Ladies Walk - Boston Women's Heritage Trail

THEL ADIES WALK

Celebrating the lives of ABIGAIL ADAMS, LUCY STONE and PHILLIS WHEATLEY

A Herstory Trail designed in honor of the Boston Women’s Memorial

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Stops

Boston Women’s Memorial(Commonwealth Ave. Mall at Fairfield Street)Boston Public LibraryMassachusetts State HouseFormer Site of Hancock HousePaulist Center Chapel - 5 Park StreetOld South Meeting HouseCorner of Beach and Tyler StreetsOld State HouseCity Hall PlazaCourt and State StreetsCorner of Kilby and State StreetsFaneuil Hall

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© Bruce Jones Design, Inc.

Bibliography:Butterfield, L. H. The Book of Abigail and John. Harvard University

Press, 1975Gates, Henry Louis. The Trials of Phillis Wheatley. Basic Civitas, 2003Kerr, Andrea Moore. Lucy Stone. Rutgers University Press, 1992McCollough, David. John Adams. Simon and Schuster, 2001Richmond, Merle. Phillis Wheatley. Chelsea House, 1988Wilson, Susan. Boston Sites and Insights. Beacon Press, 2004

2003 © Boston Women’s Heritage Trail (bwht.org)Written byMary Howland Smoyer.

Special thanks toSusan Wilson and Liane Curtis, Matthew Greif, Michelle Jenney, PollyKaufman, Barbara Locurto, John Manson, Sara Masucci, Dan Moon,Gretchen O’Neill, Barbara Rotundo, David Smoyer; Liz Goodwin, PatNickerson and Marie Turley, Boston Women’s Commission; SueGoganian, Nancy Richard, Sarah Thompson, Sylvia Weedman, TheBostonian Society; Earl Taylor, Dorchester Historical Society; EllenRothman, Mass Foundation for the Humanities; Anne Cecere, MeganMilford, Massachusetts Historical Society; Emily Curran, MichelleLeBlanc, Kristin Sherman, Old South Meeting House; Dale Freeman,Elizabeth Mock, UMass Boston Archives; Kathy Amico, StephenHamilton, Union Printworks, and Mayor Thomas Menino.

Funding support fromGrants Management Associates and Cabot Family Charitable Trust

Photo Credits

Cover: photo by Susan Wilson.Page 4: photo by Anne Gwynn.Page 5: print by Ellen Lanyon; photo by

Susan Wilson.Page 6: courtesy of Mass. Foundation for

The Humanities.Page 7: both, courtesy of The Bostonian

Society.Page 8: both photos by Susan Wilson;

drawing, courtesy of BettmanArchives.

Page 9: courtesy of Peabody Museum ofSalem.

Pages 10, 11& 12: courtesy of TheBostonian Society.

Page 13: top, courtesy of Mass. HistoricalSociety; bottom, courtesy of TheBostonian Society.

Page 14: courtesy of The BostonianSociety.

Page 15: photo by Susan Wilson.Pages 16, 17 & 18: courtesy of Boston

Women’s Commission.Page 19: courtesy of UMass Boston

ArchivesBack Cover: photos by Susan Wilson.

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Credits

Stop 1Women’s MemorialCommonwealthAvenue Mall

The Boston Women’s Memorial honors three important contributors to Boston’s rich history –Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone and Phillis Wheatley. Each of these women had progressive ideas thatwere ahead of her time, was committed to social change, and left a legacy through her writingsthat had a significant impact on history.

The sculptures were installed in 2003 on the historic Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Bostonbetween Fairfield and Gloucester Streets. Artist Meredith Bergmann’s vision for this memorialrepresents the forefront of new thinking about representation in public art.

