1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Historic districts in the United States
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Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts greatly vary in size, some have hundreds of structures, the U. S. federal government designates historic districts through the United States Department of Interior under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, state-level historic districts may follow similar criteria or may require adherence to certain historic rehabilitation standards. Local historic district designation offers, by far, the most legal protection for historic properties because most land use decisions are made at the local level, local districts are generally administered by the county or municipal government. The first U. S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, Charleston city government designated an Old and Historic District by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission, other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955. The Supreme Court case validated the protection of resources as an entirely permissible governmental goal. In 1966 the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from rootlessness. By the 1980s there were thousands of federally designated historic districts, Historic districts are generally two types of properties, contributing and non-contributing. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context, in addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories. They are, building, structure, site, district and object, all but the eponymous district category are also applied to historic districts listed on the National Register. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district, however, the Register is an honorary status with some federal financial incentives. The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U. S. federal law, a district may also comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history. Districts established under U. S. federal guidelines generally begin the process of designation through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the National Register is the official recognition by the U. S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, if the federal government is not involved, then the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. If, however, company A was under federal contract the Smith House would be protected, a federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation. Usually, the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, however, if a property falls into one of those categories and are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria then an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic district listings, like all National Register nominations, can be rejected on the basis of owner disapproval, in the case of historic districts, a majority of owners must object in order to nullify a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
3.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
4.
Battle of Bunker Hill
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The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17,1775, during the Siege of Boston in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts and it was the original objective of both the colonial and British troops, though the majority of combat took place on the adjacent Breeds Hill. In response,1,200 colonial troops under the command of William Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill, during the night, the colonists constructed a strong redoubt on Breeds Hill, as well as smaller fortified lines across the Charlestown Peninsula. By daybreak of June 17, the British became aware of the presence of forces on the Peninsula. Two assaults on the positions were repulsed with significant British casualties. The colonists retreated to Cambridge over Bunker Hill, leaving the British in control of the Peninsula, the battle had demonstrated that inexperienced militia were able to stand up to regular army troops in battle. Subsequently, the battle discouraged the British from any further attacks against well defended front lines. American casualties were much fewer, although their losses included General Joseph Warren and Major Andrew McClary. Their new approach to battle was actually giving the Americans greater opportunity to retreat if defeat was imminent, the costly engagement also convinced the British of the need to hire substantial numbers of foreign mercenaries to bolster their strength in the face of the new and formidable Continental Army. Boston, situated on a peninsula, was protected from close approach by the expanses of water surrounding it. In the aftermath of the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19,1775, the militia, a force of about 15,000 men had surrounded the town. Under the command of Artemas Ward, they controlled the land access to Boston itself. The British troops, a force of about 6,000 under the command of General Thomas Gage, occupied the city, in theory, they were thus able to remain in Boston indefinitely. However, the land across the water from Boston contained a number of hills, if the militia could obtain enough artillery pieces, these could be placed on the hills and used to bombard the city until the occupying army evacuated it or surrendered. It was with this in mind that the Knox Expedition, led by Henry Knox, the Charlestown Peninsula, lying to the north of Boston, started from a short, narrow isthmus at its northwest, extending about 1 mile southeastward into Boston Harbor. Bunker Hill, with an elevation of 110 feet, lay at the end of the peninsula. Breeds Hill, at a height of 62 feet, was more southerly, the town of Charlestown occupied flats at the southern end of the peninsula. At its closest approach, less than 1,000 feet separated the Charlestown Peninsula from the Boston Peninsula, throughout May, in response to orders from Gage requesting support, the British received reinforcements, until they reached a strength of about 6,000 men
5.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
6.
