Boston Women's Heritage Trail

“Remember the Ladies”
— Abigail Adams

In 1989 a group of Boston Public School teachers, librarians, and their students brainstormed and inaugurated the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, a series of 13 different walks commemorating Boston's most influential women. With over 200 women remembered on this series of trails, the entire project works to 'restore women to their rightful place in the history of Boston'.

There are several different choices of trails you can take with your group, each option self-guided. Here is a list of the possible trails and a little bit about each one.

Back Bay East - This trail highlights the work of women in arts and education and women who led the way in environmental protection, suffrage, and peace and begins and ends within the Public Garden.
Back Bay West - Trail from Copley Square to the Women's Memorial, devoted to women in arts and education.
Beacon Hill - Explore the statues of women who were religious dissenters, as well as some of the first women doctors and nurses in Boston.
Chinatown - Women's activities and organizations for social change are explored.
Downtown - Women's poets, essays, and plays of popularity are discussed, as well as women state legislators.
East Boston - Several sites of early immigration are explored, with the focus on women who immigrated.
Jamaica Plain - Women such as Emily Green Balch and Margaret Fuller are discussed.
Ladies Walk - Three very important women are the focus of this tour; Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley.
North End - This is the 'Mother's Walk' within the Rose Kennedy Greenway, paying homage to Irish, Jewish, and Italian women immigrants.
South End - This tour sees a wide variety of topics, but particularly focuses on the African American community.