local-nav3

Miscellaneous Facts

Preamble to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, 1780

"The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government, is to secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their natural rights, and the blessings of life: and whenever these great objects are not obtained, the people have a right to alter the government, and to take measures necessary for their safety, prosperity and happiness."

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a constitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation, and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Capital: Boston, which dates from 1630
Motto: Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem
Translation: “By the Sword We Seek Peace, But Peace Only Under Liberty.”
Nickname: The Bay State (or the Old Bay State) is the most commonly used nickname for Massachusetts. Other nicknames include the Old Colony State, the Puritan State, and the Baked Bean State.
Population (2020 Census): 7,029,917

Famous Firsts in Massachusetts

For over three hundred years, Massachusetts has led the nation and the world. Here are some of the Commonwealth’s first accomplishments:

1602: Bartholomew Gosnold established the first trading post in Massachusetts.
1620: Pilgrims first landed in Provincetown.
1620: Pilgrims built the first religious meeting house in Plymouth.
1621: Pilgrims and Indigenous People celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth.
1628: John Endicott established a settlement in Salem.
1629: The first tannery in the U.S. began operations in Lynn.
1634: Boston Common became the first public park in America.
1635: The Town of Boston established the first American public secondary school, the Boston Latin School. The school remains in service today.
1636: The General Court established Harvard, the first American university, in Newtowne (now Cambridge).
1638: Stephen Daye created the first American printing press in Cambridge.
1639: The Town of Dorchester established the first free American public school, the Mather school. Mather Elementary remains in service today as part of Boston Public Schools.
1639: The General Court established the first post office in America, within Richard Fairbanks’ tavern in Boston.
1650: John Winthrop the Younger established the first American ironworks in Saugus.
1653: Robert Keayne bequeaths funds and books to the Town of Boston, creating the first American public library.
1686: Oxford became the first non-Puritan town.
1704: The first regularly-issued American newspaper, The Boston News-Letter, published its first issue in Boston.
1713: Andrew Robinson built the first American schooner in Gloucester.
1716: The Town of Boston established the first American lighthouse on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor.
1775: Patriot militias and British forces fight the first battle of the American Revolution in Lexington and Concord.
1775: The Continental Congress commissioned the first armed American naval vessel, the schooner Hannah, in Beverly. It is considered by some to be the first vessel of the United States Navy.
1778: The Town of Franklin, originally incorporated as Exeter, changed its name to honor Benjamin Franklin, becoming the first American municipality to do so.
1780: Massachusetts established the first state constitution, which became a template for the eventual federal constitution.
1789: Printer Isaiah Thomas publishes the first American-made novel, William Hill Brown’s “The Power of Sympathy,” in Boston.
1803: The Middlesex Canal, the first canal built for commercial use in the United States, opened and connected the Merrimack River to the port of Boston.
1806: The first church built by free blacks in America, the African Meeting House, opened on Joy Street in Boston.
1826: Gridley Bryant built the first chartered American railroad, the Granite Railway, in Quincy.
1827: Francis Leiber opened the first swim school in America. Students included John Quincy Adams and John James Audubon.
1831: William Lloyd Garrison published the first abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, in Boston.
1837: Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph based on Morse code, a simple pattern of dots and dashes.
1839: Charles Goodyear produced the first vulcanized rubber in Woburn.
1843: Charles Thurber invented and patented the first practical typewriter in Worcester.
1845: Elias Howe invented the first lockstitch sewing machine in Boston.
1846: Physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted the first successful public demonstration of ether for surgical anesthesia.
1847: Esther Howland printed the first mass-produced Valentine cards in Worcester.
1850: The first National Women’s Rights Convention convened in Worcester.
1865: Massachusetts established the first statewide police force in the nation.
1865: William Robert Ware of MIT began the first American professional training program for architects. Prior to this, architects trained in Europe or learned through apprenticeship.
1866: Massachusetts elected its first two African-American members of the General Court: Edwin G. Walker of Charlestown, and Charles Lewis Mitchell of Boston.
1874: Louis Prang printed the first American Christmas card in Boston.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the first successful telephone call in Boston.
1877: Helen Magill White becomes the first woman to earn a PhD in the U.S., at Boston University.
1881: The Country Club in Brookline became the first American club dedicated to horseback riding and other “outdoor pursuits;” golf would be added later.
1886: William Stanley demonstrated the first transformer in Great Barrington.
1888: The first electric trolley in the state begins service in Lynn.
1891: James Naismith invents and manages the first basketball game in Springfield.
1893: Charles and Frank Duryea produced and road-tested the first American gasoline-powered automobile in Springfield.
1895: Members of the Holyoke YMCA played the first known game of volleyball.
1896: Landscape architect Charles Eliot developed Revere Beach as the first American public beach.
1897: The first Boston Marathon occurred on April 19. Fifteen participants began the race, and they ran from Boston to Ashland. John J. McDermott won this first race.
1897: The first American subway system, the Tremont Street subway, opened in Boston.
1903: Using Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless telegraph, President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first transatlantic message from Wellfleet to King Edward VII in London.
1905: The Knox Automobile Company of Springfield manufactured the first purpose-built fire truck.
1906: On December 24, Reginald A. Fessenden sent the first wireless broadcast of music and entertainment from Brant Rock in Marshfield.
1925: Clarence Birdseye invented frozen food.
1926: Dr. Robert Goddard launched the first successful liquid fuel rocket in Auburn.
1928: Dr. Vannevar Bush of MIT developed the first computer, a non-electronic “differential analyzer”, in Cambridge.
1944: Not to be outdone by MIT, Harvard’s Howard Aiken developed the first automatic digital computer.
1947: Dr. Sidney Farber pioneers chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer.
1961: The first nuclear-powered surface ship, USS Long Beach, departed from Quincy.
1975: Clara Wainwright created the inaugural First Night, celebrating New Year’s Eve, in Boston.
2004: Cambridge City Hall officiates the first legal same-sex marriage in the United States.

