Page Toppers

• Born in Boston
• Going to Boston
• Lost in Boston
• Massachusetts Moon
• Massachusetts Morning
• Nantucket Sleigh Ride
• Road to Boston

Quotes

• The heart of the world beats under the three hills of Boston. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.)
• I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. (Henry David Thoreau)
• I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever. (Daniel Webster)
• The one thing the Pilgrims certainly didn't do was step ashore on Plymouth Rock. Quite apart from the consideration that it may have stood well above the high-water mark in 1620, no prudent mariner would try to bring a ship alongside a boulder in a heaving December sea when a sheltered inlet beckoned nearby. If the Pilgrims even noticed Plymouth Rock, there is no sign of it. (Bill Bryson)
• We are by September and yet my flowers are bold as June. Amherst has gone to Eden. (Emily Dickinson)

Massachusetts Symbols

• Nicknames: The Bay State; The Baked Bean State; The Old Colony State; Old Bay State; The Pilgrim state
• Slogan: We'd Love to Show You Around
• Motto: By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty
• Song: All Hail to Massachusetts (words and music by Arthur Marsh)
• Polka Song: Say Hello to Someone in Massachusetts (by Lenny Gomulka)
• Folk Song: Massachusetts
• Patriotic Song: Massachusetts (Because of You Our Land is Free)
• Ceremonial March: The Road to Boston
• Folk Dance: Square Dance
• Marine Mammal: Right Whale
• Shell: New England Neptune
• Cat: Tabby Cat
• Dog: Boston Terrier
• Horse: Morgan Horse
• Bird: Black-capped Chickadee
• Game Bird: Wild Turkey
• Fish: Cod
• Insect: Ladybug
• Tree: American Elm
• Flower: Mayflower
• Fossil: Dinosaur Tracks
• Gemstone: Rhodonite
• Mineral: Babingtonite
• Building and Monument Stone: Granite
• Rock: Roxbury Puddingstone
• Beverage: Cranberry Juice
• Fruit: Cranberry
• Bean: Baked Navy Bean
• Muffin: Corn Muffin
• Cookie: Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Donut: Boston Cream Donut
• Dessert: Boston Cream Pie
• Children's Author and Illustrator: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
• Children's Book: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Folk Hero: Johnny Appleseed
• Heroine: Deborah Samson
• Pro Sports Teams: Boston Celtics(basketball), New England Patriots(football), Boston Red Sox(baseball), Boston Bruins(hockey)

Facts About Massachusetts

• Capital: Boston
• Residents: Bay Staters
• State Name Origin: named after the Massachusetts Indians, whose name means "large hill place"
• Admitted to Statehood: 6 Feb 1788
• Order of Admission: 6th state
• Coastline/Shoreline: 192/1,519 miles
• Length: 190 miles
• Width: 50 miles
• Area: 10,555 square miles
• Size Rank: 44
• Number of Counties: 14
• Streams and Rivers: 8,229 miles
• Geographic Center: at Rutland in Worcester Co.
• Mean Elevation: 500 feet
• Highest Point: Mt. Greylock, 3,491 feet
• Lowest Point: Atlantic coast, sea level
• Agricultural Products: cranberries, dairy products, poultry products, nursery and greenhouse produce, vegetables, fruit
• Commercial Products: health care services, tourism, finance and insurance services, fish, industrial machinery, electronic equipment, printing and publishing, metal products
• Average Annual Rainfall: 43.8 inches
• Average Winter High Temperature: 32 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -35 degrees (12 Jan 1981 Chester)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 80 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 107 degrees (2 Aug 1975 New Bedford and Chester)
• Official Language: English
• More information about Massachusetts

Items of Interest

• The first American public library was founded in Boston in 1653
• The African Meeting House on Joy Street in Boston was the first church built by free blacks, 1806.
• Boston built the first subway system in the United States in 1897.
• Volleyball was invented in Holyoke in 1895 by William G. Morgan.
• Hingham's Derby Academy, founded in 1784, is the oldest co-educational school in the US.
• Hingham's First Parish Old Ship Church is the oldest church structure in the US in continuous use as a place of worship.
• The Fig Newton was named after Newton, Massachusetts.
• Lowell was America's first planned industrial city.
• Boston Common became the first public park in America in 1634.
• The first basketball game was played in Springfield in 1891.
• Quincy boasts the first Dunkin Donuts on Hancock Street and the first Howard Johnson's on Newport Ave.
• The birth control pill was invented at Clark University in Worcester.
• Harvard, the first college established in North America, was founded in 1636. Because of Harvard's size there is no universal mailing address that will work for every office at the University.
• The Boston University Bridge on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
• The Mather school was founded in Dorchester in 1639. It is the first public elementary school in the US.
• Jamaica Plain was once the state headquarters of Greenpeace. The building still has a weather vane with a whale on it.
• The first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in Plymouth in 1621.
• The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy, by William Hill Brown, was published in Worcester in 1789.
• Revere Beach was the first public beach in the United States.

Notable Natives

Some of these were born here, others just lived a while in the state.

