The Cradle that Rocks the World

On the same page: college classmate Bob Krim's case, and case studies, for the Cradle

After 9-11, 2001, I began to collect a list of local innovations of broad significance. Here is what I wrote back then:

We have all come to appreciate more than ever what we cherish about this country, for all its imperfections. Unlike other nations, we are bound together first and foremost not by the bond of one blood and one religion, but by the belief in something that transcends blood and religion, that we are “a new nation,” as only Lincoln could put it, “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” We are the first such nation born of that belief. In the political strife of recent years, the spirit of sharing in that belief has eroded, but if history is any guide, this too shall pass.

Boston is the unofficial capital of the entire New England region. What this region has done in the service of that belief, and done with that belief, forms an extraordinary legacy of innovation across all fields, a legacy that ought to inspire us to aim higher still. Boston sits within a region whose heart, conscience, and intellect concentrates here as nowhere else. The municipality of Boston is still the hub, but much credit also goes to the spokes and rims.

Alas, for want of the opportunity, Bostonians and more broadly New Englanders forget just how pivotal their role has been in delivering on the promise of freedom and equal opportunity, both long before and long after the Revolution that grabs all the attention. This greater Boston is truly America’s Motherland of Invention, America’s Homeplace. The last time a native really bragged about Boston, he called it the Cradle of Liberty, the Hub of the Universe. These metaphors have found their way into an official State web page: the New World’s hub of liberty and culture, its cradle of commerce and industry. And that starts to suggest just how wide the range of innovation is: technology, education, medicine, sports, the arts, environmentalism. The web page is a start. But it is hardly enough.

Many of the region’s innovations have had global reach. People from afar often come here in search of the roots of these things, even looking for a way to say thanks. We ought to find a truly open-armed way to celebrate Boston as the front door of New England, through which the regional legacy has spread, sometimes in ripples, sometimes in a tidal wave, from this well-harbored metropolis to the far shores of the globe. What happens in Boston does not stay in Boston. Boston inspires.

Boston inspires in so many ways! I put it this way in 2014.

Truly an idea this big deserves a public place in the heart of the nation’s oldest city—as well as in the hearts of its citizens. It should be open at all hours, free of charge. To the designers of such a space, I say this: do not reduce ideas to a statue or a plaque. No large cradles, please. Let the idea spread across the space like a treasure hunt. Let there be a parade of compelling historic images projected on unexpected surfaces, perhaps different each day, even interactive with real-time images. Perhaps there is a media wall. Let the space be infused with content and meaning, not burdened or overwrought, but subtly saturated, in keeping with Boston’s traditional restraint. What follows may begin to suggest the fun we will have. There is truly something for everyone.

Boston Firsts, Favorites, Heroes and Celebrities

Gathered together like a who’s-who gala, the list that follows is a what’s what of ideas and accomplishments that ought to be celebrities. Not all are from literally Boston proper, but every last one is from within the Boston orbit. Most are “firsts,” a few more are “oldest existing,” but few will be “biggest.” That, in the main, I leave to others. If the word “first” seems pushy and petty, maybe “earliest” feels better. I hasten to add that just because a thing is first does not mean that all after-versions are beholden to it. Adding a category for “seconds” would add depth, even accuracy, to the story, pointing to regional trends and rivalries, but I leave that for another day. There are bound to be errors, and competing claims (who invented the steamboat, hamburger, frisbee, etc.) And there are certainly omissions, especially among the other five New England States. These are matters of judgment, but the list is open to nominations in all categories that represent what is most admirable about us.

Boston isn’t about the past. It’s the place where the future happens first. Whose “first”? The “firsts” apply at least to the United States. Firsts of the first order of significance nationally are in boldface. Worldwide firsts, or persons or works of global stature, in common judgment, are boldface and underlined. We look forward to correcting and adding to the list. Begin in 2002 with 200 items, the list is now over 700 items long and growing, a work in progress. They are organized by these rough categories, within which items are chronologically listed:

Respect for Native Americans

Freedom, Equality, the Rule of Law, Justice, and Human Rights

National Celebration and Commemoration

Education

Secular Belief Systems

Communication including media introductions

Transportation

Flight

Culture and Entertainment

Vigilance, Defense and Safety

Medicine and Public Health

Other Technology and Invention of High Tech

Food, Clothing, and Shelter

Recreation, Sports, and Fitness

Conservation, Preservation, and Environment

Economic System and Business

Reform, Philanthropy, Activism, and Association

Connections with China

Everyday Things

As an encore is a list American Legends and Heroes—famous for being famous, and a whole lot more. Fasten your seatbelts.

Respect for Native Americans

First Native American/Anglo friendship (Plymouth)

First Linguist: First Systematic Study of Native Languages, Translation of Bible into Native Language, Preaching in Native Language (Roger Williams, John Eliot)

First State/Colony to Adopt a Native American Name (Massachusetts, Connecticut)

Freedom, Equality, the Rule of Law, Justice, and Human Rights

First Expression of New England Democracy (Civil Body Politic via Mayflower Compact, 1620) preceded by Virginia in 1619

First Town Meeting or home rule (Dorchester, 1633)

First Women’s Property Rights (Bill of Rights, Plymouth Colony, 1636)

First Advocacy of Complete Religious Freedom (Roger Williams, RI, 1636)

First Town Founded by a Woman (Taunton, MA, Elizabeth Poole, 1637)

First Government Granting Civil and Religious Liberty (Portsmouth Compact, RI, 1638)

First Colony Founded by a Female (Portsmouth RI, Anne Hutchinson, 1638)

First Written Constitution to Embody Democracy (Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639)

First Detailed Protection of Rights (Body of Liberties, Nathaniel Ward, 1641) including replication of English Statute of Monopolies (1623) granting patents for 14 years

First Colony to Legalize Slavery (Massachusetts Bay, 1641) to be reversed 1783

First Articles of Confederation (United Colonies of New England, 1643)

Oldest Structure Used for Worship (Lothrop House, now Sturgis Lothrop Library, Barnstable, 1644)

First Formal Legal Protection of Religious Freedom (Charter from King Charles II granted to Dr. John Clarke on behalf of Rhode Island, 1653)

First Quakers (MA, 1656 persecuted/RI 1657 welcomed)

First Copyright (John Usher, for his work The Book of General Laws and Liberties, Massachusetts General Court, May 15, 1672)

Oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1692)

First Political Apology (Salem Witch Trial Judge and Jurors, 1697) the colony declares a day of fasting and prayer to atone for the injustices of 1692 trial. Second in world after 1077 Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV apology to Pope Gregory VII. Compensation follows in 1711

First Bar Association (Massachusetts, 1761)

First Synagogue (Touro Synagogue, Newport, RI, 1763)

First Protest Meetings (Faneuil Hall, Boston: Sugar Act 1764, Stamp Act 1765, Townshend Acts 1767)

First Liberty Tree Day (Boston, August 14, 1765) On September 11, 1765, a 3.5' by 2.5' copper plate bearing the inscription The Tree of Liberty in large golden letters was placed on its trunk.

First College Student Resistance to Authority (Harvard College, May 1766) in keeping with zeitgeist

First Public Gallery in a Government Building (Old State House, 1766) Virginia House of Burgesses a few months earlier, preceded by Irish Parliament earlier still, per Brian LeMay of Old State house 2/2017

First Known Black Elected to Public Office (Wentworth Cheswell, Town Constable, Newmarket NH, 1768)

First Martyr of the American Revolution (Crispus Attucks, Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770) a man of African-Wampanoag descent leads the way

First Act of Resistance (Boston Tea Party, 1773)

First Petition by Blacks to End Slavery as an Institution (Felix Holbrook et al., petition to Massachusetts General Court, 6 Jan. 1773). Precedes similar efforts in New or Old England.

First Use of Metaphor “Cradle of Liberty” (nickname for Faneuil Hall, Boston, by 1774)

First Formal Protest to Crown (Suffolk Resolves, Milton, 1774)

First Display of “Liberty and Union” on a flag (Taunton Green, 1774)

First Bloodless Expulsion of British Authority (many towns, MA, 1774)

First Armed Resistance to British Regulars (Col. David Mason et al., Salem, February 26, 1775)

First Shot in American Revolution (Lexington, April 18, 1775) the “shot heard round the world”

First Display of Grand Union Flag (Prospect Hill, Somerville, New Years Day, 1776)

First Signer of Declaration of Independence (John Hancock, MA, 1776)

First Racially Integrated Institution (Fourteenth Massachusetts Continentals, Marblehead area, 1776)

First State Constitution to Outlaw Slavery and Include Universal Male Suffrage (VT, 1777)

First State Constitutional Convention of, for and by the people (NH, 1778)

First Black Regiment (First Rhode Island Regiment, 1778)

First Constitution in Continuous Use (John Adams et al., MA, 1780), model for US constitution and many other nations: three branch government, independent judiciary, bill of rights.

First Bill of Rights (at beginning of Massachusetts Constitution, John Adams, MA, 1780)

First State to Abolish Slavery (Justice William Cushing, MA Supreme Court, Robert Treat Paine Attorney General, Walker v. Jennison, 1783) First judicial decision declaring that slavery violates Constitutional guarantee of liberty; Quock Walker case.