Boston Women’s Memorial, 2003, City of Boston Brochure

Who are these women? Where did they liveand work in Boston? Where else are theyrepresented in public art? Where can you

learn more about them?This booklet gives you a chance to

start answering these questions. Al-though we have no record of them everhaving met, Abigail Adams and PhillisWheatley lived in Boston at the sametime, only a few blocks from one an-other during the Revolutionary War pe-riod. Lucy Stone, on the other hand,was not born until 1818, the same yearAbigail Adams died and 34 years afterPhillis Wheatley died, and she lived al-most to the end of the nineteenth cen-tury. By then Boston was a very differ-ent place geographically, with landfillhaving enlarged the original Boston pen-

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Memorial artist Meredith Bergmann

insula and created the new Back Bay. Much socialchange had taken place, but much still had not changed:when Lucy Stone died, in 1893, women still could not

vote.

So, take this booklet in handand walk from the Women’sMemorial across Boston, tosee where these three womenlived and worked, and whereelse they are honored in Bos-ton. Step right out and en-joy yourself!

At the end of the booklet, youwill find the words whichare inscribed on the Memo-rial – words to take with youand read again and again.

Stop 1Boston Women’sMemorial –CommonwealthAvenue atFairfield Street

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Walk across Fairfield Street and continuedown the Mall to Exeter Street. Turn right.Go across Newbury Street to Boylston Street.Turn left and enter the Boston Public Library.

Stop 2Boston PublicLibrary

Here in the lobby on the right you see the mural“Nine Notable Women” by Ellen Lanyon. BothLucy Stone and Phillis Wheatley are represented

in this mural, which was commissioned by WorkingmensCooperative Bank in 1980. After its completion, the mu-ral was moved several times and eventually was given toSimmons College,where it hung forover ten years.During renova-tions at the col-lege, the muralended up in stor-age.

When the mu-ral was rediscov-ered in 1999,Simmons College agreed to loan it to the Boston PublicLibrary. Among Ellen Lanyon’s works are many publicart projects, including her 1999 “Riverwalk Gateway Ce-ramic Mural Project” in Chicago.

Note the additional names of women written on the cur-tains in the mural and, on the wall to the left, the framed textof a booklet which accompanied it when it was first unveiled.

Turn 180 degrees from the mural and walkthrough the Johnson Building and the courtyardto the Research Library. Walk upstairs, turn leftas you enter the Bates Reading Room.

Busts of Lucy Stoneand of her daughterAlice Stone Blackwell

sit together on top of themantel. The bust of LucyStone was sculpted by Anne

Whitney in 1892 forthe exhibition at the1893 ColumbianExposition in Chi-cago. In 1904 itwas presented tothe Boston PublicLibrary by JudithWinsor Smith, alocal suffrage activ-ist. Anne Whitney

was one of America’s mostdistinguished sculptors.She also did the statues ofSam Adams at Faneuil Halland of Charles Sumner inHarvard Square.

The bust of Lucy Stone’sonly child Alice StoneBlackwell was sculpted by

Frances Rich and pre-sented to the library by theLeague of Women Votersof Boston. Alice StoneBlackwell was an activesuffragist in her own right,carrying on her mother’swork at the Woman’s Jour-nal, and embracing manyother l iberal causesthroughout her life.

Nine Notable Women by Ellen Lanyon

Lucy Stoneby Anne Whitney

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Now you have a choice: you can either walkapproximately 1 1/4 miles to the State Houseor take the T. To take the T, get on at Copley,going inbound, and get off at Park Street. Walkupstairs and go up the hill to the State House.

Inside the State House ask directions to Doric Hall.Just outside Doric Hall you will find the mural HearUs by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and Susan Sellers,

1999. Lucy Stone is one of six women represented in thismural. The mural, part of the State House Women’s Lead-ership Project initiated to make State House art moreinclusive, was commissioned by The Massachusetts Foun-dation for the Humanities. Each of these women werechosen for having made a major contribution to the gov-ernment of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. To learnmore about the mural, take home the handsome pam-phlet describing the project.

Now go upstairs to the Massachusetts SenateChambers.

Lucy Stone addressed the Massachusetts legislaturehere in 1853, calling for equal rights for women. She was an exceptionally talented public speaker with

unusual power over her audience. Lucy Stone had toured thecountry speaking for abolition and women’s rights and wasone of the first women in the United States to make a careerof lecturing.

