The
Historical
Atlas of Massachusetts
©The
University of Massachusetts Press, 1991
Reprinted with permission
Reading
for 2/5/03 and 2/12/03
Introduction
Part I
"There
is not now and never has been a work on Massachusetts history
embracing the whole field of the experience of the state, either
chronologically or topically." So wrote Albert Bushnell Hart,
editor of the magisterial five-volume Commonwealth History
of Massachusetts, as he set out to remedy that oversight some
fifty years ago. Since that time there have been other attempts
to describe the people and events, ideas and institutions, that
have shaped the state's rich and varied past. Yet none has combined
the skills of the historian, the geographer, and the cartographer
to explore the totality of experiences embodied in the notion*
of a "commonwealth." Such is the goal of the Historical
Atlas of Massachusetts.
A
historical atlas is a blend of geography and history, the study
of the natural and cultural landscape and the study of the human
past. By join-ing these two disciplines, it seeks to illuminate
the interaction between people and their physical environment, showing how
the land shaped human history as well as how humans reshaped the
land. The desired result is a mosaic of people, places, and events
that provides a link between the seemingly remote past and the
ever-changing present.
The
last Massachusetts atlas was published in 1894, was not historical
in approach, and was a town by town location of geographic place
names. To render a vivid portrait of the state, the cartographers,
geog-raphers, and historians working on the Historical Atlas
of Massachusetts have used computer generated graphics, satellite
imagery, full color maps and illustrations, and photographs. Complementing
these more contemporary visual aids are a variety of historical
maps and other arti-facts that capture the spirit of times past.
The
chapter that follows introduces the contextual framework that
will be developed more fully in the rest of the volume. The first
section, entitled "The Historical Landscape," is devoted
to a chronological his-tory that identifies eight key periods
of change, beginning with Native American settlements and culminating
with the postindustrial service economy that evolved after 1950.
Rather than adopting a more traditional political approach, this
analysis focuses on the dynamic inter-change between human beings
and their environment: where and how people settled, how they
used the land and reshaped the landscape, how they generated economic
change. The second section explores a variety of political and
social topics: the state's political organization and history,
the status of women, ethnicity and race, demography, health care,
architecture, communications, transportation, energy, and the
unique story of the Quabbin Reservoir.
Throughout,
the Historical Atlas of Massachusetts interweaves past
and present to illuminate the forces of change that have transformed
not only the state but the nation as a whole.
OVERVIEW
The
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, true to the origins of its name,
part British, part Native American-has always been a land of contrast.
From early on the state's economy has been a mixture of agriculture,
fishing, and industry; its politics, a blend of conservatism and
radicalism; its cultural life, a potpourri of distinct ethnic
traditions. Yet perhaps nowhere is the state's rich diversity
more evident than in its geography-the physical setting that has
provided the context for the making of the Commonwealth's history.
Situated
at the intersection of several physical regions, Massachusetts
features a patchwork landscape of widely varied terrain: barren
beaches and fertile lowland valleys, rocky hills and thick woodlands,
freshwater lakes and tidal salt marshes. Much of that landscape
was shaped by the glaciers of the last ice age, which crossed
the region some 18,000 years ago. Cape Cod, protruding into the
Atlantic like a flexed arm, was cre-ated from the glaciers' terminal
moraine, as were the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Throughout
the Bay State, zones of transition abound. The state's 8,257 square
miles can be divided into 10 large ecological
regions, with 27 subregions. The rocky, sharply defined coastline
north of Boston dif-fers markedly from the beaches of Cape Cod,
where the sandy coastal ecology of the mid-Atlantic region ends
after more than 1,200 miles. The state's forest ecology reflects
the gradual shift from broad-leaved decid-uous trees that lose
their leaves in the fall to coniferous evergreens. The predominant
geological structure of the New England Appalachian mountains
was formed 400 to 350 million years ago, when plates of the earth's
crust collided. This collision was particularly severe in southern
New England, and in Massachusetts nine tightly constricted zones
of underlying geological structure exist in a width of only 200
miles. The collision was also responsible for the north-south
orientation of the state's mountains.
The
climate of the state is equally varied. Seasonal changes are extreme,
and even day-to-day weather is difficult to predict. Whereas most
of the North American continent has a climate that is affected
by a , small variety of air masses, Massachusetts is in a zone
of interacting air masses that converge on the region. Interaction
from these diverse storm paths from the colder continental interior
to the north and west and the warmer tropical regions to the south
and southeast produces a wide variety of storm types. Ocean
currents are partly responsible for the weather's variability.
Cold currents from the northern Labrador cur-rent meet the warmer
Gulf Stream currents from the south off the coast of southeastern
Massachusetts and Cape Cod. Because this area of the state extends
farther into the Atlantic Ocean than any other part of the United
States except Cape Hatteras, it is especially vulnerable to violent
coastal storms and hurricanes.
Within
this diverse and ever-changing environment, the people of Massachusetts
have created a distinctive way of life, at once steeped in tradition
and open to innovation. With its quaint colonial villages and
bustling modern cities, rolling farmlands and high-tech industrial
parks, Massachusetts is a place where past and present coexist-at
times harmoniously, at times uneasily—at the threshold of
the future.
The
Formation of Cities and Towns Beginning with the founding
of Plimoth Plantation in 1620, the colonial settlement of Massachusetts
proceeded steadily apace. Over time, 129 cities and towns had
been incorporated, and from these "parent communities"
an additional 222 cities and towns were formed. Many of the original
"parent communities" were much larger than they are
today. Among the largest were Plymouth, Duxbury, Taunton, Rehoboth,
Dorchester, Dedham, Lancaster, Rutland, Oxford, Brimfield, Deerfield,
Hadley, Springfield, and Sheffield. Hampden County, which today
has 23 cities and towns, originally included only five: Springfield,
Brimfield, Blandford, Chester, and Grandville. Springfield alone
comprised what would eventually become 14 different cities and
towns. In other parts of the Connecticut River Valley, in Norfolk
County, and in much of Worcester County, the situation was similar.