First State to Enact Copyright Law (Massachusetts, 1783) incorporated in US Constitution Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8

First Unitarian Church (Kings Chapel, Boston, broke ties with Episcopal Church, 1785)

First Event to Focus Attention on Urgency of a Constitutional Convention (Shays Rebellion, Massachusetts, 1787)

First State to Ratify Bill of Rights (John Hancock presiding, MA, 1788)

First State to Abolish Slave Trade (MA, 1788)

First State to Join the Union (VT, 1791)

First Church Built by Free Blacks (African Meeting House, 8 Smith Court, Boston, 1806)

First Female Author on Women’s Rights (Hannah Mather Crocker, Observations on the Real Rights of Women, Boston 1818) Predates Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845

First Black Elected to State Legislature (Alexander Twilight, Vermont, 1836)

First Anti-Slavery Society (David Walker, Thomas Dalton et al., Massachusetts General Colored Association, 1826)

First Public Anti-Slavery Speech (William Lloyd Garrison, Park Street Church, 1829)

Most Famous Speech in US Senate History: Liberty and Union, Now and Forever” (Daniel Webster, MA, January 26, 1830), use of phrase “made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people”

First Abolitionist Newspaper (Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison, 12 Post Office Square, 1831)

First Association for Immediate Abolition (New-England Anti-Slavery Society, followed by Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society a month later, 1832)

First Public Speech by a Woman on Abolition and Woman’s Rights (Maria Stewart, a Black, Franklin Hall, Boston, 1832) to a mixed audience of men and women.

First Anti-Slavery Book (An Appeal in Favor of the Class of Americans Called Africans, Lydia Maria Child, Boston, 1833)

First School for Blacks (Abiel Smith School, 46 Joy Street, Boston, 1835)

First Black Elected to Public Office as State Legislator (Alexander Twilight, Vermont, 1836)

First Female to Address Massachusetts Legislature (Angelina Grimke, presenting antislavery petition signed by 20,000 women, 1838)

First Integrated Church (in US) (First Baptist Free Church or Tremont Temple Baptist Church, 88 Tremont Street, 1839)

First Probation (John Augustus, before Boston Police Court, Court Street, Boston, 1841). Statewide system adopted 1878

First to Call for Federal Force in Defense of Black Civil Rights (“Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord, 1844).

First Black Admitted to Bar (Macon Bolling Allen, ME, 1845, then first in MA)

First Black Lawyer to Win a Jury Trial in US (Robert Morris, Boston, 1847)

Lincoln’s First Acceptance of Eventual Abolition (Visit to Boston and nine nearby communities campaigning for Zachary Taylor, September 1848)

Civil Disobedience (Henry Thoreau, Concord, 1849) to Gandhi, back to Martin Luther King, Jr.

First National Women’s Rights Convention (Worcester, 1850)

First Lawsuit to Win School Desegregation (Robert Morriss lawyer, William Cooper Nell historian, Benjamin Franklin Roberts printer, Roberts v. Boston, 1850)

First Published Black Historian (William C. Nell (1816-1874), Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812, 1851)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe, CT and ME, 1852)

First Use of phrase “Of the people, by the people, for the people” (Theodore Parker, New England Anti-Slavery Convention, Boston Melodeon, Washington St., Boston, 1850), adopted by Parker from Daniel Webster and adopted from Lincoln by Sun Yat-sen, Father of Modern China (Three Principles of the People)

First Woman to Keep her Own Name after Marriage (abolitionist-suffragist Lucy Stone, West Brookfield,1855)

First Integrated School (Phillips and Abiel Smith Schools, Boston, 1855) after Massachusetts passes first law banning school segregation

First Black Jurors (Francis U. Clough and William H. Jenkins, Worcester, 1860)

First Union Troops to Die in Civil War (Massachusetts Sixth, on the anniversary of Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1861) combat-ready in DC

First Black Union Troops in Civil War (Gen. Benjamin Butler of MA, Louisiana, 1862, Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, 1863)

Most Losses of any Union regiment (Fifth New Hampshire Regiment)

First Black Female MD (Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, New England Female Medical College, Boston, 1864)

First Black Judge in a northern state (George Lewis Ruffin, Boston, 1883). He was first Black graduate of Harvard Law School, 1869

First State to Adopt Secret Ballot Voting (Massachusetts, 1888). So-called Australian ballot

First Black Female Nurse (Mary Eliza Mahoney, Boston, 1879)

First Articulation of Right to Privacy (Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, Harvard Law Review, 1890)

First National Conference of Black Women of America (Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Boston, 1895) also first black woman to own, edit, and publish a newspaper for Black women

First State to Adopt Minimum Wage Law (Massachusetts, after Lawrence female millworker strike, 1912)

First Black Female Member of the Massachusetts Bar (Blanche Woodson Braxton, Boston, 1923)

First Female U. S. Legislator (Edith Nourse Rogers, MA, 1925) introduced GI Bill of Rights

First Jew on U.S. Supreme Court (Louis Brandeis, MA, 1916)

First Region to Claim Philosophical Suitability as “Global Capital” (UN search for HQ site, Boston, Newport RI, 1946)

First Female Senator elected in her own right (Margaret Chase Smith, ME, 1948)

Peace Corps (JFK, 1961)

First Black Senator since Reconstruction (Edward W. Brooke, MA, 1966)

First Female Governor elected in her own right (Ella Grasso, CT, 1975)

First Governmental Adoption of Freely Accessible, Non-Proprietary Editable File Format (ODF or Open Document Format) (MA, 2005)

National Celebration and Commemoration

First Thanksgiving (Plymouth, 1621)

First History (William Bradford and Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Relation, 1622, and William Bradford History of Plimmoth Plantation, 1630-50)

Yankee Doodle (lyrics, CT, 1755)

First Fireworks and First Obelisk (Boston streets, in honor of surrender of Louisburg, July 8, 1765; John Hancock, Boston Common with Paul Revere designed obelisk as part of Sons of Liberty celebration, May 19, 1766; the obelisk burned before it could be placed at Liberty Tree as planned)

First Official Celebration of July 4 (Col. Thomas Crafts and Robert Treat Paine, fireworks over Boston Common, July 4 1777, first designation as a state celebration, Massachusetts General Court (Legislature), July 3, 1781; designation by City of Boston, 1783)

First July 4th Parade (Bristol, R.I., 1785)

First Public Display of American Eagle Icon, First Monument to American Revolution (Bulfinch’s Beacon Hill Column, 1789)

First Historical Society (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1791)

First Domed Capitol (Boston State House, Charles Bulfinch, 1795)

First Hilltop Siting of Capitol (ditto)

Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington and Martha Washington (Athenaeum Portraits)

First Significant Campaign Song (Adams and Liberty, Robert Treat Paine Jr., Boston, 1800) to tune of British tune Anachreon in Heaven, as also used for Star Spangled Banner in 1814

First Memorial to Washington (Bust in Old North Church, 1815)

First Historical Museum (Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, 1824)

First Major Revolutionary War Monument (Bunker Hill Monument, 1825) Tallest structure in the US. Prototype of much taller Washington Monument, DC, completed 1888 and then tallest structure in world.

First call for Thanksgiving as National Holiday (Sarah Josepha Hale in her Boston Ladies Magazine, by 1827, then Godey’s Lady’s Book after 1846, finally proclaimed by Lincoln in 1863)

America, My Country ‘Tis of Thee (Samuel Francis Smith, Newton, MA, first sung Park Street Church, Boston, July 4, 1831)

First Genealogical Organization (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 1845) inspired by founder of systematic genealogy, John Farmer (1789-1838) b. Chelmsford MA

First Designation of Washington’s Birthday as a State Holiday (Massachusetts, 1857)

First Statue of a non-allegorical Woman (Hannah Duston, Boscawen NH, 1874) survivor of Indian kidnapping in 17th c

First Centennial (Concord, April 19, 1875) attended by President Grant, then on to Lexington

First Joint Celebration of North and South Civil War Veterans (Bunker Hill Centennial, Boston, 1875)

Minuteman Statue (Daniel Chester French, Concord, 1875)

Pledge of Allegiance (Rev. Francis Bellamy, Boston, 1892)

America the Beautiful (Katherine Lee Bates, Falmouth, 1893)

First Monument to a Group rather than one hero (August Saint-Gaudens, Mass. 54th Regiment Monument, Boston, 1897)

Lincoln Memorial (Daniel Chester French, Stockbridge, 1920)

First Outdoor Museum (Wayside Inn area, Sudbury, Henry Ford, 1923)

First Automobile Museum (Larz and Isabel Anderson, Brookline, 1927)

First Living History Museum (Pioneer Village, Salem, 1930)

Four Freedoms (Norman Rockwell, Arlington VT, Stockbridge MA, 1943)

First Self-Guided Walking Tour (Boston journalist William Schofield, Freedom Trail, Boston, proposed 1951, red line installed 1958)

First Historic Districts in North (Beacon Hill and Nantucket, 1955

Education

First Public Education (Boston Public Latin School, 1635) Closed briefly 1775-1776

First College for Men (Harvard College, 1636)

First Free Public School (Mather School, Dorchester, 1639)

First Colony to Mandate Public Education for All Communities (Massachusetts, 1642)

Oldest School in Continuous Operation (John Eliot and Daniel Gookin, Roxbury Latin School, 1645)

First Reading Primer (The New-England Primer, Benjamin Harris, Boston, 1687)

First Campus Quadrangle (Harvard, 1718)

First Endowed Professorship (Harvard, 1721) Hollis Professor of Divinity

First Long-Distance Learning (Caleb Phillips, Boston, 1728) Boston Gazette ad for learning new method of short hand by mail.

First Independent Boarding School (Governor Dummer Academy, South Byfield, 1763)

First Academic Honor Society (Phi Beta Kappa, oldest continuous branches, Harvard and Yale, 1779)

First University (Harvard, 1780)

American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston, 1780)

First Medical School (Harvard, 1782)

First Native-born Professional Architect (Charles Bulfinch, Boston, first commission Hollis Street Church, 1788)

First Higher Education for Women (Emma Willard, Middlebury VT, 1815)

First Law School (Tapping Reeve, Litchfield CT, 1784, Harvard, 1817)

First School for Deaf (Ct Asylum for the Education…of Deaf and Dumb Persons, Hartford CT, 1817)

First Sunday School (Park Street Church, Boston, 1818)

First Private Military College (Alden Partridge, American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy, Northfield VT, 1819) Also first engineering, physical education, ROTC programs. Now Norwich University

First High School (English High School, Boston, 1820)

First Black to Receive Degree from College (Alexander Twilight, Middlebury College, VT, 1823)

First College Gymnasium (Charles Follen, Harvard College, 1826)

First School for the Blind (Samuel Gridley Howe, Perkins Institute, 1829) Helen Keller is the most famous alumna, first deaf and blind person to graduate college and write a book.

