Education and Culture

Because of its many outstanding educational and cultural institutions and achievements Boston is sometimes called "the Athens of America." In education the area claims several "firsts"—the first public secondary school in the United States (Boston Public Latin School, established in 1635), the first college (Harvard, 1636), and the first private secondary school (Roxbury Latin School, 1646).

More than two dozen universities and liberal arts colleges are found in the metropolitan area. Among those in the city are Boston, Northeastern, and Suffolk universities, the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts, the medical, dental, and business schools of Harvard University, and the medical and dental schools of Tufts University. Harvard's main campus, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Radcliffe College are across the Charles River in Cambridge. Boston College, Brandeis and Tufts universities, and Wellesley College are in other communities within the metropolitan area. There are also degree-granting schools for art, law, music, optometry, pharmacy, technology, theology, and other specialized fields.

The Museum of Fine Arts, in the Back Bay Fens, has a world-famous collection that includes Egyptian, Classical, Oriental, European, and American art. In the nearby Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, once a palatial residence, are works of old European masters. Other art museums include the Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum of Germanic Culture at Harvard and the Institute of Contemporary Art. The Science Museum, which includes the Charles Hayden Planetarium, is one of the finest, most modern science museums in the world. At the Christian Science Center, a complex of buildings centered on the First Church of Christ, Scientist, is the Mary Baker Eddy Museum. The Children's Museum, on Fort Point Channel, has varied educational exhibits. Nearby is the Computer Museum.

Boston's libraries, both public and private, are also outstanding. The Boston Public Library, on Copley Square, was the first major public library in the United States (1854) and is one of the nation's largest. Prominent among private libraries is the Boston Athenaeum, which began with George Washington's personal collection of books in 1807. The combined libraries of Harvard make up one of the largest collections in the world. The John F. Kennedy Library is on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts.

The Boston Symphony, which performs in Symphony Hall, has been one of the foremost American orchestras since its founding in 1881. The Boston Pops Orchestra, made up of symphony orchestra members, presents popular concerts in Symphony Hall and, during summer, in the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Charles River.