Michael Curley
9.John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)
Grandson of Irish-American mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and son of ambassador Joseph Kennedy, John F. Kennedy represented Boston in both houses of the US Congress before he became the first Roman Catholic elected president of the United States. The presidential library at Columbia Point recounts the story of his brief, but intense, period in office (for further details see John F. Kennedy Library and Museum).
10.W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. (1920–1999)
In 1974, US District Court judge Garrity ruled that African-American students had been denied their constitutional rights to the best available education. His desegregation plan for Boston’s 200 schools set off protests, some violent, in predominantly white neighborhoods.
LITERARY BOSTONIANS
1.Anne Bradstreet
Bradstreet (c.1612–72) was America’s first poet, publishing The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America in 1650.
2.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poet and philosopher, Emerson (1803–82) espoused transcendentalism as well as pioneering American literary independence.
3.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Known for epic poems such as Hiawatha, Longfellow (1807–82) also translated Dante.
4.Louisa May Alcott
Little Women sealed the literary fame of Alcott (1832–88), but she also acted as a nurse in the Civil War.
5.Henry James
Master of sonorous prose, James (1843–1916) is considered one of the creators of the psychological novel.
6.Dorothy West
African-American novelist and essayist, West (1907–98) made sharp obser-vations about class and race conflicts.
Dorothy West
7.Robert Lowell
The “confessional poetry” of Lowell (1917–77) went on to influence a whole generation of writers.
8.Robert Parker
Scholar of mystery literature, Parker (1932–2010) is best known for his signature detective Spenser.
9.Robert Pinsky
Poet, critic, and translator, Pinsky (b.1940) served as US poet laureate and now teaches at Boston University.
10.Dennis Lehane
Novelist Dennis Lehane (b.1965) brings a dark, tragic vision to the working-class neighborhoods of Boston.
