Margaret Eloise Knight (1838-1914) was a prolific late 19th- and early 20th-century inventor. She made improvements to various devices but is best known as the creator of the flat-bottom bag used in the retail industry.| New England Historical Society
America’s first factory strike happened just 30 years after America’s first successful textile mill started churning out cotton cloth in Pawtucket, R.I.| New England Historical Society
Massachusetts Black Cake, A Christmas Treat Emily Dickinson Loved To Bake Halooing, Huzzahing, Roistering and Seven Other Outlaw Christmas Celebrations A Christmas First for New England? Each State Can Claim…| New England Historical Society
You’ve probably seen his name and glossed over it without a thought. But if you had been born in the 19 th Century, it was a name that was famous… The post Beyond Darwin: The Pioneering Voyage and Science of James Dwight Dana appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
Margaret Knight, a mechanical genius, patented the machine for making flat-bottom paper bags in 1871. She made her first invention as a 12-year-old mill girl.| New England Historical Society
When Andrew Robinson in 1713 sailed his new boat around Gloucester, Mass., someone watching exclaimed, “There she scoons!” It’s a Scottish word meaning to skip lightly across the water, as a pebble, and it gave the name to the iconic New England sailing vessel, the schooner.| New England Historical Society
From Gloucester's fishing fleet to Civil War blockade runners, explore how the New England schooner -—'the most beautiful thing made by man'—- shaped maritime history. Meet the tragic Wyoming, the revolutionary America, and Maine's legendary shipbuilders.| New England Historical Society
Ruth Fish Jenkins defied New England’s mid-19th-century conventions when she went to sea with her husband. Women were supposed to stay at home, take care of the children and set… The post Ruth Fish Jenkins: Defying Domesticity on the High Seas appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
How John Farmer, a humble scholar, pioneered American genealogy—and why his Eurocentric legacy faced challenges from Black historians like William Cooper Nell.| New England Historical Society
The Waterbury Button Company began making buttons for soldiers and sailor, then made a whole lot more. Two centuries later, its still making buttons in the US.| New England Historical Society
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Connecticut copper played a pivotal role in the state’s industrial expansion. The state’s dominant industry began as buttons and trinkets for peddlers to sell. Then, factories in Waterbury, Ansonia and the Naugatuck Valley sprang up, transforming imported copper into brass goods. By the early 1800s, the state led the nation in brass production.| New England Historical Society
The decorations and epitaphs of early Puritan gravestones offer a fascinating glimpse into the religious beliefs, social values, and daily struggles of 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century New England. These intricate… The post Winged Skulls and Poetic Epitaphs: The Art and Soul of New England’s Gravestone Carvers appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
Discover how the Connecticut copper and brass industries shaped America through 7 fascinating facts, including a copper mine turned prison, DIY colonial coins and the rise and fall of the "Brass City."| New England Historical Society
On a summer day in 1862, a government employee named George Boutwell took the podium in front of the U.S. Capitol before 10,000 people. He was one of 10 speakers… The post George Boutwell, Forgotten Civil Rights Pioneer appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
In the 1870s, a famous Italian ballerina and her cowboy celebrity husband lived in a three story commercial building near the millyard in Lowell, Mass. Giuseppina Morlacchi was a petite,… The post An Italian Ballerina, a Dime Novel Cowboy and a Spindle City Romance appeared first on New England Historical Society.| New England Historical Society
Boston’s 18th-century "she-merchants" defied convention by running shops, printing presses and boarding houses to secure their financial independence.| New England Historical Society
The Hopedale Community (1841-1856) blended Christian Socialism with private enterprise in a utopian experiment, thriving until disagreements arose with the Draper brothers.| New England Historical Society
Boston banned rock 'n roll, and so did five other Northeast cities, after Alan Freed brought Chuck Berry to town. Critics claimed the music caused a riot.| New England Historical Society
For many years the most popular adult beverage in Chicago was a cocktail created in and named after a town on Boston’s South Shore: Cohasset Punch.| New England Historical Society
Minots Ledge Light, the most romantic lighthouse in America, is also the site of the most tragic event in the history of the American lighthouse.| New England Historical Society
