With our deep roots in colonial and revolutionary history and long-running support for arts and education, Boston is widely recognized as a leading cultural center and important preserver of America’s historic heritage. For generations, visitors have come by the millions to experience our wealth of historic sites, including the famous Freedom Trail, our many prominent art museums, and historic homes.

Boston’s reputation as “the Athens of America” derives in large part from the one hundred-plus colleges and universities located in the Greater Boston area. More than 250,000 students attend college in Boston and Cambridge. The city also boasts the oldest public school in the United States – the Boston Latin School, established in 1635 – and the first free municipal public library, the Boston Public Library (1848).

The city is internationally-known for its outs outstanding medical facilities, including over thirty hospitals in the metropolitan area. While the names of many of the medical institutions featured in these vintage postcards are well-known, their facilities have been modernized considerably over the past century and a large number of hospitals have merged.

There are twenty-one official neighborhoods in Boston, each with a distinct streetscape, population, and personality: Allston/Brighton, Back Bay, Bay Village, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, Chinatown/Leather District, Dorchester, Downtown/Financial District, East Boston, Fenway/Kenmore, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, North End, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, South End, West End, and West Roxbury.

Boston maintains over 2,200 acres of park land throughout the city. The seven-mile-long Emerald Necklace, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and constructed in the late nineteenth century, comprises half of the city’s park acreage and includes Boston Common (the oldest public park in the U.S.), the Public Garden, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, the Back Bay Fens, the Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, the Arnold Arboretum, and Franklin Park.

Postcards provided an easy, inexpensive means for hotels and restaurants to advertise in the early twentieth century. With their enticing pictures of public rooms, accommodations, sumptuous meals, guest rooms, and even full printed menus on the reverse, these cards from some of Boston’s most notable hotels and dining establishments were sure to tempt many a visitor with their vivid colors and eye-catching designs.

Boston has been a noted religious center from its earliest days. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese is based in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (1875) in the South End, Unitarian Universalism has its headquarters on Beacon Hill, and Christian Science’s Mother Church is located in the Back Bay (1894). Other notable houses of worship include Old North Church (1723), Trinity Church (1733), Park Street Church (1809), Temple Israel (founded in 1854) and Mission Hill’s Basilica (1878).

While Boston is the birthplace of American liberty, it is also the birthplace of American mass transportation. The Hub’s transit system is the oldest in the nation (1631) and the fourth largest today. The Port of Boston – a major seaport and the largest port in Massachusetts – was critical to early Boston’s development. The city also boasts the oldest subway system in North America, with the first underground streetcar traffic dating back to 1897.