To walk, continue down Boylston Street to thePublic Garden. Cross the Garden diagonally(as best you can! ) and walk up through theBoston Common along the Beacon Street sideto the State House. You can enter the StateHouse up the right hand steps.

Lucy Stone in Mural Hear Us

Stop 3MassachusettsState House

Here is where John Hancock’s house stood, withhis pasture being the present site of the StateHouse. On June 17, 1788 Abigail and John Adams

came to Hancock’s house after they arrived in Boston onthe ship “Lucretia”. John Adams had been abroad for mostof ten years and Abigail Adams had joined him in Parisand London for the last four of those years. Boston wasready to welcome them. In his book John Adams, DavidMcCullough describes the scene:

“People were cheering, church bells ringing, as theAdamses came ashore. Along the route to Beacon Hill,more throngs lined the streets. ‘The bells in the severalchurches rang during the remainder of the day – everycountenance wore expressions of joy,’ reported the Mas-sachusetts Sentinel.”

McCollough writes thatAbigail and John Adamsbrought with them “…a greataccumulation of clothes,books, china and furniture …aYork rosebush…a four-postDutch bed, a great Dutchchest with heavy brass pullsand claw feet, tables of differ-ent sizes, a set of six cushionedLouis XV chairs and a settee…”

Stops 4& 5John HancockHouse Site andPaulist Center,5 Park Street

Exit the State House as you entered it and lookto the left as you stand facing it.

Now walk down Park Street to the PaulistCenter.

Here, in a since-razed building, Lucy Stone set upthe offices of the Woman’s Journal; she evenlived upstairs here for awhile. The Woman’s Jour-

nal, called the “voice of the woman’smovement,” was published for so longand so regularly that it significantly in-fluenced the history of women’s rights.It was “devoted to the interests of Woman— to her educational, industrial, legal,and political equality, and especially toher right of Suffrage.” Lucy Stone wasone of its founders and helped write,edit, finance and publish it, right hereclose to the seat of power – the StateHouse.

The Woman’s Journal Office, c. 1880

John Hancock House

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At the bottom of Park Street, turn left onTremont Street and proceed past the GranaryBurying Ground. ( John Wheatley, PhillisWheatley’s owner, is buried here.) Take yourfirst right down School Street to Old SouthMeeting House, just on the right onWashington Street.

Stop 6Old SouthMeeting House

On August 18, 1771, Phillis Wheatley, who wasvery religious, became a member of this church.Old South Meeting House, which has been a

museum since 1878, honors Phillis Wheatley with awonderful exhibit.Be sure to go in tosee the inside ofthis lovely, his-toric church and acopy of her bookof poems.

R e m e m b e rthat at the timechurches in Bos-ton were not in-tegrated, so PhillisWheatley had tosit in the gallery

out of sight of white congregants andthe minister. Further, many doubted

an enslaved African woman couldwrite poetry, so the publisher re-

quired that she be interro-gated by a committee of 18distinguished male leaders, in-cluding John Hancock, whothen officially confirmed thatshe was indeed the author ofthe poetry.

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley’s book Poems on VariousSubjects, Religious and Moral

Old South Meeting House

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to the Wheatley mansion (See Stop 11). Who could havedreamed that she would become the mother of African-American literature?

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Now you have another decision to make: if youare feeling very energetic, turn left out the frontdoor of Old South Meeting House, and walkdown Washington Street to Beach Street. Turnleft. Proceed to the corner of Tyler Street whereyou will see a marker honoring Phillis Wheatley.You will then have to retrace your steps to pickup the rest of this Trail. It is interesting to seethe corner and imagine it as waterfront with along wharf. Today after extensive landfill it is abustling corner of Chinatown. BUT it is a goodmile round trip!