First Music School (Boston Academy of Music, Lowell Mason,1833)

First School Built for Black Children (Abiel Smith School, 46 Joy St., Boston, 1834-5)

Oldest Extant College for Women (Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, now College, 1837)

First Music Education in U.S. Public Schools (Lowell Mason, Boston Public Schools, 1838)

First Public Training Facility for Teachers (now Framingham State College, Horace Mann, 1839)

First Agricultural Experiment Station (Yale, 1847)

First Massachusetts Woman to Earn a College Degree (Lucy Stone, Oberlin College, 1847)

First Chemical Laboratory (Eben N. Horsford, Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, 1847-48)

First State to Integrate Public Schools (Massachusetts Legislature, 1855) until overturned by U S Supreme Court in 1896, then reinstated by same in 1954

First State with Compulsory Education for Children ages 7-14 (1852)

First Kindergarten (Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, 1860)

First Technology School (MIT, 1861)

First Training Facility for Female Doctors (Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, New England Hospital for Women and Children, 1862) Now Dimock Community Health Center

First African-American Woman to earn medical degree (Rebecca Lee Crumpler, New England Female Medical College, 1864) now BU School of Medicine. Crumpler (1831-1895) lived at 67 Joy Street Boston in 1869

First Architecture School (MIT, 1865)

First Dental School (Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 1867)

First Independent Music School (New England Conservatory, 1867)

First U. S. Fish Commissioner (Spencer Baird, Woods Hole, 1871) First step to National Marine Fisheries Service, First Fisheries Program

First Art College (Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, 1873)

First Female Technology Graduate (Ellen Swallow Richards, B.S., MIT, 1873)

First Female Nursing School Graduate (Linda Richards, New England Hospital for Women and Children, Roxbury, 1873)

First Art History Education (Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard University, 1875)

First Black to Earn a Ph.D. (Edward Alexander Bouchet, physics, Yale, 1876)

First Woman to Earn a PhD (Helen Magill White, BU, 1877)

First Black to Graduate from Nursing School (Mary Eliza Mooney, Boston, 1879)

First Marine Biological Laboratory (Wood’s Hole, 1888); second is Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution, Henry Bryant Bigelow, 1930)

First Electrical Engineering Curriculum (Charles R. Cross, MIT, 1882)

Invention of Term “Home Economics” (Ellen Swallow Richards, MA, 1899)

First Landscape Architecture School (Harvard University, 1900)

First College of Social Work (Simmons College, 1904)

First MBA Program (Harvard Business School, 1908)

First Law School for Women (Bertha Maclean, Portia School of Law, Boston, 1908)

First Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Freud on only visit to United States, with Jung, Clark University, Worcester, 1909)

First School of Public Health (William T. Sedgwick, MIT, 1912)

First Aeronautical Engineering Curriculum (MIT, 1914)

First Montessori School (Burton barn, Newton, according to Virginia Lee Burton, before 1917?)

First Formal Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning (Harvard Graduate School of Design, 1923)

First Art Research and Conservation Laboratory (Edward W. Forbes, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1928)

First Private Nonprofit Adult Education Center (Boston Center for Adult Education, 1933)

First Nuclear Physics Curriculum (MIT, 1935)

First Program in Executive Education (Sloan Fellows Program, MIT, 1940)

First Formal Graduate Program in Urban Design (Harvard Graduate School of Design, 1960)

First Vocational High School (MA, date??)

First Day Care Center (North End Boston, ??)

Secular Belief Systems

Transcendentalism (Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Concord-Boston, 1836-60)

Nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord, 1836)

Self-Reliance (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord, 1841)

The Dial (Margaret Fuller, editor, 1840-42)

Walden (Henry David Thoreau, Concord, 1854)

Pragmatism (Charles Sanders Pierce, William James, Cambridge, 1878 ff)

The term Pragmatism, coined by William James, 1907

Psychology (William James, Harvard, 1875-76) considered father of modern psychology

Theory of Justice (John Rawls, Harvard, 1971)

Communication

• Content

First Secular Vital Records For All —births, marriages, deaths—

First Use of Metaphor City on a Hill (John Winthrop, on Arbella, 1630)

First Almanac (Samuel Danforth, An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1647, Cambridge)

First Published Poet (Anne Bradstreet, Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, 1650)

First Children’s Book (Rev. John Cotton, Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in Either England Drawn out of the Breasts of both TESTAMENTS for their souls Nourishment: But may be of like use to any Children, Boston, 1656) Cotton had Boston England roots.

First Published Road Map (Tulley’s Almanac, Boston, 1698)

First Published Black Poet (Phyllis Wheatley, first published poem 1767, first book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773)

First Newspaper Coverage of Battles of Lexington and Concord (Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy, May 3, 1775)

First Dictionary (Noah Webster, CT, 1783, expanded Amherst MA 1828, soon Merriam, Springfield MA)

First American Novel (William Hill Brown, The Power of Sympathy, Worcester, 1789)

First Book on Penmanship (John Jenkins, The Art of Writing, Reduced to a Plain and Easy System (Boston: Thomas and Andrews, 1791)

First American Novel by a Woman (Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette, or the History of Eliza Wharton, Brighton, 1797)

First Published Female Historian (Mercy Otis Warren, History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, 1805)

First Literary Magazine (William Tudor, North American Review, Boston, 1815)

First National Pharmacopoeia (Jacob Bigelow, 1820).

First Historical Novel (Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times, 1824)

First Woman’s Magazine Edited by a Woman/ First Woman Editor (Ladies Magazine, Sarah Josepha Hale, Boston, 1828-30)

First Published State Survey and Soil Map (Edward Hitchcock, Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1833)

First Published Article on Photography (Boston Daily Advertiser, February 23, 1839)

First (Oldest surviving) National Scientific Periodical (Scientific American, Rufus Porter, Maine, also Mass., Connecticut, 1845)

Invention of term “Anaesthesia” (Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, 1847) predicting it “will be repeated by tongues in every civilized race of mankind.”

First Literary/Cultural Capital of US (Boston, Athens of America, 1850s)

First Woman-Owned and Written Suffrage Periodical (The Una, Pauline Wright Davis, Providence, 1853) Moves to Boston

First Novel by a Black Woman, (Harriet Wilson, Our Nig or Sketches From the Life of a Free Black Rand & Avery, Boston 1859) author was born in Milford NH (1825-1900)

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (bookseller John Bartlett, Cambridge, 1855)

First Professional Architectural Periodical (American Architect and Building News, Boston, 1876)

First Novel on Electronic Romance (telegraphic: Ella Cheever Thayer, Boston, Wired Love, 1879)

First Magazine Published by a Black Woman (The Woman’s Era, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, 1886).

• Media Introductions

First Printing Press (Stephen Daye, Cambridge, 1638)

First Post Office (Richard Fairbanks’ tavern in Boston, appointed by King Charles I, 1639)

First Beacon (Beacon Hill, 1639)

First Municipal Public Library (Bequest to the “towne of New Haven", 1656)

Oldest Library Building (Lothrop House, Barnstable, 1644, Sturgis Lothrop Library since 1863)

First Public Library (Boston, 1653)

First Newspaper (Benjamin Harris, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic, Boston, 1690, followed by Boston News-letter, 1704)

First Gazetteer (The American Gazetteer, Jedidiah Morse, Boston 1797)

First Law Library (Social Law Library, Boston, 1803)

First Telecommunication (Jonathan Groat, Jr., Vineyard to Telegraph Hill Dorchester, 1801) 16 semaphore beacons in 9 minutes

First Color Printing (Jacob Bigelow, 1817)

First Chromolithography (William Sharp, Boston, 1840) Sharp introduced it from England.

First Typewriter (Charles Thurber, Worcester, 1840)

First Free Public Library (Peterboro, NH 1833, Boston 1854)

First Stereoscope (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, 1860)

First Humor Magazine (Harvard Lampoon, 1876) Lampoon style goes national with National Lampoon 1970 and Hollywood thereafter (Simpsons et al.)

First Telephone (Alexander Graham Bell, Boston, 1876), first line State Street office to Somerville residence, 1877, first city with telephone numbers Lowell, MA, 1880, first long distance call, Boston to New York City, 1884

First International Wireless Communication (Theodore Roosevelt and Marconi, South Wellfleet, 1903) Marconi is the father of radio, grandfather of cellphones

First Radio Broadcast (Reginald Fessenden, from transmitter south of Boston/Brant Rock, Marshfield, 1906).