• John Adams(1735-1826) - 2nd U.S. president (Norfolk Co.)
• John Quincy Adams(1767-1848) - 6th U.S. president (Norfolk Co.)
• Samuel Adams (1722-1803) - Revolutionary War patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence, governor of MA (Boston)
• Jack Albertson - actor (Malden)
• Horatio Alger - author (Revere)
• Susan B. Anthony - woman suffragist (Adams)
• F. Lee Bailey - defense attorney (Waltham)
• Clara Barton - founder of American red cross (Oxford)
• Katharine L. Bates - author
• Leonard Bernstein - conductor (Lawrence)
• William Cullen Bryant - poet, editor (Cummington)
• Luther Burbank - horticulturist (Lancaster)
• George Herbert Walker Bush (1924- ) - 41st U.S. president (born in Norfolk Co.)
• John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed - nurseryman (Leominster)
• Calvin Coolidge - U.S. president
• John Singleton Copley - painter (Boston)
• e. e. cummings - poet (Cambridge)
• Bette Davis - actress (Lowell)
• Cecil B. DeMille - film director (Ashfield)
• Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) - poet (Amherst)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson - philosopher, poet (Boston)
• Brian Evans - singer (Haverhill)
• Ann Smith Franklin - printer, almanac publisher (Boston)
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) - printer, author, philosopher, diplomat, statesman, scientist, inventor (Boston)
• Buckminster Fuller - architect, educator (Milton)
• Charles Goodyear - first vulcanized rubber in 1839 in Woburn
• John Hancock (1737-1793) - merchant, statesman, first signer of the Declaration of Independence, first governor of MA (Braintree)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) - author (Salem)
• Oliver Wendell Holmes - poet (Cambridge)
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - supreme court justice (Boston)
• Winslow Homer - painter (Boston)
• Elias Howe - invented the first sewing machine in 1845 (Spencer)
• Robert Hutchings Goddard - inventor of the first liquid fueled rocket (Worcester)
• Helen Hunt Jackson - writer (Amherst)
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy(1917-1963) - 35th U.S. president
• Jack Lemon - actor
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)- poet
• Amy Lowell - poet, Brookline)
• Percival Lowell - astronomer (Boston)
• James Russell Lowell - poet (Cambridge)
• Robert Lowell - poet (Boston)
• Horace Mann - educator (Franklin)
• Cotton Mather - clergyman (Boston)
• Sharon Christa McAuliffe - teacher, astronaut (Framingham)
• Jo Dee Messina - country singer (Holliston)
• Samuel Finley B. Morse - inventor (Charlestown)
• Leonard Nemoy - actor (Boston)
• George Peabody - merchant, philanthropist
• Albert Pike - pioneer teacher, lawyer (Boston)
• Edgar Allan Poe - poet (Boston)
• Ella Raines - actress (Snoquaimie)
• Paul Revere (1735-1818) - silversmith, patriot (Boston)
• Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) - author, illustrator (Springfield)
• Lucy Stone - woman suffragist(West Brookfield)
• Louis Henry Sullivan - architect (Boston)
• Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) - essayist, naturalist, philosopher (Concord)
• James Whistler - artist (Lowell)
• Eli Whitney - inventor (Westborough)
• John Greenleaf Whittier - poet (Haverhill)

The State Flag
The flag has the state coat of arms on a white background. The shield has an image of a Native American with bow and arrow. The arrow points down to represent peace. Other symbols on the flag are: blue (for the Blue Hills); a white star (represents MA as one of the original thirteen colonies); a shield and sword represent the state motto (By the Sword We Seek Peace, but Peace Only Under Liberty).

You know you are from Massachusetts if...

• You think crosswalks are for wimps.
• Khakis are something you start the car with.
• You think if someone's nice to you, they either want something or they are from out of town and probably lost.
• You know how to cross four lanes of traffic in five seconds.
• Anything past Worcester is "the middle of nowhere".
• You think it's not actually tailgating unless your bumper is touching the car in front of you.
• You know that a yellow light means at least five more cars can get through...and that a red light means two more can.
• A Crown Victoria = undercover cop.
• The transportation system is know as the "T"...Subway is a fast food place.
• You could own a small town in Iowa for the cost of your house.
• There are 24 Dunkin Donuts Shops within fifteen minutes of your house.
• When people talk about the "curse of the Bambino," you know what they are talking about, and you believe in it, too.
• You think of Rhode Island as the "Deep South".
• You believe using a turn signal gives away your plan to the enemy.
• If you stay on the same road long enough, it will eventually have at least three different names.
• Someone has honked at you because you didn't peel out the second the light turned green.
• You've honked at someone because they didn't peel out the second the light turned green.
• Potholes just add excitement to your driving experience.
• Stop signs mean slow down a little...if you feel like it.
• Six inches of snow is considered a "dusting".
• Three days of 90+ degrees is considered a "heat wave".
• $15 to park is a bargain.
• You cringe every time you hear some actor/actress imitate the "Boston accent" on TV or in a movie. If you don't have it, you're never going to get it right...even if your were born here.
• You can go from one side of your hometown to the other in less than fifteen minutes.

Songs about Massachusetts

• Lights Went Out in Massachusetts, The - The Bee Gees (1967)
• Massachusetts - Greg Greenway (1991)
• Nantucket Sleigh Ride - Mountain (1971)

Songs about Boston

• Banned in Boston - The Sam the Sham Revue (1967)
• Big Wheel From Boston - Jumpin' Bill Carlisle (1970)
• Blue-Eyed Boston Boy - Dwight McCall (2007)
• Born in Boston - Smith (1969)
• Boston Boy - R. Skaggs, D. Grisman, and D. and R. McCoury (1999)
• Boston Fancy - Giselle MacKenzie (1955)
• Boston, My Home Town - Freddy 'Boom Boom' Cannon (1960)
• Boston Tea Party - Burnt By the Sun (2002)
• Going to Boston - The McLain Family Band (1986)
• Lost in Boston - Robin McNamara (1970)
• Please Come to Boston - David Allan Coe (1985)
• Road to Boston - Linda Russell (1984)

Songs about New England

• Homesick for New England - Roger Williams (1960)
• Weekend in New England - Barry Manilow (1976)
• When Fall Comes to New England - Cheryl Wheeler (1992)
• Whoever's in New England - Reba McEntire (1986)