Stop 7Beach andTyler Streets

Slave ship unloading Africans

Phillis Wheatley engravingfrom frontispiece of her book

This is where Phillis Wheatley landed in Boston onJuly 11, 1761, on the slave ship “Phillis”. She wasnamed after the ship

by Susannah and JohnWheatley when they pur-chased her here at GriffinsWharf. (See map on page 12.)Notice the marker placedhere by the Bostonian Soci-ety. Imagine Phillis Wheatley,a small child, age 7 or 8,speaking no English, comingoff the ship after a very longvoyage during which shemust have suffered terribly,then riding in a carriage back

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On July 18, 1776, Abigail Adams went to the Old State House, then called the New Town House,where the Declaration of Independence was read for

the first time in Massachusetts. This poster, created 167years after the event, closely matches Abigail’s description.

She wrote her husband John:“Last Thursday … I went with the Multitude into KingsStreet to hear the proclamation for independence readand proclamed…When Col. Crafts read from the Belconaof the State House the Proclamation, great attention was

given to every word. As soon as he ended, the cry fromthe Belcona was God Save our American States and then3 cheers which rended the air, the Bells rang, the priva-teers fired, the forts and Batteries, the cannon were dis-charged, the platoons followed and every face appeardjoyfull….After dinner the kings arms were taken downfrom the State House and every vestige of him from everyplace in which it appeard and burnt in King Street. Thusends royall Authority in this State and all the people shallsay Amen”

Letter, July 21, 1776

Now proceed down Washington Street past School Street to Court Street.Walk to the front of the Old State House.

Stop 8OldState House

The Reading of The Declaration of Independence New England Life Poster, 1943

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1 Phillis Wheatleylanded here in1761 on the slaveship “Phillis.”

Phillis Wheatleylived here at thecorner of KingStreet andMackerel Lane,and later onQueen Street.

Abigail Adamslived here inBrattle Square andon King Street.

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Map ofBoston,1774

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In June and July 1776 Abigail Adams moved her household to Boston for two months to State Street (thencalled King Street) to the home of her uncle Isaac

Smith so that they could all be inoculated against small-pox. John Adams’ uncle Dr. Zabdiel Boylston had actuallystarted the program 50 years earlier, getting the idea froman enslaved man, Onesimus, who told him about the prac-tice in Africa. Many of the household members were verysick, but they all recovered.

Abigail Adams wrote her husband John:“We had our Bedding etc. to bring. A Cow we have

driven down from B[raintre]e and some Hay I havehad put into the Stable, wood etc. and we havereally commenced housekeepers here… Our littleones stood the operation Manfully… Such a spiritof inoculation never before took place; the Townand every house in it, as full as they can hold … Iwish it was so you could have been with us, but Isubmit.”

– Letter, July 13, 1776

Near the end of her life, from about 1778-1781,when she was a free woman, Phillis Wheatley livedon Court Street (then called Queen Street) withher husband, John Peters. Unfortunately, we don’tknow much about her life then, but we do knowit was still a fashionable address.

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Stops 9& 10City Hall Plaza andCourt and StateStreets

Cross State Street and walk back towhere it becomes Court Street. Turnright between the buildings to CityHall Plaza.

Although AbigailAdams lived most ofher life in Wey-

mouth, Braintree andQuincy, she also lived inBoston for a few years dur-ing the Revolutionary Warperiod, and, of course, shevisited Boston frequently.Abigail Adams and her fam-ily lived here in two loca-

Walk back to Court Street where it becomesState Street.

Abigail Adamsby Benjamin Blythe, 1766

tions between 1768-1774when it was the fashionablesection known as BrattleSquare. They worshipped atthe Brattle Square Churchand two of their children,Susanna and Charles, werebaptized at the church.When 10,000 British troopsoccupied Boston in 1774,the family fled to Quincy.

Brattle Street Church, Brattle Square

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As you stand at this corner, look at this print of thebuildings and streets. Phillis Wheatley lived right on this corner in the heart of the

city in the Wheatley’s mansion, at whatwas then King Street and Mackerel Lane,from 1761-1774. From the windows of themansion she could have seen lots of comingsand goings and lots of “revolutionary” ac-tion, including patriots protesting theStamp Act, or the Redcoats marching upfrom the harbor. Many of her poems wereinspired by nearby events such as the Bos-ton Massacre.

