Boston Latin Academy (BLA) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

exam school founded in 1878 in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

providing students in grades 7th through 12th a classical preparatory education. Originally named Girls' Latin School, it became the first college preparatory high school for girls in the United States.

Coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

since 1972, the school is located in the Roxbury neighborhood of

and is part of

Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a superintendent, hired by t ...

(BPS).

History

Boston Latin Academy (BLA) was established on November 27, 1877 as Girls' Latin School (GLS). The school was founded with the intention to give a

classical education Classical education refers to a long-standing tradition of pedagogy that traces its roots back to ancient Greece and Rome, where the foundations of Western intellectual and cultural life were laid. At its core, classical education is centered on t ...

and college preparatory training to girls. A plan to admit girls to Public Latin School was formed by an executive committee of the Massachusetts Society for the University Education of Women. Henry Fowle Durant, founder of

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

and an advocate of higher education for women, was instrumental in outlining the legal route for the school to be established. A petition with a thousand signatures was presented to the School Board in September 1877. The board referred the question to the subcommittee on high schools. Ultimately the subcommittee recommended that a separate school for girls be established. John Tetlow was unanimously elected by the School Committee on January 22, 1878 as its first headmaster. On February 4, 1878, Tetlow accepted the first thirty-seven students. Girls' Latin School opened on West Newton Street in Boston's South End on February 12, 1878 sharing the building with Girls' High School. The thirty-seven students were divided according to aptitude into three classes; the Sixth, Fifth, and Third class. The first graduating class in 1880 included Alice M. Mills, Charlotte W. Rogers, Vida D. Scudder, Mary L. Mason, Alice S. Rollins, and Miriam S. Witherspoon; all six were accepted to

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

. In 1888, Abbie Farwell Brown, Sybil Collar, and Virginia Holbrook decided to create a school newspaper. The name ''Jabberwock'' was picked from a list that Abbie Farwell Brown submitted. It was taken from "

Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a Nonsense verse, nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' ...

", the famous nonsense poem written by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

in '' Through the Looking Glass''. They wrote to Lewis Carroll in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

about the name and received a handwritten letter giving them permission for its use. The ''Jabberwock'' is one of the oldest school newspapers in the United States. With the number of students growing each year, in 1898 the school committee moved the first four classes to a building in

Copley Square Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Squ ...

while the rest remained in the older building. In 1907, the school moved into a new building, shared with the

Boston Normal School Boston State College was a normal school from 1852 to 1872 and a public university from 1872 to 1982 in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was merged into the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1982. History Boston State College' ...

. Girls' Latin School expanded from approximately 421 students in 1907 to 1,350 students in 1955. The City of Boston had turned over the entirety of the campus to the state in 1952, and when State Teachers College at Boston (the former Normal School) expanded, Girls' Latin School was forced to relocate to the former Dorchester High School for Girls building located in Codman Square. In 1972, boys were admitted for the first time to Girls' Latin School. The school name was changed in 1975 and the first graduating class of Boston Latin Academy was in 1977. In 1981, Latin Academy moved back into the Fenway area, this time to Ipswich Street, across from

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...

. It remained there until the summer of 1991, when it moved again, this time to its present location in the former Roxbury Memorial and Boston Technical High School building, located on Townsend St. in Roxbury. In 2001, Boston Latin Academy became the first high school to form an official Eastern Massachusetts High School Red Cross Club. The club is one of the biggest in the school with over 100 members. Latin Academy's Red Cross Club is also one of the biggest high school Red Cross Club in Eastern Massachusetts. 94% of its graduating students go on to attend four-year colleges. In 2010 Boston Latin Academy received a Silver Medal as one of the top public high schools in the nation by '' U.S. News & World Report''.