In fact, only on Cape Cod and in the far western part of the state
have many of the original town boundaries remained unchanged.
Names
on the Land The original
names of most places in Massachusetts were those given by
Native
Americans. Over the years the meanings of many of them have
been distorted or lost, but the place names themselves, with their
distinctive sound and rhythm, remain: Nantucket, Agawam, Saugus,
Housatonic, Chicopee, Scituate, and Quabbin.
The
name Massachusetts was taken from the Massachuset tribe of Indians
who lived near the Great Blue Hill in Milton. According to The
Origin of Massachusetts Place Names, compiled by the Writers'
Project of the WPA in the 1930s, the name was first applied to
the Charles River region around the time of John Smith's explorations
in 1614, and then to Boston Harbor by the Pilgrims in 1621. Subsequently
it was used to describe the entire bay between Cape Cod and Cape
Ann. The Massachusetts Bay Company was chartered 1629, and the
region around the bay was officially designated as the Massachusetts
Bay Colony.
After 1691 the colony became the Province of Massachusetts
and, later, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The names of all
but two of the 14 counties in the state had English origins. Half
were named for counties in England: Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire,
Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcester. English seaports accounted
for names of Barnstable, Bristol, and Plymouth counties,while
Dukes and Hampden counties were named after well-known Englishmen-the
duke of York and John Hampden. Franklin County in western Massachusetts
was named for Boston-born Benjamin Franklin. Only one county,
Nantucket, received a Native American name.
The
accompanying map of cities and towns identifies the 351 units
and groups them into nine categories. Names of English cities,
towns, and counties account for 106 of the total, about one-third,
while 80 are named for distinguished Americans or local settlers,
52 for famous Englishmen, and 33 for geographical features. In
addition, 32 towns are named for other communities in Massachusetts
(e.g., New Salem, East Brookfield) and 17 for places elsewhere
(e.g., Peru, Florida, Berlin); 15 have Native American names (e.g.,
Cohasset, Natick, Seekonk, Mashpee); and 14 are named after other
things (e.g., Blandford, the boat that brought Governor Shirley
in 173 1). Two, Norwell and Rowe, are unknown.
Population
The U.S. Bureau of the Census estimated that 70,000 people
lived in Massachusetts by 1700 and that they represented about
a quarter (25.5%) of the population of British Colonial America.
Although the state's population has continued to rise significantly,
its proportion of the total population has declined: 125,000 in
1730 (19%); 238,195 in the first colonial census in 1765 (14%);
378,787 in the first U.S. census in 1790 (10%); 994,514 in 1850
(4.3%); 2,805,346 in 1900 (3.7%); 4,690,514 in 1950 (3.1%); and
an estimated 5,890,000 in 1988 (2.4%).Massachusetts
and Rhode Island led the nation in the growth of their urban population
in the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1850 these two
states were more than 50 percent urban. (The United States did
not become that urban until 1920.) Urban population in the Bay
State rose to 66.7 percent by 1870, 82 percent by 1890, and peaked
at 90.2 percent in 1930. In 1980 the urban population had declined
to 83.8 percent because many people moved to rural communities,
commuting to cities to work. This shift is illustrated on the
two population cartograms for 1930
and 1980
that are used to introduce the theme for the atlas as a whole.
Map Note: The population cartograms illustrate
population distribution of the state¹s cities and towns for
1930, when the state was 90% urban, and 1980. Cartograms combine
the locational qualities of maps with the proportional scaling
of data found in graphs. The size or volume of each city or town
is based upon its population rather than its actual physical size.
A conscious effort was made to keep neighboring cities and towns
in their relative locations although the resultant map appears
distorted. The advantage of the cartogram is that it highlights
the data for the map reader. As the cartograms and standards base
map above illustrate, data displayed on a standard map can mask
important socioeconomic or political facts. The cartogram for
1930 shows the almost total dominance of the state by a few large
cities. The 1980 cartogram shows that the population of the state
had increased from 4,249,614 to 5,737,637 (35%) but that Boston
and most major cities lost population. The cities are still important,
but the relative growth of
the suburban communities and on Cape Cod is increasingly significant.
Spirit
of Place To the lifelong resident no less than to the occasional
visitor, mention of Massachusetts is likely to conjure up any
number of images. To some the state is chiefly notable for the
legacy of its colonial past and its central role in the birth
of the nation. For such people, Massachusetts is the home of Lexington
and Concord, redcoats and minutemen, the Sons of Liberty and the
founding fathers. Others think of the state primarily as a center
of commerce, medicine, culture, and learning-the Massachusetts
of Boston Brahmins and Cambridge intellectuals, of Emerson, Melville,
and Thoreau. Still others associate the state with its climate
and geography, from the serene beauty of Cape Cod in the summer
to the stunning vibrance of the Berkshires in the fall.
Which,
then, is the real Massachusetts? Is it the land of the small town
common and "yeoman" Yankee farmers? Is it the world
of the Gloucester and New Bedford whalers and the China "clipper"
trade? Or is it the home of urban factory towns and the birthplace
of the American industrial revolution? As this historical atlas
attempts to show, it is all of the above and none in particular-a
place where tradition thrives in the midst of innovation, and
continuity persists in the midst of change.