Obelisk
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An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians, the Greeks who saw them used the Greek obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic, that is, they consist of a single stone, though this technological capacity exists today, most modern obelisks are made of several stones, some, like the Washington Monument, are buildings. The term stele is used for other monumental, upright. Obelisks were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. The word obelisk as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, a number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the Unfinished Obelisk found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan. These obelisks are now dispersed around the world, and fewer than half of them remain in Egypt, the earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the 68-foot 120-metric-ton red granite Obelisk of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Al-Matariyyah in modern Heliopolis. The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten. It was also thought that the god existed within the structure, Benben was the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu upon which the creator god Atum settled in the creation story of the Heliopolitan creation myth form of Ancient Egyptian religion. The Benben stone is the top stone of the Egyptian pyramid and it is also related to the Obelisk. The pyramid and obelisk might have inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset. The Ancient Romans were strongly influenced by the form, to the extent that there are now more than twice as many obelisks standing in Rome as remain in Egypt. All fell after the Roman period except for the Vatican obelisk and were re-erected in different locations. The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square at the west side of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet tall, not all the Egyptian obelisks in the Roman Empire were set up at Rome. Herod the Great imitated his Roman patrons and set up a red granite Egyptian obelisk in the hippodrome of his new city Caesarea in northern Judea and this one is about 40 feet tall and weighs about 100 metric tons. It was discovered by archaeologists and has been re-erected at its former site and this one stood 95 feet tall and weighing 380 metric tons. Its lower half reputedly also once stood in Istanbul but is now lost, the Istanbul obelisk is 65 feet tall. Rome is the capital of the world
7.
Quincy, Massachusetts
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Quincy is the largest city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of Metropolitan Boston and is Bostons immediate southern suburb. Its population in 2010 was 92,271, making it the 8th largest city in the state, first settled in 1625, Quincy was briefly part of Dorchester and Boston before becoming the north precinct of Braintree in 1640. In 1792, Quincy was split off from Braintree, the new town was named after Colonel John Quincy, maternal grandfather of Abigail Adams, Quincy became a city in 1888. For more than a century, Quincy was home to a thriving industry, the city was also the site of the Granite Railway. Shipbuilding at the Fore River Shipyard was another key part of the citys economy, in the 20th century, both Howard Johnsons and Dunkin Donuts were founded in the city. It was visited in 1621 by Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish and Squanto, four years later, a party led by Captain Wollaston established a post on a low hill near the south shore of Quincy Bay east of present-day Blacks Creek. The settlers found the area suitable for farming, as Chickatawbut and this settlement was named Mount Wollaston in honor of the leader, who left the area soon after 1625, bound for Virginia. The Wollaston neighborhood in Quincy still retains Captain Wollastons name, upon the departure of Wollaston, Thomas Morton took over leadership of the post, and the settlement proceeded to gain a reputation for debauchery with Indian women and drunkenness. In 1627, Morton was arrested by Standish for violating the code of conduct in a way harmful to the colony and he was sent back to England, only to return and be arrested by Puritans the next year. The area of Quincy now called Merrymount is located on the site of the original English settlement of 1625, the area was first incorporated as part of Dorchester in 1630 and was briefly annexed by Boston in 1634. The area became Braintree in 1640, bordered along the coast of Massachusetts Bay by Dorchester to the north and Weymouth to the east, beginning in 1708, the modern border of Quincy first took shape as the North Precinct of Braintree. Following the American Revolution, Quincy was officially incorporated as a town named for Col. John Quincy in 1792. In 1845 the Old Colony Railroad opened, the Massachusetts Historical Commission stated that the railroad was the beginning of a trend toward suburbanization, Quincy became as accessible to Boston as was Charlestown. The first suburban land company, Bellevue Land Co. had been organized in northern Quincy in 1870, Quincys population grew by over 50 percent during the 1920s. Among the citys several firsts was the Granite Railway, the first commercial railroad in the United States, Quincy granite became famous throughout the nation, and stonecutting became the citys principal economic activity. Quincy was also home to the first iron furnace in the United States, in the 1870s, the city gave its name to the Quincy Method, an influential approach to education developed by Francis W. Parker while he served as Quincys superintendent of schools. Parker, a proponent of progressive education, put his ideas into practice in the citys underperforming schools, four years later
8.