Locations

Heads of School

The title of the school's chief administrator was changed from "Headmaster" to "Head of School" during the 2020–2021 school year. * John Tetlow (1878–1910) * Ernest J. Hapgood (1910–1948) * Louis A. McCoy (1948–1957) * Thomas F. Gately (1957–1965) * William T. Miller (1965–1966) * Margaret C. Carroll (1966–1978) * M. Louise Dooley (acting, 1978–1979) * Christopher Lane (1979–1981) * Douglas Foster (1981–1983) * Robert Binswanger (1983–1991) * Maria Garcia-Aaronson (1991–2009) * Emilia Pastor (2010–2014; 2014–2015) * Richard Sullivan (acting, 2014) * Troy Henninger (2015–2017) * Chimdi Uchendu (2017–2020) * Gerald Howland (acting, 2020–2021) * Gavin Smith (2021–present)

Notable alumni

''Known class year listed. Non-graduate alumni noted as NG.''

Academia, science and technology

* Thelma Shoher Baker (1941) – educator and anthropologist * G. Yvonne Young (later Clark) (1947) – female engineering pioneer working at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

* Helen F. Cullen (1936) – mathematician *

Anna Parker Fessenden Anna Parker Fessenden (April 8, 1896 – May 3, 1972) was an American botanist and mathematics educator. Early life and education Anna Parker Fessenden was born in Thomaston, Maine, and raised in Mattapan, Massachusetts, the middle of three ...

(1914) – botanist and mathematics educator * Mary Welleck Garretson (1914) – geology teacher, paleontology and stratigraphy consultant. * Deborah Tepper Haimo (1939) – mathematician * Barbara Gould Henry (1949) – taught

Ruby Bridges Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African American child to attend formerly whites-only William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school deseg ...

, the first African-American child to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, alone in a classroom guarded by Federal Marshals. *

Catherine McArdle Kelleher Catherine McArdle Kelleher (January 19, 1939 – February 15, 2023) was an American political scientist involved in national and international security policy. She was Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown Unive ...

(1956) – political scientist * Maud Worcester Makemson (1908) – astronomer, director of

Vassar Observatory The Vassar College Observatory is an astronomical observatory of the private Vassar College, located near the eastern edge of the Poughkeepsie, New York college's campus. Finished in 1865, it was the first building on the college's campus, older ...

* Marie Mercury (1941) – chemist * Martha Jane Bergin (1942) – chemical engineer * Dorothy Quiggle (1922) –

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Chemical Engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

BSc, MSc,

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

PhD and professor of chemical engineering. * Rose Rosengard (1959) – musicologist * Evelyn Shakir (1956) – academic and author * Barbara Miller Solomon (1936) – historian, first woman associate dean at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Business

Nathan Blecharczyk Nathan Blecharczyk /blə'ʃɑrzɪk/ (born 1983) is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Airbnb, and chairman of Airbnb China. Blecharczyk was also the company's first chief technology officer. Blecharczyk is the 203rd richest person in ...

(2001) – co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

* Edith Nason Buckingham (NG) – first woman to earn a Ph.D. in zoology at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

Arts and music

* Eunice Alberts (1940) – opera singer *

Louise Bogan Louise Bogan ( – ) was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title.. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, and criticism, and became the ...

(NG) – poet *

Lorraine O'Grady Lorraine O'Grady (September 21, 1934 – December 13, 2024) was an American artist, writer, translator, and critic. Working in conceptual art and performance art that integrates photo and video installation, she explored the cultural construct ...

(1952) – conceptual and performance artist *

Josephine Preston Peabody Josephine Preston Peabody (May 30, 1874 – December 4, 1922) was an American poet and dramatist. Biography Peabody was born in New York and educated at the Girls' Latin School, Boston, and at Radcliffe College. She also participated in Geor ...

(ca. 1892) – poet and dramatist

Athletics

Senda Berenson Abbott Senda Berenson Abbott (March 19, 1868 – February 16, 1954) was a figure of women's basketball and the author of the first Basketball Guide for Women (1901–07). She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor on July 1, 198 ...

(NG) – women's basketball pioneer and member of

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's bask ...

* Barbara Polk Washburn (1931) – first woman to climb

Denali Denali (), federally designated as Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak on land, measuring . On p. 20 of Helm ...

