Boston Public Schools

This prize book containing essays and poems in both English and Latin was awarded to high achieving students at the Boston Latin School.

In 1829, the Boston School Committee voted to use Pierpont’s National Reader in the city’s public grammar schools. Pierpont’s replaced Murray’s English Reader which had been previously used. This 1836 edition would have been used for reading…

The School of Mutual Instruction was an experimental school in Boston. It relied upon a system in which older or more advanced students instructed the younger or weaker students under the supervision of the schoolmaster. Tokens with an attached…

In 1815, white businessman Abiel Smith died and bequeathed $4,000 to the Town of Boston for the education of African-American children. Boston’s school committee used the money to fund the already existing African School and later to fund the Abiel…

Student at the Horace Mann School taking part in classroom recitation.