William Prescott
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William Prescott was an American colonel in the Revolutionary War who commanded the rebel forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It is debated whether Prescott or someone earlier coined this memorable saying, Prescott was born in Groton, Massachusetts, when East Pepperell was considered Groton, to Benjamin Prescott and Abigail Oliver Prescott. He married Abigail Hale on April 13,1758, and they had one child, Prescott owned a house in Pepperell, Massachusetts, on Prescott Street. Prescott served in the militia in King Georges War where he served in the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg under William Pepperrell. He may have played a role in the naming of the town of Pepperell, Massachusetts, in 1755, when the French and Indian War widened, he saw action at the Battle of Fort Beausejour. He turned down an offer to join the British Army for his service in that war, in 1774, when Massachusetts towns began forming militia companies, Prescott was made a colonel commanding the Pepperell company. The alarm that was raised on the evening of April 18,1775, Prescott immediately alerted the companies of Pepperell, Hollis, and Groton, and rode toward Concord. The companies arrived too late to participate in the days battles, the actual defenses were built on Breeds Hill, as it was lower and closer to the harbor. The British began firing from the ship Lively at 4 a. m. in spirited battle, Prescotts men twice threw back British assaults on the redoubt. When the British made an attempt, his men were almost out of ammunition, after an initial volley. He was one of the last men to leave the redoubt, while the British successfully captured Bunker Hill, the poorly organized colonial forces inflicted significant casualties, and the British were unable to capitalize their victory. They lost 50 percent of the commanded by General Howe. Prescott is widely seen as having played a key role in the battle, when the Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army it sent George Washington to take command of the forces besieging Boston. Prescott received a commission, and his unit became the 7th Continental Regiment. The regiment saw service in the 1776 defense of New York. S and his departure from military service may have been due to injuries sustained in an accident on his farm. Prescott served in the Massachusetts General Court in later years and he also served in the militia called out in 1786 to suppress Shays Rebellion. His brother Oliver Prescott was said to be influential in the suppression of that outbreak, William died in 1795 in Pepperell and is buried there in Walton Cemetery, surrounded by the graves of Pepperell men he led at Bunker Hill. Prescotts likeness was made into a statue for a memorial for the Battle of Bunker Hill, the former town of Prescott, Massachusetts, was named in his honor
9.
Israel Putnam
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Israel Putnam was an American army general officer, popularly known as Old Put, who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War. His reckless courage and fighting spirit became known far beyond Connecticuts borders through the circulation of folk legends in the American colonies and states celebrating his exploits. He had previously served notably as an officer with Rogers Rangers during the French and Indian War and he was saved from the ritual burning given to enemies by intervention of a French officer, with whom the Mohawk were allied. Israel Putnam was born in 1718 in Salem Village, Massachusetts to Joseph and Elizabeth Putnam and his parents opposed the Salem witch trials. One of her sisters was also executed in the hysteria of the time, Putnam married twice, first to Hannah Pope in 1739, the mother of his children. Two years after her death in 1765, he married Deborah Lothrop, in 1740 at the age of 22, the young Putnam moved west to Mortlake, where land was cheaper and easier for young men to buy. According to oral tradition, Putnam killed the last wolf in Connecticut in 1743 with the help of a group of farmers from Mortlake seeking to safeguard their sheep. The tradition describes Putnam crawling into a den with a torch, a musket, while in the den, he allegedly killed the she-wolf. A section of the Mashamoquet Brook State Park including the den in modern-day Pomfret is named Wolf Den, the name Wolf Den Road in adjacent Brooklyn, Connecticut also attests to the days of wolves. Putnam took part in the French and Indian War as a member of Rogers Rangers and he was promoted to captain in 1756 and to major in 1758. In 1757, the Rangers were stationed on an island off Fort Edward, the following February, Putnam and his Rangers were still on Rogers Island when fire broke out in the row of barracks nearest the magazine. In spite of his wounds, he continued to fight the fire. He was laid up for a due to burns and exposure. Putnam was captured on August 8,1758 by the Kahnawake Indians from a settlement south of Montreal during a military campaign near Crown Point in New York. He was saved from being burned alive by a rain storm. In 1759, Putnam led a regiment into The Valley of Death in the attack on Fort Carillon, in 1762, he survived a shipwreck during the British expedition against Cuba that led to the capture of Havana. Major Putnam is believed to have brought back Cuban tobacco seeds to New England and this reportedly resulted in the development of the renowned Connecticut Wrapper. In 1763 during Pontiacs Rebellion, Putnam was sent with reinforcements to relieve Pontiacs siege of Fort Detroit and he returned to Brooklyn, Connecticut to settle
10.
