By 1875, Boston was far from the somber City on a Hill settled by English Puritans in 1630. Buoyed by wealth from the old China Trade and from new industry and investment,
Proper
Bostonians proclaimed their city the “Athens of America” and proudly supported
its artistic and intellectual growth. Boston had space for this cultural
expansion. An ambitious landfill project, begun in 1857 and completed by
1890, transformed unsightly tidal mudflats into the fashionable Back Bay,
inspiring cultural, religious, and educational institutions to migrate there
from Boston’s older business district. New money, new land, and a new interest in advancing American culture after the Civil War were joined by another late nineteenth century innovation: the “New Woman.” Women played increasingly significant public roles in literature, education, social work, medicine, and especially fine arts. They became expert artists in a variety of media. Many lived, worked, exhibited, and assembled in homes, studios, and societies scattered across Boston’s new Back Bay.
This ninety-minute walking tour takes visitors past the sites of former homes, studios, and works of many women artists. It was created to complement the Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870–1940” which was on view from August 15 through December 2, 2001).