First Triode Tube, Birth of Radio (Lee de Forest, educated in MA and Yale, 1912)

First Commercial Radio Station in New England (WBZA, Springfield, WNPH New Bedford, both 1921)

First Television Commercial (I. J. Fox Furriers, video of CBS radio orchestra program The Fox Trappers on W1XAV, Boston, 1930)

First Polaroid Camera (CT, 1934)

First Color Movies (Technicolor Corp, named for MIT by MIT grad founders Herbert Kalmus and Daniel Frost Comstock, 1935). Process invented by them 1916, first shown in Tremont Temple, Boston, 1917

First Instant Camera (Edwin Land, Polaroid, Cambridge, 1948)

First Color Television (CT, 1948)

First Inertial Guidance System for Aircraft (Charles Stark Draper, MIT, 1953)

First Microchip (MIT grad Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor, 1959)

First Vision of the Internet (MIT, 1960)

First Graphical User Interface (Sketchpad, Ivan Sutherland, MIT, 1963)

First Computer Dating Service (Operation Match, Jeff Tarr, Harvard undergrad, 1965)

First Internet Prototype, ARPANET (Bolt Beranek & Newman, 1969)

First Email (Ray Tomlinson, Bolt Beranek & Newman, 1971)

First Close-Captioned Television (WGBH, Boston, 1972)

First Reading Machine (Ray Kurzweil, 1976)

First Noise Canceling Earphones (Amar Bose, Bose Corp. MA, 1989)

First Television Video Description for Blind (WGBH, Boston, 1990)

First Internet Archive (Brewster Kahle MIT graduate, 1996)

First Electronic Paper Device (Dr Joseph Jacobson and Russ Wilcox, E Ink, Cambridge, 1997)

Largest Social Network (Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard College, 2004)

Transportation

First Oceangoing Vessel Launched in New World (Virginia of Sagadahoc, Popham Colony, ME, 1607)

First Ferry (Chelsea to Boston, 1631)

First Highway (Boston Post Road to New York, now US Route 20, first delivery 1673)

First Printed Roadmap (Tulley’s Almanack, Boston, 1698)

First Schooner (Andrew Robinson, Gloucester, 1713)

First Long Distance Stage Coach Line (Levi Pease, Shrewsbury, Boston to New York, 1783, first stagecoach mail delivery, Boston and Albany 1797)

First Railroad (Bulfinch’s Beacon Hill inclines, 1795, then 1805, well before long-undisputed Quincy granite railway, Gridley Bryant, 1826)

First Canal (Middlesex Canal, Boston to Lowell, 1807)

First Destination for Regular Transatlantic Steamer Service (Britannia, Cunard Line, Boston, 1840)

First Commuter Rail (Boston & Worcester Railroad as far as West Newton, 1843) season passes $60

First Rickshaw (Albert Tolman, missionary, Worcester, 1846-8, for South America; spread to Asia)

First Elevator (Elisha Otis, Vermont later New York City, 1853)

Fastest Clipper Ship (Flying Cloud, Donald MacKay, East Boston, 1854)

First Major Tunnel (Hoosac Tunnel, Berkshires, 1852-73)

First Bicycle (velocipede, Pierre Lallemont, CT, 1866) Rode from Ansonia to New Haven Green

First Cog Railway (Sylvester Marsh, Mount Washington, 1869) Thence to Switzerland

First Manufacture of Bicycles (Albert Pope, Boston, Columbia Bicycle, Pope Manufacturing Co., Hartford, 1877) Bought Lallemont patent

First Marketable Gas-powered Automobile, Rubber Tires (Charles and Frank Duryea, Springfield, 1892)

First Mass Transit Subway (Tremont Street, Boston, 1897)

First Solo Circumnavigation of Globe under Sail (Joshua Slocum, Spray, Boston to Newport, 1898-1901)

First Motorcycle (Indian Motorcycle, Springfield 1901)

First Underwater Subway Tunnel (Boston to East Boston, now T Blue Line, 1904)

First Gas Station (Jenney Building, Central Wharf, Boston waterfront, 1915)

First Liquid Fuel Rocket (Dr. Robert Goddard, Auburn, 1926)

First Helicopter (Sikorsky, CT, 1929, 1939; K225, Charles Kamar, Hartford, 1949)

First Circumferential Highway or Beltway (Route 128, MA, 1948-58)

First Cancellation of Federal Highway Construction (Gov. Francis Sargent, MA, 1970) Inner Belt, Southwest Corridor

First Mandated Inclusion of Mass Transit with Federal Highway Funding (Frederick P. Salvucci, Metro Boston, 1973-4)

First Personal Transportation Device aka Segway (Dean Kamen, NH, 2000)

Flight (all from one source so needs to be checked against other entries not in this section—most seem to be US only firsts)

First Successful Heavier than Air Flight (John Childs using homemade wings, steeple of North Church Boston, September 13, 1757)

First magazine article on ballooning published in the U.S. (“Explanation of the Air Balloon,” Boston Magazine, January 1784)

First Atmospheric Sounding (kite borne thermograph 2030 feet over Abbott Lawrence Rotch’s Blue Hill Observatory, Milton, MA, August 4, 1894)

First Aeronautical Society (Boston Aeronautical Society, William Pickering, President, March 19, 1895)

First Aeronautical Club (Ballonist Charles J. Glidden, Aero Club of New England, January 9, 1902)

First International Balloon Race (organized by Aero Club of America at Pittsfield, MA March 10,1906)

First Aerial Lettering on record (Amherst College in 35 foot letters, Amherst MA March 31, 1909)

First Balloon Honeymoon (Roger Burnham and Eleanor Wering, from Woods Hole, MA to an orchard in Holbrook, MA, June 20, 1909)

First Major Aviation Exhibition (The Boston Aero Show with18 prototype aircraft, February 16, 1910)

First Aircraft manufacturer (Burgess and Curtis Co., Marblehead, MA February 11, 1911. The Wright Company of Dayton, OH licensed the Wright Model B that was then produced by the Burgess Company as the Burgess-Wright Model F.

First Intercollegiate Glider Competition (7 colleges organized by Harvard Aeronautical Society, Squantum, MA, May 28-30, 1911)

First Intercollegiate Balloon Race (sponsored by Williams College Aeronautical Society, with Dartmouth, Williams and M.I.T, held in North Adams, MA June 3, 1911)-

First U.S. Air Mail Pilot (Earle L. Ovington, Newton MA, first mail to New York September 23, 1911)

First aeronautical engineering course at a college (MIT, Boston, April 1914)

First Monoplanes for U.S. Government (Pigeon Hollow Spar Company of East Boston, MA, 1917)

First Naval Air Reserve Unit (LCDR Richard E. Byrd, Naval Air Reserve Base, NARB Squantum, MA August 13, 1923) for World War One experienced pilots

First Regular Passenger Service in the U.S. (Colonial Airlines, Boston and New York, April 4, 1927

First American to win an International Soaring Certificate (Ralph S. Barnaby, 15 minute 6 second glider flight from Corn Hill, North Truro, MA August 18, 1929) the first official flight to exceed the U.S. gliding record set by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk NC, October 24,1911.

First Commercial Dirigible (New England Airship Company of New Bedford, MA 1930)

First Radio-meteorograph transmission of temperature data (from an airplane at altitude of 17,000 feet, later balloon at altitude of 52,500 feet, to Blue Hill, Milton MA, 1935)

First Operation of a Jet Engine (General Electric Co., Lynn, MA April 18, 1942)

First Transatlantic Crossing by Nonrigid Airships (U.S. Navy airships of ZP-14 from NAS South Weymouth MA to Port Lyautey, Morocco, MA, May 29-June 1,1944)

First Commercial Landplane non-stop service to Europe (American Overseas Airlines, from Hanscom Field, Bedford MA,1945)

First Transatlantic Helicopter Fight (Sikorsky H-19s from Westover AFB, Chicopee, MA to Wiesbaden, Germany, 1952)

First Sport Parachuting Center in the U.S. (Jacques-Andre Istel, Orange MA, 1959)

Culture and Entertainment

First Church to Acquire an Organ (Kings Chapel, Boston, 1713)

First Men’s Club (Old Colony Club, Plymouth, 1769) ?

First Circus (Newport, 1774)

First Choral Society (Elijah Dunbar, Stoughton Musical Society, 1786)

First Theater Designed by American Architect (Charles Bulfinch, Federal Street Theatre, Boston, 1793) Federal at Franklin Streets, burned 1798

First Museum (Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 1799)

First Collegiate Social Club (Hasty Pudding Club/Institute of 1770, Harvard College, 1795)

First Major American Composer (William Billings, 1746-1800)

Oldest Performing Arts Organization (Handel and Haydn Society, Kings Chapel then Park St. Church, Boston, 1815)

First Performance of Handel’s Messiah (Handel & Hayden Society, Boston, Christmas 1818)

First County Fair or Agricultural Fair (Topsfield, MA, 1818)

Mary Had A Little Lamb (Sarah Josepha Hale, music by Lowell Mason, Newport NH, 1823)

First College Art Museum (Yale, New Haven, 1832)

First Christmas Tree (Charles Follen, Cambridge, by 1832) founder of Follen Community Church Lexington 1839 which commemorates the Christmas Tree tradition

First Commercially Produced Board Game (Mansion of Happiness, S. B. Ives, Salem, 1843, later bought by Parker Brothers)

First Art Museum (Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, 1844)

The New England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day or Over the River and Through the Wood (Lydia Maria Child, Medford, 1844) sometimes appropriated for Christmas

First Collegiate Theatrical Organization (Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Harvard College, 1844)

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (Edmund Hamilton Sears, Wayland, 1849)

Jingle Bells (James Pierpont, Boston, 1857)

Battle Hymn of the Republic (Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1862)

O Little Town of Bethlehem (Phillips Brooks, pre-Boston, 1867)

First Proposal for Mother’s Day (Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1872)

First Community Theatre (Footlight Club, Eliot Hall, Jamaica Plain, 1877)

First Artists Association (Copley Society, Boston, 1879)

First Amusement Park (William Emerson Baker, Ridge Hill Farms, Needham-Wellesley, 1880 ff)

(“Fairyland of the Beautiful and Bizarre” including bear pits, grotto, rides, hotel)

First Vaudeville Theater (Gaiety Museum, Boston, 1883)

First Pops Orchestra (Boston Pops, 1885)

First Non-Profit Crafts Organization (Boston Society of Arts and Crafts, 1897)

Best Acoustics in a Symphony Hall (Symphony Hall, Boston, 1900)

First Private Old Master Art Museum (Fenway Court, Isabela Stewart Gardner, 1903)

First Outdoor Christmas Caroling (Beacon Hill, Boston, 1908)

First Hotel to offer in-room radio in every room (Boston Park Plaza, EW M Statler, 1927

First Dance Festival (Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, 1932)

First Craft Fair (Lake Sunapee, NH, 1932)

First Feminist Superhero: Wonder Woman (William Moulton Marston, born Cliftondale MA, Harvard trained, 1941)

First Female Principal Player in Major Orchestra (Flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1952)

First Festival Marketplace/Downtown Pedestrian Mall (Faneuil Hall Marketplace, James Rouse and Ben and Jane Thompson, 1967-78)

First New Years Night Celebration (First Night, Boston, 1976)

Vigilance, Defense, and Safety

First Militia (Salem, 1629-31).