John Stark
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John Stark was a New Hampshire native who served as an officer in the British Army during the French and Indian war and a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He became widely known as the Hero of Bennington for his service at the Battle of Bennington in 1777. John Stark was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1728 and his father was born in Glasgow, Scotland to parents who were from Wiltshire, England, who met his wife when he moved to Derry in Ireland. When he was eight years old, he and his moved to Derryfield. Stark was married to Elizabeth Molly Page, with whom he had 11 children including his eldest son Caleb Stark, while a prisoner of the Abenaki, he and his fellow prisoner Amos Eastman were made to run a gauntlet of warriors armed with sticks. Stark grabbed the stick from the first warriors hands and proceeded to attack him, the chief was so impressed by this heroic act that Stark was adopted into the tribe, where he spent the winter. Alternatively, in The Invasion Within, Axtell describes how colonists were often abducted by Indians, the following spring a government agent sent from the Province of Massachusetts Bay to work on the exchange of prisoners paid his ransom of $103 Spanish dollars and $60 for Amos Eastman. Stark and Eastman then returned to New Hampshire safely, Stark served as a second lieutenant under Major Robert Rogers during the French and Indian War. His brother William Stark served beside him in Rogers Rangers, as a member of the daring Rogers Rangers, Stark gained valuable combat experience and a detailed knowledge of the northern frontier of the American colonies. While serving with the rangers in 1757, Stark went on a scouting mission toward Fort Carillon in which the rangers were ambushed, General Jeffery Amherst, in 1759 ordered Rogers Rangers to journey from Lake George to the Abenaki village of St. Francis, deep in Quebec. The Rangers went north and attacked the Indian town, Stark, Rogers second-in-command of all ranger companies, refused to accompany the attacking force out of respect for his Indian foster-parents residing there. He returned to New Hampshire to his wife, whom he had married the previous year, at the end of the war, Stark retired as a captain and returned to Derryfield, New Hampshire. The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19,1775, signaled the start of the American Revolutionary War, as soon as Stark could muster his men, he ferried and marched them south to Boston to support the blockaded rebels there. He made his headquarters in the confiscated Isaac Royall House in Medford, on June 16, the rebels, fearing a preemptive British attack on their positions in Cambridge and Roxbury, decided to take and hold Breeds Hill, a high point on the Charlestown peninsula near Boston. On the night of the 16th, American troops moved into position on the heights, as dawn approached, lookouts on HMS Lively, a 20-gun sloop of war noticed the activity and the sloop opened fire on the rebels and the works in progress. This in turn drew the attention of the British admiral, who demanded to know what the Lively was shooting at, subsequent to that, the entire British squadron opened fire. He ordered Major General William Howe to prepare to land his troops, thus began the Battle of Bunker Hill. American Col. William Prescott held the hill throughout the initial bombardment with only a few hundred American militia
11.
