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Boston Women's Heritage Trail
BB25: Statues and Easter Parade
Commonwealth Avenue Mall
The Commonwealth Avenue Mall is worth exploring as a loop off of the Back Bay Walk. Three of the Mall's statues were created by women: historian Samuel Eliot Morison by Penelope Jencks (near Exeter Street); Argentine president Domingo Sarmiento by Yvette Compagnion (near Gloucester Street); and Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson by Anne Whitney (see B16) (near Charlesgate). The bust of Boston Mayor Patrick Collins (near Clarendon Street) was created by Theo Ruggles Kitson and her husband, Henry Hudson Kitson. The Collins statue is flanked by two women, one symbolic of Ireland, his birthplace, and the other of America. A women's memorial statue is being planned for the space between Fairfield and Gloucester Streets. Current plans call for it to represent three women: American Revolution-era correspondent Abigail Adams (see D13), suffragist Lucy Stone (see D6), and poet Phillis Wheatley (see C5 and D19). Julia Oliver O'Neil (1909-1978) and her ten daughters became famous in the Commonwealth Avenue Easter Parade. Every year, between 1940 and 1959, she made matching outfits for her daughters and their picture was printed in journals and newspapers all over the world.

BB26: Harriet Hemenway and the
Massachusetts Audubon Society

273 Clarendon Street (now Hale House)
Hale House, a residential care facility for the elderly, was the home of Harriet Lawrence Hemenway (1858-1960), who in 1896 founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society with her cousin, Minna Hall (1851-1941). They were protesting the slaughter of birds for feathers to ornament women's hats. It was estimated that five million American birds of about 50 species were being killed annually for this purpose. Hemenway and Hall invited groups of women to tea and convinced about 900 of them to give up wearing feathered hats. Their next move was to invite some prominent men to join them to start the Audubon Society with a goal of protecting birds. Although national legislation took a little longer, by 1897 Massachusetts had passed a bill outlawing trade in wild bird feathers. image
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BB27: Simmons College
Graduate School of Social Work

51 Commonwealth Avenue
The Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work, founded in 1904, was the first school of social work to be affiliated with an institution of higher learning. When Simmons College was established as a women's college in 1899, Henry LeFavour, the first president, explained that the college hoped to prepare young women to earn their own livings. On the right, the Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work at 51 Commonwealth Avenue. To its left is 49 Commonwealth, the site of the Prince School of Salesmanship in the late 1940s.Recognizing that the college's goal was controversial, he explained: "Whether society ought to be constituted so that women should not need to earn their own living is a debatable question, but it is evident that the trend of society is now in the other direction." When the college opened, it offered training in household economics, secretarial studies, library science, and general science. The household economics course developed out of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union's School of Housekeeping (see BB1). Social work was added next, followed by salesmanship and public health nursing. The salesmanship program -- officially, the Prince School of Education for Store Service -- also developed out of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. Founded in 1905 by Lucinda W. Prince (1862-1935), the program became so popular that Prince soon teamed up with Simmons College to offer teacher training courses for her instructors. By 1915, the program was given its own name - the Prince School of Salesmanship - and it was administered jointly by Simmons and the Union. By 1918, Simmons assumed complete responsibility for the school which was located at 49 Commonwealth Avenue (next to the School of Social Work) in the late 1940s. The Simmons College main campus is located on The Fenway. It offers an undergraduate liberal arts program and twelve graduate programs, including the only women's Master of Business Arts program. The MBA program is housed at 409 Commonwealth Avenue. The School of Social Work building was owned by Isabella Stewart Gardner's father-in-law, John L. Gardner, who willed it to his son George, who gave it to Simmons. He was influenced by his mother, Eliza Endicott Peabody Gardner, whose life-long interest in social work convinced her son that this was the most appropriate use of their family home.


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