Famous Firsts for Women in Politics

1923: Susan Fitzgerald (D-Jamaica Plain) and Sylvia Donaldson (R-Brockton) became the first women elected to the Massachusetts legislature, specifically to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
1925: Edith Nourse Rogers (R) of Lowell became the first woman elected to serve Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives.
1926: On February 18th, the Massachusetts House of Representatives honored Sylvia Donaldson as Speaker of the House for a day.
1935: Mary Livermore Norris Barrows (R-Melrose) became the first woman to hold a committee chair (House Committee on Pensions and Old Age Assistance) in the legislature.
1937: Sybil H. Holmes (R) became the first woman elected to the Massachusetts Senate.
1972: Iris Holland (R-Longmeadow) became the first female legislator from western Massachusetts.
1973: Doris Bunte (D-Roxbury) became the first black woman elected to the legislature. Bunte served in the House for 12 years.
1973: Mary L. Fonseca (D-Fall River) became the first woman to hold a leadership position in the Massachusetts Senate. Fonseca served as Senate Majority Whip.
1979: Iris Holland (R-Longmeadow) became the first woman to hold a leadership position in the Massachusetts House. Holland served as House Minority Whip.
1986: Evelyn Murphy (D) became the first woman to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, and the first female constitutional officer of the Commonwealth.
2007: Therese Murray (D) became the first female Senate President in the Massachusetts legislature.
2012: Elizabeth Warren (D) became the first woman elected to serve Massachusetts in the United States Senate.
2021: Michelle Wu (D) became the first woman, and the first person of color, elected as Mayor of Boston.
2023: Maura Healey (D) became the first woman elected governor in 2022. She became the first female governor in 2023.

Native Sons and Daughters

See below for a list of noteworthy people born in Massachusetts. While not a complete account, it gives a fair indication of the Bay State’s contributions to American art, history, and culture.

Authors

Henry Adams (Boston)
Horatio Alger (Chelsea)
John Bartlett (Plymouth)
Edward Bellamy (Chicopee Falls)
Robert Benchley (Worcester)
William Cullen Bryant (Cummington)
John Cheever (Quincy)
Robert Cormier (Leominster)
E.E. Cummings (Cambridge)
Richard Henry Dana (Cambridge)
Emily Dickinson (Amherst)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston)
Esther Forbes (Westborough)
Margaret Fuller (Cambridge)
Erle Stanley Gardner (Malden)
Theodor Seuss Geisel -“Dr. Seuss” (Springfield)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (Salem)
George V. Higgins (Brockton)
Oliver Wendell Holmes (Cambridge)
Jack Kerouac (Lowell)
Stanley Kunitz (Worcester)
Amy Lowell (Brookline)
James Russell Lowell (Cambridge)
Robert Lowell (Boston)
Samuel Eliot Morison (Boston)
Francis Parkman Jr. (Boston)
Sylvia Plath (Boston)
Edgar Allan Poe (Boston)
William Hickling Prescott (Salem)
Anne Sexton (Newton)
Paul Theroux (Medford)
Henry David Thoreau (Concord)
Theodore H. White (Dorchester)
John Greenleaf Whittier (Haverhill)

Painters

John Singleton Copley (Boston)
Frederick Childe Hassam (Boston)
Winslow Homer (Boston)
Fitz Hugh Lane (Gloucester)
Frank Stella (Malden)
James McNeil Whistler (Lowell)