In this house, Phillis Wheatley proved her-self a genius, learning English in only 16months with the Wheatley’s daughter Maryas her tutor, and then going on to masterGreek and Latin and write poetry. PhillisWheatley’s Book of Poems was publishedin England in 1773. In 1774, 300 copiesarrived in Boston and sold quickly. Thatsame year, at age 21, Phillis Wheatley be-came a free woman, and, when theWheatleys left their mansion during theconflicts surrounding the occupation of Boston by Britishtroops, she moved to Providence, R.I, to live with Mary

Stop 11Corner of Stateand Kilby Streets

Walk down State Street, across Congress Street, to the corner of Kilby Street.

Wheatley. She also wrote a special letter to the Rever-end Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian Christian mis-

sionary, about freedom. An excerpt from it is on theWomen’s Memorial. (See page 17)

State Street 1801

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As you can see, Lucy Stone is the only woman repre-sented in all of Faneuil Hall! She joined the men in2001. Her bust was done by artist Lloyd Lillie. His

other work includes a statue of Abigail Adams in Quincyand a sculpture of 19 assembled bronze figures at the Women’s

Rights National HistoricalPark in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Healso did the statues of JamesMichael Curley and RedAuerbach here in Boston.

In 1873, on the 100th an-niversary of the Boston TeaParty, Lucy Stone orga-nized a suffrage meetingshe named the New En-gland Women’s Tea Party.The call said:

The women of New En-gland who believe that

“TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION IS TYR-ANNY” and that our forefathers were justified in resistingdespotic power by throwing the tea into Boston Harbor,hereby invite the men and women of New England tounite with them in celebrating the One Hundredth Anni-versary of that event, in Faneuil Hall, on MONDAY AF-TERNOON AND EVENING, DEC 15, from 4 to 9 P.M.

Stop 12Faneuil Hall

Walk across State Street and go between the build-ings to Faneuil Hall. Go right in the front doorand up the stairs.

The December 20 edition of the Woman’s Journal re-ported that “ Long before the hour appointed for theopening of the meeting, the crowd began to assemble,and at 4 o’clock the Hall was literally packed solid with adense mass of humanity, composed of ladies and gentle-men representing all classes in life who were interested inthe object of the meeting – the elevation of Woman to anequality with men in citizenship, no less than the cel-ebration of the patriotic deed of our forefathers.

In her speech, Lucy Stone, introduced as “the founder ofthe feast”, said “We are taxed, and we have no represen-tation. We are governed without our consent. We arefined, imprisoned, and hung with no jury trial by ourpeers. We have no legal right to our children, nor powerto sell our land, nor will our money.”

Lucy Stone by Lloyd Lillie

Lucy Stone House, 45 Boutwell Street.

ABIGAIL ADAMS 1744 - 1818

Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, she was the wife of the second president ofthe United States and the mother of the sixth. Her letters establish her as aperceptive social and political commentator and a strong voice for women’sadvancement.

… and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will benecessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, andbe more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not putsuch unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Menwould be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paidto the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not holdourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, orRepresentation.

Letter to John Adams, March 31, 1776

If we were to count our years by the revolutions we have witnessed, wemight number them with the Antediluvians. So rapid have been the changes:that the mind, tho fleet in its progress, has been outstripped by them, and weare left like statues gazing at what we can neither fathom, or comprehend.

Letter to Mercy Otis Warren, March 9, 1807

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Text onMemorialPedestal

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P HILLIS W HEATLEY CA. 1753 – 1784

Born in West Africa and sold as a slave from the ship Phillis in colonial Boston, she was a literary prodigywhose 1773 volume Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was the first book published by anAfrican writer in America.