First Precursor of the National Guard (Massachusetts General Court, 1636) organizes militia regiments

First Military Society (Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, Boston, 1637) Third oldest on world

First Fire Engine (Joseph Jencks, Lynn, 1654, offered Selectmen of Boston after Great Fire)

First Fire Department (Boston, 1679) publicly funded, non-volunteer

First Lighthouse in Western Hemisphere (Boston Light, 1716), also oldest continuously operated.

First Street Light (Boston)

Oldest Military Organization in Continuous Operation under Original Charter (Artillery Company, Newport RI, 1741)

First Minutemen

First Ship of U.S. Navy (schooner Hannah, Beverly, 1775). Sailed from Marblehead into first battle

First Submarine (David Bushnell, Turtle, CT, 1776)

First National Lighthouse and Navigational Aid Legislation (Elbridge Gerry of Marblehead, sponsor, 1789)

First Rifle Manufacture in First U. S. Armory (Springfield Armory, 1795)

Oldest Commissioned Navy Vessel (U.S.S. Constitution, Boston, 1797)

First Revolver (Samuel Colt, Hartford, 1835-6)

First Gas Streetlights and Sewer System (Boston, 1837)

First Police Force (Boston, 1838)

First Telegraphic Fire Alarm System (Boston, April 29, 1852)

First Burglar Alarm (patent Rev. Augustus Russell Pope, Somerville MA 1853, manufacture Edwin Holmes, Boston 1858)

First State Police (Gov. John A. Andrew, Massachusetts, 1965)

First Mounted Police (Boston, 1870)

First Town Lit by Electric Street Lights (Great Barrington, 1886)

First Motorized Fire Truck (Knox Mfg. Co., 1907)

First Marine Aviator/Airplane (Alfred A. Cunningham, W. Starling Burgess plane, Marblehead, 1912)

First Nuclear Powered Submarine (USS Nautilus, Groton, CT, 1954)

First Nuclear Powered Surface Vessel (USS Long Beach CG (N) 9, Quincy, 1961)

Medicine and Public Health

First Inoculation (Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, smallpox, Turkish method, Boston, 1721)

Oldest Continuously Operating Medical Society (Massachusetts Medical Society, 1781)

First Medical Facility (New England Dispensary, now Tufts New England Medical Center, 1796)

First Board of Health (Paul Revere first President, Boston, 1799)

First Smallpox Vaccination (Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse of Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, 1800) Beginning with his own children

First Public Health Drive (Milton, Smallpox inoculation, 1809)

Oldest Continuously Used Hospital Building (Charles Bulfinch, MGH, Boston, 1811)

Oldest Continuously Published Medical Journal (New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. James Jackson and Dr. John C. Warren, 1812)

First Publicly Financed Insane Asylum (Worcester State Hospital, 1833)

First Statewide Investigation of Problem of the Mentally Ill and Indigent (Dorothea Dix, Massachusetts, 1841)

First Anesthesia (Horace Wells, Hartford, 1844)

First Modern Surgery/Use of Ether (Dr. William T. G. Morton, Massachusetts General Hospital, 1846) First use of the term “Anesthesia” (Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes in letter to Dr. Morton, Boston, 1846)

First Public Institution for Care of People with Developmental Disabilities (Fernald Center, Waltham MA, Samuel Gridley Howe, 1848) Closed 2014.

First Accepted Use of Forensic Evidence (Parkman Murder Trial, Boston, 1849)

First Hospital with All Female Staff (Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, New England Hospital for Women, Roxbury, 1862)

First Appendectomy (Dr. Reginald Fitz, Massachusetts General Hospital, 1866)

First TB Clinic (New England Medical Center, 1899)

First Air Conditioned Hospital (Boston Floating Hospital, 1906)

First Visit of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to US (James Jackson Putnam, Clark University, Worcester, 1909)

First Treatment of Lead Poisoning (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1926)

First Hinton Syphilis Test (New England Medical Center, 1927)

First Iron Lung (Dr. Philip Drinker, Children’s Hospital, Boston, 1928)

First Successful Operation for Hyperthyroidism (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1929)

First Measurement of Human Skin Heat Loss through Temperature and Wind (Windchill Factor, Paul A. Siple, Clark University Ph.D., 1937)

First Diagnostic Medical Clinic (New England Medical Center, 1938)

First Successful Procedure to Correct Congenital Cardiovascular Defect (Dr. Robert Gross, Children Hospital, 1938)

First In Vitro Fertilization (Free Hospital for Women, 1944)

First Chemotherapy (Dr. Sidney Farber, 1947) Successful remission of acute Leukemia

First Human Organ Transplant (Kidney by Dr. Joseph Murray, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 1954)

First Chemical Synthesis of Penicillin (MIT, 1957)

First Immunosuppression (New England Medical Center, 1958)

First Birth Control Pill (Gregory Pincus and John Rock MD, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, 1956-60)

First Reattachment of Severed Arm (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1962)

First Use of Electric Current to Restore Rhythm of Heart (Dr. Bernard Lown, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 1962

First Freezing of Blood for Storage (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1964)

First to Decode DNA (Walter Gilbert, Harvard, 1970s) Nobel Prize, 1980, founder of Biogen

First Medical Infusion Pump (Dean Kamen, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 1976)

First Birth of In-vitro Baby (Judith Carr, of Wesminster MA gave birth to Elizabeth, 1981)

However the birth took place in Norfolk VA as the procedure was then illegal in MA

First Laser in Open Heart Surgery (New England Medical Center, 1983)

First Laboratory Grown Human Skin (Dr. Howard Green, Harvard Medical School, 1984) for skin replacement of burn victims

First Patent on a Living Animal (Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart, Harvard Medical School, 1988) Patent on mouse bred to develop cancer, licensed to Dupont; ethical controversy leads to moratorium on animal patents.

First Laser Treatment to Remove Tattoos (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1988)

First Proposed Decoding of Human Genome (Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, 1990)

First Intra-Operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging System (Brigham and Womens Hospital, Boston, 1994)

First Genome Mapping (Eric Lander, Human Genome Project, Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, 2000) first mapping of all human genes

First Implantable Artificial Heart (Abiomed, Danvers, 2001)

First In-Utero Cardiac Implant (Boston Children’s Hospital, 2006) stent for Grace VanDerwerken

First Required Universal Health Insurance (“Romneycare,” Massachusetts, 2006)

First Full Face Transplant (Dr. Bohdan Pohamac and team of 30, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 2011) for Mr. Dallas Wiens of Fort Worth

Other Technology and Invention of High Tech

First Industrial Canal (Mother Brook, 3 miles, Dedham, 1640)

First Patent (Samuel Winslow, Massachusetts General Court, 1641) new method for salt making

First Manufacturing/Toolmaking Patent (Joseph Jenckes Sr., Saugus Ironworks, 1646)

First Forge (James and Henry Leonard, Taunton, 1652)

First Paper Manufacture (Boies & MacLean Mill, Neponset, 1728)

Birthplace of American Industrial Revolution (Samuel Slater, Blackstone River, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 1793)

First Copper Rolling Mill (Paul Revere, Canton, 1801) Hence the name Revere Ware

First Accurate Global Positioning System (Nathaniel W. Bowditch, American Practical Navigator, Newburyport, 1802)

Birthplace of Integrated Manufacturing/First Venture-Funded High-Tech Company (Francis Cabot Lowell et al., Boston Manufacturing Company, Waltham 1813)

First commercial company with stock-holders 1813. Lowell 1822.

First Use of Term “Technology” (Jacob Bigelow, Harvard, 1828)

First Platform Scale (Thaddeus Fairbanks, Vermont, 1830)

First Steam Shovel (William Otis, Canton, 1836)

First Vulcanized Rubber (Charles Goodyear, Woburn, 1839) allows lawn tennis

First Photograph (Edward Everett Hale, Harvard Hall, Cambridge, March 1839) lost; bust of Apollo in window was quite clear

First Self-Portrait Photograph (Edward Everett Hale, South Congregational Church, Boston, 1840) lost

First Monkey Wrench (Loring and Aury Coes, Worcester, 1840)

First Hydraulic Turbine (James B. Francis, Lowell, 1849)

First Standardization of Time of Day (Harvard College Observatory, telegraph signal to William Bond & Son, Boston, 1851), known as Boston Time. Railroads further standardize time in 1883

First House Lit by Electricity (Moses G. Farmer, 11 Pearl Street, Salem MA, 1859)

First Cylinder Lock (Linus Yale, Shelburne Falls, 1860)

First Vote Recording Machine and Stock Ticker (Thomas A. Edison, 109 Court Street, Boston, 1868-9)

First Square-Bottom Paper Bag Machine (Margaret Knight, Boston, 1879), among 90 inventions

First Color Photograph (CT, 1881)

First Electric Lamp with Carbon Filament (Lewis Latimer, son of slaves, born Chelsea, 1884)

First Mass Production of Shoes (Shoe lasting machine patent Jan Matzeliger, 1883, Lynn, 1885)

First Commercial AC Transformer (William Stanley, Great Barrington, 1886)

First X-Ray (Physicist Arthur W. Wright, Yale U., 1896) Roentgen’s discovery in Germany was several weeks earlier.

