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| Firsts |
1637 – The outspoken Anne Hutchinson, seen as a threat by Puritan church and political leaders alike, is brought to trial and exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony on the charge of heresy.
1648 – Margaret Jones is the first person in Boston executed for witchcraft.
1650 – Anne Bradstreet's book of poetry, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, published in England. She is the first American woman to have her work published.
1660 – Mary Dyer, a Quaker, hanged in the Boston Common. Dyer, an outspoken Quaker and friend of Anne Hutchinson, was nearly hanged in 1659 for entering Massachusetts. (The Quaker sect was banned there.) Dyer was released and ordered never to return. She was caught preaching Quakerism in Massachusetts the following year and hanged.
1804 – Massachusetts General Court offers Deborah Sampson a pension as a result of her military service in the Revolutionary War. Sampson had dressed as a man and taken a male identity in order to fight.
1837 – Mount Holyoke Seminary, the first college in the United States established specifically for the education of women, opens.
1847 – Lucy Stone becomes the first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree when she graduates from Oberlin College. Ms. Stone studies Greek and Hebrew and graduated with honors.
1850 – first national convention for women advocating female suffrage meets in Worcester.
1860 – Elizabeth Palmer Peabody opens the first kindergarten in New England in Boston.
1866 – first American Young Women's Christian Association opens in Boston.
1867 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Christian Science Church.
1870 – Wellesley College, a higher education institution for women, opens.
1871 – Smith College (for women) chartered in Northampton; classes begin in 1875.
1873 – Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman enrolled at MIT, earns her S.B degree. She will become the first female chemist in the United States.
1919 – Massachusetts legislature ratifies the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
1925 – Edith Nourse Rogers (Republican – Massachusetts) is the first woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives.
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| Sources |
Massachusetts. General Court. The General Court of Massachusetts, 1630-1930: Tercentenary Exercises, Commemorating its Establishment Three Hundred Years Ago, and to Note the Progress of the Commonwealth Under Nine Generations of Lawmakers, Held at the State House, Boston, Massachusetts, at a Special Session in the Chamber of the House of Representatives, Monday, October Twenty, Nineteen Thirty, Eleven O'Clock. Boston, MA: Wright & Potter, Legislative Printers, 1931.
O'Connor, Thomas H. Boston A to Z . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Vexler, Robert I, ed. Chronology and Documentary Handbook of the State of Massachusetts. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, Inc., 1978. |
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| More Information |
(All available in the State Library's collection or on the World Wide Web)
Anne Hutchinson
Cameron, Jean. Anne Hutchinson, Guilty or Not: A Closer Look at Her Trials. New York: P. Lang, 1994. KF 223 H86 C36 1994
Dunlea, William. Anne Hutchinson and the Puritans: An Early American Tragedy. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing Co., 1993. F 67 H92 D86 1993
Leonard, Bianca A. and Winnifred K. Rugg. Anne Hutchinson: Unsung Heroine of History. Joshua Tree, CA: Tree of Life Publications, 1995. F 67 H92 L46 1995
Witchcraft
Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed; The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. BF 1576 B6
Hale, John. John Hale, A Man Beset by Witches: His Book, A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, Boston in New England. Beverly, MA: Hale Family Association, 1992. BF 1575 H2 1992
Anne Bradstreet
McElrath Jr., Joseph R and Allan P. Robb, editors. The Complete Works of Anne Bradstreet. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers, 1981. PS 711 A1 1981
Rogers, Katharine M. editor. Meridian Anthology of Early American Women Writers: From Anne Bradstreet to Louisa May Alcott, 1650-1865. New York: Meridian, 1991. PS 508 W7 M47 1991
Mary Dyer
Pertana, Carla Gardina. Quakers and Baptists in Colonial Massachusetts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. BR 555 M4 P47 1991
Plimpton, Ruth Talbot. Mary Dyer: Biography of a Rebel Quaker. Boston, MA: Branden Pub., 1994. BX 7795 D84 P57 1994
Deborah Sampson
Mann, Herman. The Female Review: Life of Deborah Sampson: The Female Soldier in the War of Revolution. New York: Arno Press, 1972. E 275 G22 1972
Wacks, Eleanor. Deborah Sampson Gannett (1760-1827) America's First Woman Soldier: A Source Booklet. Boston, MA: Commonwealth Museum – Office of the Secretary of State, 1990. 353.3M3 D42 1990
Mount Holyoke Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College)
For a brief history of the college: www.mtholyoke.edu/cic/about/history.shtml
Lucy Stone
Hays, Elinor Rice. Morning Star: A Biography of Lucy Stone, 1818-1893. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961. JK 1899 S8 H3
Female Suffrage
Cote, Charlotte. Olympia Brown: The Battle for Equality. Racine, WI: Mother Courage Press, 1988. HQ 1413 B76 C67 1988
[Pamphlets on Women's Suffrage]. New York: National Woman Suffrage Association, 1889-1915. JK 1896 P36
Wheeler, Majorie Spruill, editor. One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. JK 1896 O54 1995
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Ronda, Bruce A. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody: A Reformer on Her Own Terms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. CT 275 P484 R66 1999
Ronda, Bruce A., editor. Letters of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American Renaissance Woman. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1984. CT 275 P484 A4 1984
Young Women's Christian Association
For a brief history: www.ywca.org/
Mary Baker Eddy
Gill, Gillian. Mary Baker Eddy. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1998. BX 6995 G55 1998
Nenneman, Richard A. Persistent Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. Etna, NH: Nebbadoon Press, 1997. BX 6995 N46 1997
For a brief history of the Christian Science Church: www.tfccs.com/GV/MBE/MBEMain.jhtml
Wellesley College
For a brief history of the college: www.wellesley.edu/Welcome/college.html
Smith College
For a brief history of the college: www.smith.edu/collegerelations/history
Ellen Swallow Richards
For a brief biography: http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/esr/index.html
19th Amendment
For the complete text and a brief history: www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/constitution/19th/19th.html
Edith Nourse Rogers
Paxton, Annabel. Women in Congress. Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, 1945. JK 1030 A2 P3 1945
For a brief biography: http://www.rice.edu/fondren/woodson/exhibits/wac/rogers.html |
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