I, young in life, by seeming cruel fateWas snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat:What pangs excruciating must molest,What sorrows labour in my parent’s breast?Steel’d was that soul and by no misery mov’dThat from a father seiz’d his babe belov’d:Such, such my case. And can I then but prayOthers may never feel tyrannic sway?

To the Right Honourable William,Earl of Dartmouth

Imagination! who can sing thy force?Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?Soaring through air to find the bright abode,Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God,We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,And leave the rolling universe behind:From star to star the mental optics rove,Measure the skies, and range the realms above.There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul.

On Imagination

… in every human Breast, God has implanted aPrinciple, which we call Love of Freedom; it isimpatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance... the same Principle lives in us.

Letter to the Reverend Samson Occom,February 11, 1774

Text onMemorialPedestal

L UCY S TONE 1818 – 1893

Born in Brookfield, she was one of the first Massachusettswomen to graduate from college. She was an ardent abolitionist,a renowned orator, and the founder of the Woman’s Journal,the foremost women’s suffrage publication of its era.

Let woman’s sphere be bounded only by her capacity.

Speech, Woman’s Rights Convention, Worcester 1851

From the first years to which my memory stretches I have beena disappointed woman. … In education, in marriage, in religion,in everything disappointment is the lot of women. It shall bethe business of my life to deepen this disappointment in everywoman’s heart until she bows down to it no longer.

Speech, National Woman’s Rights Convention, Cincinnati1855

The legal right for woman to record her opinion whereveropinions count, is the tool for whose ownership we ask.

Woman’s Journal, 1891

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I believe the world grows better,because I believe that in theeternal order there is always amovement, swift or slow, towardwhat is right and true.

Last published statement,The Independent, 1893

Text onMemorialPedestal

More about . . .Abigail Adams

To learn more about Abigail Adams, go to the AdamsNational Historical Park in Quincy, by driving ortaking the Red Line to the Quincy Center Station.

At the National Park Service Visitor Center, you can takea free trolley ride to the home where Abigail and JohnAdams first lived after they were married (called the JohnQuincy Adams Birthplace) and the Old House, where theylived from1788 on. You can also see a statue of AbigailAdams with her young son, John Quincy Adams and thecrypt where she is buried in the United First Parish Church.More information at www.nps.gov/adam.

You can also visit Abigail Adams’s birthplace. The AbigailAdams Historical Society maintains the house in nearbyWeymouth. More information at www.abigailadams.org.

and Phillis Wheatley

On February 1, 1985, the University of Massachusetts,Boston named oneof its buildings

Wheatley Hall, and Gover-nor Dukakis declared Feb-ruary 1 “Phillis WheatleyDay”. You can see this paint-ing of Phillis Wheatley inthe Hall.

The Phillis Wheatley School,a Boston Public School, isat 20 Kearsage Avenue inRoxbury. Unfortunately, itclosed in 2003 and is await-ing a new role.

Lucy Stone

F rom 1870 until her death, Lucy Stone lived withher husband and daughter in a large home on top ofPope’s Hill at 45 Boutwell Street in the Dorchester

section of Boston (see page 15). The 17-room home alsoincluded barns, a carriage house and stables as well asextensive grounds for gardens and animals. Here she hostedmany gatherings and often housed family and guests. Un-fortunately, it was demolished in 1971, but on one of theremaining stone posts which marked the driveway, youwill find a marker placed by the Bostonian Society. Whenshe died, Lucy Stone was cremated and is credited as the

first person cremated in New England. Her ashes, atForest Hills Cemetery in the Jamaica Plain section of Bos-ton, are in Urn Number One in the columbarium underthe Lucy Stone Chapel.

In 1993, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary ofher death, and in response to a petition from the studentsat the Lucy Stone School, a Boston Public School at 22Regina Road in Dorchester, the Massachusetts Legislaturedeclared March 8 “Lucy Stone Day.” The school honoredLucy Stone with a week-long celebration as well as takingjournalism as it theme.

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MorePlaces toVisit Phillis Wheatley

by M. Robbins