First Major Acoustical Engineering Project (Symphony Hall, Boston, Wallace Clement Sabine, 1900)

First X-Ray Tube (William D. Coolidge, MIT, GE, 1913)

First Lie Detector (William Moulton Marston, Harvard, 1915)

First Ethyl Gasoline (Thomas Midgley, MA??, 1922)

First Mechanical Computer (Vannevar Bush, MIT, 1928)

First Polarized Filter (Edwin Land, 1929) For sunglasses, 3D photography, glare free headlights

First Strobe Flash (Harold Edgerton, MIT, 1931)

First Gyroscopic/Inertial Navigation System (Charles Stark Draper, MIT, 1930s)

First Programmable (Digital) Computer (Howard Aiken, Harvard, 1944)

First Computer Magnetic Core Memory (Jay Forrester, MIT, 1948) then An Wang, 1955

First Use of Term Artificial Intelligence (John McCarthy, MIT, 1955) cofounder with fellow AI pioneer Marvin Minsky, cofounded MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the 1959

First Snowmaking Machine (Larchmont Engineering, Lexington, 1952) at Great Blue Hill

First Computer Compiler (Grace Hopper, educated at Yale, 1952) Also invented COBOL

First Microcomputer Manufacturer (Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1957)

First Video Game (“Spacewar”, MIT students on Massachusetts-made Digital Equipment Corp minicomputer)

First Desktop Calculator, Word Processor (An Wang, 1965 ff)

First Mass-produced Holograms (Dr. Stephen A. Benton, Cofounder, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, 1968)

First Electronic Spreadsheet (Dan Bricklin, HBS student, “Visicalc” for Apple II, HBS, 1978-9)

First Open Source Linux Operating System (Richard Stallman, Cambridge, 1984)

First Haptic Computer Interface PHANToM (Thomas Massie, MIT grad, 1995)

First PhotomosaicTM (Robert Silvers, MIT student, 1995) Silvers trademarked the term

First Use of Non-Economic Metrics (Boston Indicators Project, Boston, 1998)?

Food, Clothing, and Shelter

First Weathervane Maker (Shem Drowne, grasshopper on Faneuil Hall, 1742) Also first tinplater

First Classic Portico (Redwood Library, Newport RI, Peter Harrison, 1748)

First Calico Printery (Boston, 1712)

Oldest Continuously Operating Inn (Howes Tavern, now known as Wayside Inn, Sudbury, 1716

First Plastics Industry (Comb Manufacture, Obadiah Hills, Leominster, 1770, diverse and largest industry by 1920s)

First Cotton Mill (John Cabot, Beverly, 1787)

First Cotton Gin (Eli Whitney of Westboro, in New Haven, 1793)

First Attached Rowhouses on a curve, first monumental town planning (Charles Bulfinch, Tontine Crescent, Franklin Place now Franklin Street, Boston, 1794)

Oldest Jewelry Store (Shreve Crump & Low, Boston 1796)

First Cotton Cloth (James Beaumont, Canton MA 1802)

Bartlett Pear (imported from England by Enoch Bartlett, Dorchester, 1799 or 1812)

First Steam Powered Loom (Waltham, 1813)

First Canned Food (William Underwood, Russia Wharf, Boston, 1821)

Oldest Continuously Operating Restaurant (Union Oyster House, Boston, 1826)

First Indoor Shopping Mall (Russell Warren and James Bucklin, Providence Arcade, RI, 1828)

First Graham Crackers (Sylvester Graham, CT, 1829)

First ‘Modern’ Hotel (Tremont House, Isaiah Rogers, 1829) i.e., private room with key at front desk

First Rattan Furniture (Cyrus Wakefield, S. Reading later Wakefield, 1844)

First Steam Heated Building (Eastern Hotel, Boston, 1845)

First Sewing Machine (Elias Howe patent, Boston-Cambridge, 1846)

First Zipper (Elias Howe patent, Cambridge MA 1851) precedes refinement (Gideon Sundbäck, 1913) and “zipper” name (B. F Goodrich, 1923)

First Public Display of Female Trousers aka “bloomers” (Amelia Bloomer, Boston Common, 1851)

First Clothespin (David M. Smith, Springfield, VT, 1853) improved by Solon E. Moore, VT, 1887

Oldest continuously running hotel (Parker House, Boston, since 1855), Introduced Parker House rolls and the term scrod.

First Boston Cream Pie (Parker House, Boston, 1856) The state’s official dessert.

First Baking Powder (Prof. Eben Norton Horsford, Harvard, patented 1865) Calcium acid phosphate

First Houses Designed by Female Architect (Annie Raeburn Cobb, Newton Highlands, 1874 ff) Cobb (1830-1911) was one of two female architects to exhibit at Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893

First Bottled Carbonated Beverage (Moxie, Dr. Augustin Thompson, Lowell, MA, 1876)

First Shoe Lasting Machine (Jan Matzeliger, 1883) Revolutionizes shoe industry

First Shredded Wheat (Worcester, Henry Perky, 1890)

First Fig Newtons (James Henry Mitchell, Kennedy Biscuit Works later Nabisco, named for Newton, MA, 1891)

First Hamburger (New Haven, CT, 1895) Alternatively, some claim 1885 in Wisconsin

First Safety Razor (King Camp Gillette and William Emery Nickerson, Boston, 1901)

First Fried Clams (Essex, MA, 1914)

First Bra (Mary Jacob, Boston, 1914) sold to Maidenform Co.

First Commercially Successful Electric Clock (Henry Ellis Warren, Ashland, MA, 1916)

First Marshmallow Fluff (Archibald Query, Somerville, MA, 1917)

First Baby Formula (Similac, New England Medical Center, 1919)

First Frozen Food (Clarence Birdseye, Gloucester, MA, 1925)

First Chocolate Chip Cookie (Ruth Graves Wakefield, Framingham State Normal School alumna, Toll House Inn, Whitman, MA, 1937)

First Microwave Oven (Percy Spencer, Raytheon, 1946)

First Geodesic Dome (R. Buckminster Fuller, patent, 1954) International figure “Bucky” Fuller was born in Milton, MA, and buried Mt Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA. Buckyball molecules are named for his invention.

First Indian Pudding

First Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner

First Lobster Meal

First Clam chowder

First Corn on the Cob

First Cranberry Sauce

First Necco Wafers

First Commercial Yogurt (Columbo, Andover, MA)?

Recreation, Sports, and Fitness

First Summer Resort (Wolfeboro, Lake Winnipesaukee, NH, 1760s) and Vacationland (ME, NH, MA)

First Outdoor Gymnasium (Latin School, Salem, 1821)

First Baseball (Pittsfield, 1791) record discovered 2004 overturns Manhattan reference of 1823

First Outdoor Gymnasium and Playground with Supervision and Instruction (Round Hill School, Northampton, MA 1825)

First Swimming School (Francis Leiber, 1827)

First Public Park (Boston Common, 1830)

First Boat Club (Springfield Yacht and Canoe Club, 1850) ?

First YMCA (Captain Thomas V. Sullivan, Washington Street, downtown Boston, 1851)

First Intercollegiate Event (Harvard Yale Crew Race, Lake Winnepesaukee, 1852)

First Intercollegiate Baseball Rivalry (Amherst-Williams, 1859)

First American Football (Gerrit Smith Miller, Dixwell School’s Oneida team vs Latin School, Boston Common, 1862)

First Roller Rink and first turning roller skates (James Plimpton, MA and Newport, 1863)

First Playground of the Super Rich (Newport, RI, 1870s)

First Baseball Dynasty (Boston Red Stockings, 4 straight National Association of Professional Baseball Players championships, 1871-1874)

First Public (Municipal) Playground (Brookline, MA, 1872) First legislation authorizing funding

First Lawn Tennis Court (Robert Treat Paine, Stonehurst, Waltham, by 1876)—Staten Island Cricket Club 1874 via Mary Outerbridge earliest in US, from Clermont, Bermuda 1873; Newport RI court 1881. Paine diary Nov 6 1876 notes tennis court elevation.