Performing Artists

Jane Alexander (Boston)
Fred Allen (Cambridge)
Ed Ames (Malden)
Leroy Anderson (Cambridge)
Leonard Bernstein (Lawrence)
Ray Bolger (Dorchester)
Walter Brennan (Lynn)
Peggy Cass (Boston)
Paula Cole (Rockport)
Chick Corea (Chelsea)
Jane Curtin (Cambridge)
Charlotte Cushman (Boston)
Matt Damon (Cambridge)
Bette Davis (Lowell)
Geena Davis (Wareham)
Cecil B. DeMille (Ashfield)
Olympia Dukakis (Lowell)
Bob Elliot (Winchester)
Ray Goulding (Lowell)
Charles Farrell (Walpole)
Edith Fellows (Boston)
Arthur Fiedler (Boston)
Arlene Francis (Boston)
Georgia Gibbs (Worcester)
Paul Michael Glaser (Cambridge)
Ruth Gordon (Quincy)
Robert Goulet (Lawrence)
Tammy Grimes (Lynn)
Jasmine Guy (Boston)
George Irving (Springfield)
Ann Jillian (Cambridge)
Madeleine Kahn (Boston)
Nancy Kelly (Lowell)
Arthur Kennedy (Worcester)
Denis Leary (Worcester)
Jack Lemmon (Newton)
Dorothy Loudon (Boston)
Jeffrey Lynn (Auburn)
Bill Macy (Revere)
Agnes Moorehead (Clinton)
Robert Morse (Newton)
Leonard Nimoy (Boston)
Conan O’Brien (Brookline)
Estelle Parsons (Lynn)
Lee Remick (Quincy)
Kurt Russell (Springfield)
Donna Summer (Boston)
James Taylor (Boston)
Sam Waterston (Cambridge)

Inventors

Robert Goddard (Worcester)
Elias Howe (Spencer)
Samuel Morse (Charlestown)
Eli Whitney (Westborough)

Patriots of the Revolution

John Adams (Quincy)
Samuel Adams (Boston)
Crispus Attucks (Framingham)
Benjamin Franklin (Boston)
John Hancock (Braintree)
Henry Knox (Boston)
James Otis (Barnstable)
Robert Treat Paine (Boston)
Samuel Prescott (Concord)
William Prescott (Groton)
Israel Putnam (Danvers)
Paul Revere (Boston)
Peter Salem (Framingham)
Artemas Ward (Shrewsbury)
Joseph Warren (Roxbury)

Presidents

#2: John Adams (Braintree now Quincy)
#6: John Quincy Adams (Braintree now Quincy)
#35: John F. Kennedy (Brookline)
#41: George H. W. Bush (Milton)

Other Famous Bay Staters

Abigail Adams (Weymouth)
Susan B. Anthony (Adams)
Clara Barton (Oxford)
Charles Bulfinch (Boston)
Fannie Farmer (Boston)
Marshall Field (Conway)
Marvin Hagler (Brockton)
Horace Mann (Franklin)
Rocky Marciano (Brockton)
Cotton Mather (Boston)
Lucretia Mott (Nantucket)
Robert Gould Shaw (Boston)
Lucy Stone (West Brookfield)
Elihu Yale (Boston)

State Flag Questions and Answers

Describe the flag, its component parts, and the meaning of each part.

Current law states that "the flag of the Commonwealth shall consist of a white rectangular field, bearing on either side a representation of the arms of the Commonwealth, except that the star shall be white."

Chapter 2, Section 1 of the Massachusetts General Laws describes "The Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth" as follows:
"The coat of arms of the Commonwealth shall consist of a blue shield with an Indian thereon, dressed in a shirt, leggings, and moccasins, holding in his right hand a bow, and in his left hand an arrow, point downward, all of gold; and in the upper right-hand corner of the field a silver star of five points. The crest shall be, on a wreath of gold and blue, a right arm, bent at the elbow, clothed and ruffled, and grasping a broad-sword, all of gold. The motto 'Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem' (By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty) shall appear in gold on a blue ribbon."

When was the current Massachusetts flag adopted?

The current flag law was approved on June 3, 1971, and took effect on November 1, 1971.

Before 1971, the flag had the coat of arms on the front side, but had a drawing of a pine tree on the back side, recognizing the importance of the lumbering industry in early state life. Although all flags made after 1971 required the coat of arms on both sides, the old flags were still valid.

Was it the flag used during colonial times?

No, because Massachusetts did not become a state until 1780. Research indicates that some colonists flew a marine flag on their ships, but it was not an "official" flag and couldn’t be described as a state flag.

Why were the current flag colors chosen?

This knowledge, unfortunately, has been lost to time. There is no way to determine why certain colors were selected, because it is nearly impossible to determine the intent of legislation filed hundreds of years ago.

What does the state motto mean?

"Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem," translated from Latin, means “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”

This is the second of two lines written by Algernon Sidney, English soldier and politician, in The Book of Mottoes in the King's Library at Copenhagen, Denmark. The Provincial Congress adopted it as the motto in 1775.