Daniel Webster
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Daniel Webster was an American politician who twice served in the United States House of Representatives, representing New Hampshire and Massachusetts, served as a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts and was twice the United States Secretary of State, under Presidents William Henry Harrison and John Tyler and he and James G. Blaine were the only two people to serve as Secretary of State under three presidents. Webster also sought the Whig Party nomination for President three times, in 1836,1840 and 1852. As a diplomat he is best known for negotiating the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842 with Great Britain, Webster was an outstanding spokesman for American nationalism with powerful oratory that made him a key Whig leader. He spoke for conservatives and led the opposition to Democrat Andrew Jackson and he was a spokesman for modernization, banking, and industry, but not for the common people who composed the base of his opponents in Jacksonian democracy. He was a thoroughgoing elitist, and he reveled in it, chiefly recognized for his Senate tenure, Webster was a key figure in the institutions Golden days. Webster was the Northern member of the Great Triumvirate, with his colleagues Henry Clay from the West and his Reply to Hayne in 1830 has been regarded as one of the greatest speeches in the Senates history. As with his fellow Whig Henry Clay, Webster wanted to see the Union preserved and they both worked for compromises to stave off the sectionalism that threatened war between the North and the South. Websters support for the Compromise of 1850, devised in part by Clay, in 1957, a Senate committee selected Webster as one of the five greatest U. S. Senators with Clay, Calhoun, Robert La Follette, and Robert A. Taft, Daniel Webster was born on January 18,1782, in Salisbury, New Hampshire, the present-day city of Franklin. He was the son of Abigail and Ebenezer Webster and he and his nine siblings grew up on their parents farm, a small parcel of land granted to his father. His ancestors were among the settlers of Salisbury. Webster attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a school in Exeter. He was chosen Fourth of July orator in Hanover, the town, in 1800. After he graduated from Dartmouth, Webster was apprenticed to the lawyer Thomas W. Thompson in Salisbury, in 1802 Webster began as the headmaster of the Fryeburg Academy, Maine, where he served for one year. When Ezekiels education could no longer be sustained, Webster returned to his apprenticeship, in 1804 he left New Hampshire and got a position in Boston under the prominent attorney Christopher Gore. Clerking for Gore – who was involved in international, national, in 1805 Webster was admitted to the bar. He returned to New Hampshire to set up a practice in Boscawen and he began to speak locally in support of Federalist causes and candidates
12.
George Ticknor
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George Ticknor was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature. Ticknor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1805 George entered the junior class at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1807. During the next three years he studied Latin and Greek with Rev. Dr John Sylvester John Gardiner, rector of Trinity Church, Boston, in 1810 Ticknor began the study of law, and he was admitted to the bar in 1813. He opened an office in Boston, but practiced for one year, satisfying himself that his vocation, or at least his taste. Ticknor was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts, in 1817, while still in Europe, he became Smith professor of French and Spanish languages and literatures, and professor of belles-lettres at Harvard University. In 1819 he returned to the United States, bringing him a valuable library. This in time grew to be one of the largest private collections in the country and this is especially true of the collection of Spanish literature, which rivaled the best private ones in Europe. And it was strong in Portuguese literature as well. He suggested valuable improvements in the system of discipline, for which he had derived the hints from the German universities and he also entered into a critical analysis of such writers as Dante, Goethe, Milton, and Shakespeare. Ticknor moved into half of the built by Thomas Amory at the corner of Beacon and Park Streets in 1829. In 1835 he resigned his chair after holding it for 15 years and his successor, in 1836, in the professorship at Harvard was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Both Friedrich Bouterwek and Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi had worked with limited or secondhand resources, Ticknor developed in his college lectures the scheme of his more permanent work, which he published as the History of Spanish Literature. The book is not merely a story of Spanish letters, but, more broadly, of Spanish civilization, the History is exhaustive and exact in scholarship, and direct and unpretentious in style. It gives many illustrative passages from representative works, and copious bibliographical references and it was soon translated into Spanish by Pascual de Gayangos y Arce and de Vedia, into French by Magnabal, and German by Nikolaus Heinrich Julius and Ferdinand Wolf. He was especially active in the establishment of the Boston Public Library, and served in 1852 –1866 on its board of trustees, of which he was president in 1865. On its behalf he spent fifteen months abroad in 1856 –1857, at his own expense, and to it he gave at various times money and books, a special feature of his plan was a free circulating department. He also left his own collection of books to the Boston Public Library, Amory-Ticknor House History of Spanish literature