(Mount McKinley)

Film, television and theatre

* Florence Fowle Adams (ca. 1881) – dramatic reader, actor, and teacher *

Susan Batson Susan Batson is an American Film producer, producer, actress, author, coaching, acting coach, and a life member of the Actors Studio. Batson graduated from Boston Latin Academy, Girls Latin School and Emerson College. One of three sisters born t ...

(NG) – producer, actress and author *

Esther Howard Esther Howard (April 4, 1892 – March 8, 1965) was an American stage and film character actress who played a wide range of supporting roles, from man-hungry spinsters to amoral criminals, appearing in 108 films in her 23-year screen care ...

(1911) – actress

Writers and journalists

* Abbie Farwell Brown (1891) – writer * Uri Berenguer (2001) – radio broadcaster * Mary Caroline Crawford (1903) – author, social worker and suffragist * Norma Holzmann (1926) – writer and poet * Theodora Kimball Hubbard (1904) – Author *

Mary McGrory Mary McGrory (August 22, 1918 – April 20, 2004) was an American journalist and columnist. She specialized in American politics, and was noted for her detailed coverage of political maneuverings. She wrote over 8,000 columns, but no books, ...

(1935) –

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

winning journalist on

Nixon's Enemies List "Nixon's Enemies List" is the informal name of what started as a list of President of the United States Richard Nixon's major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell (assistant to Colson, special counsel to th ...

. * Carol Natelson Newsom (1964) – photojournist * Sarah-Ann Shaw (1952) – journalist and Boston's first Black female TV reporter * Dorothy West –

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

author

Government and diplomacy

* Eileen R. Donovan (1932) – Educator, diplomat, and U.S. Ambassador to Barbados

Judiciary and law

* Patti B. Saris (1969) – Chief Judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose Jurisdiction (area), territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth (U.S. state), C ...

Medicine

* Hannah Myrick (1892) – physician, superintendent of New England Hospital for Women and Children

Politicians

* Daniel J. Hunt (1999) – member of

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

from the 13th Suffolk district * Alice Koerner Wolf (1951) – mayor of

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

and member of the

from 1996 to 2013, representing the 25th Middlesex District.

Activists

Ruth Batson Ruth Marion Batson (née Watson; 1921–2003) was an American civil rights activist and outspoken advocate of equal education. She spoke out about the desegregation of Boston Public Schools. She served as Chairman of the Public Education Sub-Comm ...

(1939) – civil rights activist, executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) * Ellen Swepson Jackson (NG) – pioneer of Boston school desegregation

Other

Ida Shaw Martin Sarah Ida Shaw Martin (September 7, 1867 – May 11, 1940) was an American author, publisher, educator, and sorority founder. She founded the Delta Delta Delta sorority and was the author of ''The Sorority Handbook.'' She served as national presid ...

– Founder of the Delta Delta Delta sorority

Athletics

Latin Academy offers a wide variety of sports. The team nickname is Dragons, analogous to the original school mascot the Jabberwock. * Baseball * Basketball (boys) * Basketball (girls) * Cheerleading * Football * Indoor Track * Hockey (boys) * Hockey (girls) * Outdoor Track * Soccer (boys) * Soccer (girls) * Softball * Swimming * Tennis (boys) * Tennis (girls) * Track * Volleyball (boys) * Volleyball (girls) * Wrestling

References

External links

Boston Latin Academy official website

Girls' Latin School Alumnae Association

Boston Public Schools' Profile PDF for Boston Latin Academy

Records of the Girls' Latin School/Boston Latin Academy Association, 1883-2017: A Finding Aid.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Papers of Lucile Lord-Heinstein, 1895-1977: A Finding Aid.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Papers of Natalie Walker Linderholm, 1900-1984: A Finding Aid.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{authority control 1877 establishments in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1877 High schools in Boston Middle schools in Boston Preparatory schools in Massachusetts Public middle schools in Massachusetts Public high schools in Massachusetts Public preparatory schools in the United States Women's education in Massachusetts

History

Locations

Heads of School

Notable alumni

Academia, science and technology

Business

Arts and music

Athletics

Film, television and theatre

Writers and journalists

Government and diplomacy

Judiciary and law

Medicine

Politicians

Activists

Other

Athletics

See also

References

External links