First Lawn Tennis Club (Longwood Cricket Club, Chestnut Hill, 1877)

First Bicycle Club (Boston Bicycle Club, 1878)

First Country Club (Brookline, 1881)

First Use of Term “Body Building” and fitness classes (Robert J. Roberts, Boston YMCA, 1881)

First High-School Football Rivalry (Needham-Wellesley, 1882)

First Sand Gardens (Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Assn., Parmenter Street, North End, Boston 1885) For toddlers and young children in inner city neighborhoods

First Triple-Win of America’s Cup (Eastern Yacht Club, Marblehead, Puritan 1885, Mayflower 1886, Volunteer 1887)

First Candlepin Bowling (Worcester, 1888)

First Public Outdoor Gymnasium (Dudley A. Sargent, Charlesbank, Boston, 1889) free, supervised, for men and boys

First Foot Race (Bemis-Foslund Pie Race, Mt. Hermon School, Mt. Hermon MA, 1890)

First Basketball (James Naismith, Springfield, 1891)

First Volleyball (William Morgan, Holyoke, 1895)

First American Olympic Team (Boston Athletic Association, 1896)

First Marathon (Boston, 1897)

First International Tennis Competition, the Davis Cup of International Lawn Tennis Association (Harvard student and cup donor Dwight Davis, Longwood Cricket Club, 1900)

First Polar Bear Club (L Street Brownies, South Boston, 1902)

First World Series Victory (Boston Americans, 1903)

First Football Stadium (Soldiers Field, Harvard University, 1903) designed by McKim Meade $ White and inspired by Panathenaic Stadium built for 1896 Olympics in Athens

First Intrastate Long Distance Hiking Trail (Long Trail in Vermont, conceived by James P. Taylor, Windsor, Vt., 1910; begun 1912; completed 1930)

First Amateur to win U. S. Open (Francis Ouimet, Country Club, Brookline, 1913)

First International Figure Skating Champion (George H. Browne, Cambridge MA, 1914)

First U.S. Hockey Team (Boston Bruins, 1924)

First Ryder Cup Competition (Worcester Country Club, 1927)

First Interstate Long Distance Hiking Trail (Appalachian Trail, conceived by Benton MacKaye, Shirley, MA, 1921; begun 1923; completed 1937)

First National Women’s Squash Champion (Eleonora Sears, Boston and Beverly, 1926)

First Slalom (Taft Trail, Cannon Mountain NH, 1933)

First Ski Tow (Gilbert’s Hill, Woodstock VT, 1934)

First Public Sailing Program (Community Boating, Charles River Basin, 1937)

First Aerial Tramway (Cannon Mountain, NH, 1938)

First Public Boating Program (Community Boating, Boston, 1946)

First Frisbee (Yale, 1940s, pie tin from local William R. Frisbie Bakery)

First Snowboard (Jake Burton Carpenter, VT, 1970s)

First Marathon to Admit Women (Boston, 1972)

First Rail-Trail (Cape Cod, 1979)

Biggest Comeback in Sports History (Boston Red Sox win World Series, 2004)

First City to have all 4 sport teams win a championship in a 7 year span (Patriots: 2001, 2003, 2004, Red Sox: 2004, 2007, Celtics: 2008, Bruins: 2011). Bruins 1st NHL team to win the Cup on three game-7 wins.

Conservation, Preservation, Environment

First Conservation Land (Town commons and village greens e.g., Boston Common, 1634)

First Cluster Subdivisions (17th c, 20th c)

First Public Shade Tree planting in New World (Liberty Tree, at today’s Washington Street near Essex Street, Boston, 1646) Tree destroyed by British 1775

First Public Square (North Square, North End of Boston, 1649)

First Urban Renewal (Alexander Parris, Quincy Market, 1824-26) Copied by Covent Garden, London

First Horticultural Society (William H. Sumner, Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Boston, 1829) also first exhibits in Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, now New England Flower Show

First Large-scale Designed Public Landscape and First Rural (Garden) Cemetery (Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, 1831) first use of “cemetery” for “grave-yard” or “burying ground”

First Homeowners Association (Louisburg Square Proprietors, Boston, 1844)

First Commemorative Wall Art? (Liberty Tree bas relief, Windsor & Brothers ship carvers for David Sears, 1850) still extant, corner of Boylston and Washington Streets.

First Village Improvement Society (Laurel Hill Association, Stockbridge, 1853)

First Public Park by Purchase (Bushnell Park, Hartford CT, 1854)

First Litigation on Environmental Impacts of industrialization (Merrimack Dams, MA, 1856)

First Environmental Impact Statement (George Perkins Marsh on Connecticut R. fisheries, 1857)

First Ecologist, Environmental/Public Health Research (Ellen Swallow Richards, MIT, 1872-3) first survey of water quality, by first woman admitted to MIT

First Conservation and Recreation Organization (Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston, 1876)

First Preservation of a National Historic Site (Old South Meeting House, Boston, 1876-77) site of 1773 Boston Tea Party deliberations

First Artificial Saltmarsh (Frederick Law Olmsted, Back Bay Fens, Boston, 1879)

First Urban Greenway (Frederick Law Olmsted, Emerald Necklace, Boston, 1880)

First Public/Private Partnership for Public Open Space (City of Boston and Harvard University for Arnold Arboretum, 1882)

First Public Arboretum (Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Sprague Sargent, Arnold Arboretum, 1882)

First Mountain Hut System (Appalachian Mountain Club, beginning with Madison Spring Hut, 1888)

First Land Trust (The Trustees of Public Reservations, 1891) Borrowed by British National Trust and back to National Trust for Historic Preservation.

First Metropolitan Park System (Charles Eliot, Boston, 1893)

First Public Beach (Charles Eliot, Revere Beach, 1896)

First Protected Salt Marsh (Neponset Estuary, 1899)

First State Audubon Society (Minna Hall, Massachusetts Audubon Society, 1896)

First Regional Preservation Organization (William Sumner Appleton, Historic New England, Boston, 1910)

First Zoning Bylaw (Wellesley, MA, 1914)

First Multi-purpose Nature Center (Mass Audubon, Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, Sharon MA, 1918)

First Reintroduction of “Extinct” Tree Species (Dawn Redwood rediscovered China, Arnold Arboretum, 1948)

First Historic District in New England (Beacon Hill, Boston, 1955)

First Wetlands Protection Legislation (Francis W. Hatch, Hatch Act, Massachusetts, 1965)

First Main Streets Program (Roslindale Village of Boston, 1985)

First Non-Profit Community Organization Eminent Domain for Low Income Housing (Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Boston, 1988)

First Wholly Privately Funded Public Park (Norman Leventhal, Post Office Square Park, Boston, 1991)

First State Wetland Restoration Program (MA, 1994)

First City to Require Development to be LEED certifiable (Boston, 2007).

Economic System and Business

First/Oldest Fishing Port (Gloucester, 1623)

First/Oldest American Metropolis (Boston) First center of capital formation

First Corporation in western hemisphere (President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1650)

First Business Woman (Elizabeth Poole, Iron Forge or Bloomery, Taunton, 1652)

First Powder Mill (Milton, 1674)

First Official Paper Money in the Western world and first official currency in America (Massachusetts, 1690) Massachusetts colony bills of credit for soldiers

First Pier (Long Wharf, Boston, 1710)

First Chocolate Mill (James Baker, Dorchester, 1765) later Walter M. Baker Company

First Bell Foundry (Col. Aaron Hobart of Abingdon, MA, then Paul Revere, by 1770)

First Commercial Bank (Massachusetts Bank, now Bank of America, Boston, 1784)

First Insurance Company (Norwich, CT, 1795)

First American Millionaire (Elias Hasket Derby, Salem, by 1799)

First Leader in China Trade (Salem then Boston, 1790-1830)

First Piano Factory (Benjamin Crahore, Milton, 1800)

First Big Business (Boston Manufacturing Company, Waltham, 1815) All under one roof

First Mutual Savings Bank (Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston, 1816)

First Corporate Trust Company (Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, 1818) Sets standard for trusteeship, “strict male” and “strict female” trusts

First Insurance Industry Center (Hartford CT)

First Venture Capital Center (Railroads, AT&T, United Shoe, General Electric, Boston)

First Department Store (Ford’s Store, Duxbury, 1826) Many claimants

First Ready-Made Suit (John Simmons, Boston, 1826)

First Ornamental Glass Company (Deming Jarvis, Mount Washington Glass Works, Boston, 1837) now Pairpoint Glass Co, Sandwich MA

First Planned Industrial City (Holyoke, 1848)

First Actuarially Based Science of Life Insurance (Elizur Wright, Medford, MA 1850s)

First Safe Deposit Vaults (Col. Henry Lee, Union Deposit Vaults, Boston, 1868)

First Nationally Successful Woman Business Entrepreneur (Lydia E. Pinkham, Lynn, MA, 1875) Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound

First Women’s Exchange (Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, Boston, 1877)

First Gold Flute Manufacturer (William S. Haynes Flute Co., Boston, 1896)

First Chamber of Commerce (Grain Exchange 1885, merged into Chamber of Commerce, 1909)

First Business Consulting and Contract Research Firm (Arthur D. Little, Boston, 1886)

Modernized paper industry, set up GM’s R&D, developed nonflammable film, fiberglass, cigarette filters, synthetic penicillin, inkjet printing, Slim Fast

First Credit Unions (Edward Filene, Boston, Massachusetts Credit Union Act, 1909) goes national in 1934

First Regional Community Foundation (Charles E. and Charles M. Rogerson, Boston Foundation, 1915)

First Supermarket (Upham's Corner Market, Dorchester, ca. 1920)

First Radio Shack (Boston, 1921)

First Mutual Fund (L. Sherman Adams, Massachusetts Investors Trust, Boston, 1924) weeks before (Richard Cushing Paine, Richard Saltonstall and Paul Cabot, State Street Investment Corp aka Boston Mutual Fund, Boston, 1924)

First Roadside Restaurant Franchise Chain (Howard Johnson’s, Quincy, 1935)

First Modern Venture Capital Firm (American Research and Development or ARD, Georges Doriot, Harvard Business school, 1946) Funded Digital Equipment Corp.

First Master Planned Industrial Park (New England Business Center, Needham at Rte 128, Cabot Cabot & Forbes, 1948)

First Donut Chain (Dunkin Donuts, William Rosenberg, 543 Southern Artery, Quincy, 1950) Now largest coffee and baked goods chain in world

First Discount General Merchandise Retailer (Lechmere Sales, 1913, 1950s)

First Mutual Fund Check Writing (Fidelity, Boston, 1970s)

First Independent Biopharmaceutical Company (Biogen, Cambridge, 1978)

Reform, Philanthropy, Activism, and Association

First Feminism (Anne Hutchinson, Boston, 1635-37)

First Private Charity in New England (Scots’ Charitable Society, Boston, 1657)

First Black Fraternal Order (Prince Hall Freemasonry, Prince Hall, 1775) Prince Hall (1738-1807)

First Temperance Society (Litchfield, CT, 1789) Many claimants

First Coastal Rescue Organization (Massachusetts Humane Society, Boston, 1786) precursor of Congressional authorization of U.S. Coast Guard fleet in 1790.

First Black Fraternal Order (Black Masons, Boston, 1790)

First Mental Hospital (now McLean Hospital, Belmont, originally Somerville/Charlestown, 1816)

First Industrial Labor Strike (Waltham, female workers, 1821)

First Prison Aid (Park Street Church, Boston, 1824)

First State Reform School (Westboro, 1846)

First International Humanitarianism (Jamestown voyage to relieve Irish potato famine, Robert Bennet Forbes, Boston, 1847)

First State Law Prohibiting Sale of Alcohol (ME, 1847)

First Identified Slum (Fort Hill, Boston, 1850s)

First Modern Philanthropist (George Peabody 1795-1869, born poor in North Danvers MA, beginning in 1852), donated to many Peabody Institutes and Museums

First YWCA (Boston, 1859, 1866)

First Free Public Bath (L Street, 1866)

First Public Agency dedicated to Public Health (Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, MA, 1869)

First Model Housing Company (Boston Cooperative Building Company, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, 1871)

First Women’s Exchange (Womens Educational and Industrial Union, Boston, 1877)

First Factory Inspection Law (Massachusetts, 1877)

American Red Cross (Clara Barton, from Oxford, MA, 1881)

First Pure Food Law (Ellen Swallow Richards, Massachusetts, 1882)

First Women’s College Club (College Club, Boston, 1890)

First Board of Health Inspections of Workplace Safety (Massachusetts, 1903)

First Interracial Non-sectarian Youth Organization (Campfire Girls, Charlotte Gulick, Springfield, 1910)

First Nutrition Clinic (New England Medical Center, 1918)

First Tumor Clinic (Massachusetts General Hospital, 1925)

First Woman Cabinet Member (Frances Perkins, Boston, Secretary of Labor, 1933)

First “Village” to Allow Seniors to Live at Home (Beacon Hill Village, Boston, 2002) Non-profit alternative to retirement community

Exploration/Discovery/Astronomy/Scientific Frontiers

First American Chart (Map) Maker (Cyprian Southack of Boston, Chart of the English Empire, 1717, Survey of seacoast from New York to Canada, 1734)

Discovery of Northwest/Columbia River and (Joseph Barrell, Columbia Redivia Capt John Kendrick, and Lady Washington, Robert Gray, out of Boston, around Horn, 1787)

First American Circumnavigation of Globe (Joseph Barrell, Columbia Rediviva, Captain John Kendrick, out of Boston, returning 1790)

First American to Visit Japan (Captain John Kenrick, Orleans, 1791)

First American Voyage to Hawaii (Thaddeus, out of Boston, 1819)

First Aerial Photograph (James Wallace Black in Samuel Archer King’s balloon the “Queen of the Air” on ascent from Boston Common, October 13, 1860, after attempt in Providence)

National Geographic Society (Gardiner Greene Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell, 1888)

First American Plant Collector to Reach Remote China (Ernest Henry Wilson for Arnold Arboretum, after 1899)

First Precise Measurement of Star Distance (Henrietta Levitt, Harvard, 1912)

Chaos Theory (Edward N. Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist, MIT, “butterfly effect” 1961)

First Accurate Mapping of Numerous Mountains including McKinley, Muldrow Glacier, Everest (Bradford Washburn, MA, 1970s-90s)

Discoverer of Titanic, Bismarck, Yorktown, Lusitania wrecks and thermal vents (Robert Ballard, Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, Mystic Marinelife Aquarium, Mystic, CT, 1985 ff)

Connections With China

First American Consul/Trade Representative to China (Samuel Shaw in Canton/Guangzhou, from Boston, 1786)

First American Town named Canton (Massachusetts, 1797) followed by Connecticut (1806) and 17 other states

First Missionary to China (Elijah C. Bridgman, Belchertown, MA, 1830)

First Protestant Medical Missionary to China (Dr. Peter Parker, Framingham, 1834) opens first eye hospital in Canton

First major journal of sinology (The Chinese Repository, Shanghai, Elijah C. Bridgman, Belchertown, MA, 1832)

First US-China Treaty Negotiator (Caleb Cushing, Newburyport MA, 1844)

First School for Girls in China (Shanghai, Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman, Derby, CT, 1850)

First Chinese to Graduate from an American University (Yung Wing 容闳, Yale, 1854)

First American to become a Chinese Citizen and Mandarin (Frederick Townsend Ward of Salem MA for services in putting down Taiping Rebellion, 1860 ff)

First Technological Transfer from U. S. to China (Yung Wing 容闳, Fitchburg MA, 1863) Viceroy Tseng Kuo-Fan sent Yung (1828-1912), to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to purchase machines from Putnam & Co. for the Kiang-Nam Arsenal in Shanghai, China’s first modern arsenal.

First Chinese Civic Organization in U. S (Chee Kong Tong, Boston Lodge of Chinese Freemasons, 1868)

Everyday things

First One-way Street (Change Avenue, Boston, originally seven foot wide Pierce's Alley, 1639)

First Wrench (Solyman Merrick, Springfield, 1835)

First Use of “OK” (Charles Gordon Greene, Boston Morning Post, 1839)

First Mass-produced Valentine (Esther Howland, Worcester, 1840)

First Mass-produced Board Game (Milton Bradley, Springfield, 1860s)

First Shipment of Bananas to US (Lorenzo Dow Baker, Wellfleet/Boston, 1871)

First Metal Pipe Wrench (Daniel Stilllson, Walworth’s factory, Cambridge, 1869) Wood pipe was being replaced by metal pipe. Stillson’s wrench became a household name

First Postcard (Morgan Envelope Factory, Springfield, 1873)

First Mass-produced Christmas Card (Louis Prang, Roxbury, 1874-5)

First Toothpicks (imported from S. America by Charles Forster of Maine, Union Oyster House, Boston, 1870s)

First Toothpaste and Toothpaste Tube (Washington Sheffield, New London CT, 1881)

First Department Store Santa (James Edgar, Boston Store, Brockton, 1890)

First Quonset Hut (Quonset Point Naval Air Station, Rhode Island, 1942

Silly Putty (GE, New Haven, 1943, rights sold to Peter Hodgson for $147)

Tupperware (Earl Tupper, Leominster, 1945)

Pink Flamingo (Don Featherstone, Leominster, 1956)

Smiley Face (Harvey R. Ball, Worcester, 1963)

The Springfield Armory in the 19th and 20th centuries became the site of numerous technological innovations of global importance, including interchangeable parts, the assembly line style of mass production, and modern business practices, such as hourly wages. (wiki)

American Legends and Heroes—famous for being famous, and a whole lot more, in roughly chronological order…so many omissions

Tisquantum aka Squanto

The Yankee

Hannah Duston (heroine, 1697, first American woman represented in statue, two of them, 1870s)

Ben Franklin (Boston and Philadelphia)

Sam Adams (Boston)

James Otis (Cape and Boston)

Paul Revere (Boston)

John Hancock (Boston)

Nathan Hale (CT)

John Adams (Quincy)

Abigail Adams (Quincy)

John Paul Jones (NH)

Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman, Leominster, 1774)

Uncle Sam (Congress declared in 1961 that Samuel Wilson of Arlington, MA, who provided casks of beef with "U.S." for American troops during the War of 1812, was indeed the real Uncle Sam)

John Singleton Copley (Boston)

Gilbert Stuart (RI, Boston)

Samuel F. B. Morse (Charlestown, Yale)

Loammi Baldwin (Father of Civil Engineering)

Henry David Thoreau (Concord)

Daniel Webster (NH, MA)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (ME, MA)

Edgar Allan Poe (Boston)

John Brown (CT)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Concord)

Emily Dickinson (Amherst)

Margaret Fuller (Cambridge)

Mark Twain (Hartford CT)

Henry Adams (Boston)

Henry James (Cambridge)

Louisa May Alcott (Boston)

Horatio Alger (Revere, South Natick)

Susan B. Anthony (Adams)

Clara Barton (Oxford)

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (ME)

P. T. Barnum (CT)

Fannie Farmer (Cambridge)

Phillips Brooks (Boston)

John Singer Sargent (Boston)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (Boston)

Isabella Stewart Gardner (Boston)

Charles Dana Gibson (Roxbury)

Amy Lowell (Brookline)

Louis Brandeis (Boston)

Kahlil Gibran (Boston)

Amelia Earhart (Medford)

Robert Frost (NH)

Howard Johnson (Quincy, MA)

Robert Lowell (Boston)

R. Buckminster (“Bucky”) Fuller

Edwin Land (Cambridge)

Charles Ives (Danbury CT)

Helen Keller (Cambridge, Wrentham)

e. e. cummings (Cambridge)

Cole Porter (Yale)

Norman Rockwell (Arlington VT, Stockbridge MA)

N. C. Wyeth (Needham)

Andrew Wyeth (ME)

Arthur Fiedler (Boston)

Fred Allen (Cambridge, born John Florence Sullivan)

Ted Williams (Fenway Park)

Erle Stanley Gardner (Malden)

Jack Kerouac (Lowell)

Sylvia Plath (Boston, Wellesley, Smith)

Jack Lemmon (Newton)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Brookline)

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (Newport)

F. Lee Bailey (Waltham)

Theodore Geisel aka "Dr. Suess" (Springfield)

Rocky Marciano (Brockton)

Leonard Bernstein (Lawrence)

Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. (Boston)

Ted Kennedy (Brookline)

Jack Welch (Salem)

Joan Baez (Belmont)

Marvin Hagler (Brockton)

Yo-Yo Ma (Cambridge)

John F. Kerry (Boston)

Michael Bloomberg (Boston/Brookline)

Elizabeth Warren (Harvard Law School, Senator)

© 2023 Thomas M. Paine