Portal:New England

The New England Portal

P:NEWENG

New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the northeast and Quebec to the north. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city, as well as the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston is the largest metropolitan area, with nearly a third of New England's population; this area includes Worcester, Massachusetts (the second-largest city in New England), Manchester, New Hampshire (the largest city in New Hampshire), and Providence, Rhode Island (the capital of and largest city in Rhode Island).

In 1620, Puritan Separatist Pilgrims from England established Plymouth Colony, the second successful English settlement in America, following the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia founded in 1607. Ten years later, more Puritans established Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Plymouth Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the English colonists and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquian allies in America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, and surrounding areas experienced the Salem witch trials, one of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria in American history. (Full article...)

Selected article

Satellite image of Carrie near Massachusetts

Tropical Storm Carrie was a strong tropical storm that affected the East Coast of the United States in early September 1972. The third tropical cyclone of the 1972 Atlantic hurricane season, Carrie formed on August 29 from a complex sequence of meteorological events starting with the emergence of a tropical wave into the Atlantic in the middle of August. Tracking nominally northward throughout its life, Carrie reached an initial peak intensity as a moderate tropical storm before nearly weakening back into tropical depression status. The storm began to reintensify owing to baroclinic processes after turning toward the northwest; its winds of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) eclipsed the cyclone's previous maximum strength as it was transitioning into an extratropical system. The extratropical remnants of Carrie skirted eastern New England before making landfall in Maine on September 4 and dissipating over the Gulf of Saint Lawrence over the next two days. (Full article...)

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Selected biography

John Mayer performing at the Crossroads Guitar Festival

John Mayer is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Originally from Connecticut, he briefly attended Berklee College of Music. His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy for "Your Body Is a Wonderland". The blues influence can be seen on his album Continuum, released in September 2006. Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007. (Full article...)

Selected State

Flag of Rhode Island

Rhode Island
Incorporated 1776
Co-ordinates 41.7°N 71.5°W

Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is the smallest in area, the 8th least populous, but the 2nd most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states.

Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other colony. The State was also the last of the thirteen original colonies to ratify the United States Constitution.

Rhode Island's official nickname is "The Ocean State," a reference to the State's geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about fourteen (14) percent of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km²), but its total area is significantly larger. (Full article...)

Selected images

Image 1A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland, Massachusetts
Image 2Köppen climate types in New England
Image 3Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire
Image 4Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, is the oldest public school in the United States.
Image 5Location of New England (red) in the United States
Image 6Classic New England Congregationalist church in Peacham, Vermont
Image 7The MBTA Commuter Rail serves eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, radiating from downtown Boston, with planned service to New Hampshire. The CTrail system operates the Shore Line East and Hartford Line, covering coastal Connecticut, Hartford, and Springfield, Massachusetts.
Image 8The Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Image 9Flag of the New England Governor's Conference (NEGC)
Image 10Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital in the United States.
Image 11A classic New England Congregational church in Peacham, Vermont
Image 12A plowed field in Bethel, Vermont
Image 13New England is home to four of the eight Ivy League universities. Pictured here is Harvard Yard of Harvard University.
Image 14The Port of Portland in Portland, Maine, is the largest tonnage seaport in New England.
Image 15An English map of New England c. 1670 depicts the area around modern Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Image 16New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy
Image 177. Stamford, Connecticut
Image 189. Manchester, New Hampshire
Image 1910. Lowell, Massachusetts
Image 20Flag of New England flying in Massachusetts. New Englanders maintain a strong sense of regional and cultural identity.
Image 21Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Image 22New England regionalist poet Robert Frost
Image 23A political and geographical map of New England shows the coastal plains in the southeast, and hills, mountains and valleys in the west and the north.
Image 244. Springfield, Massachusetts
Image 258. Hartford, Connecticut
Image 26Indigenous territories, circa 1600 in present-day southern New England
Image 27Alumni Hall at Saint Anselm College has served as a backdrop for media reports during the New Hampshire primary.
Image 28Soldier and explorer John Smith coined the name "New England" in 1616.
Image 29Bread and Roses Strike. Massachusetts National Guard troops surround unarmed strikers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912.
Image 301. Boston, Massachusetts
Image 316. New Haven, Connecticut
Image 32Largest self-reported ancestry groups in New England. Americans of Irish descent form a plurality in most of Massachusetts, while Americans of English descent form a plurality in much of the central parts of Vermont and New Hampshire as well as nearly all of Maine.
Image 33Boston's Symphony Hall is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—the second-oldest of the Big Five American symphony orchestras.
Image 34Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston and spent most of his literary career in Concord, Massachusetts.
Image 353. Providence, Rhode Island
Image 36Phillips Academy Andover is an elite preparatory school in Andover, Massachusetts.
Image 37The Hartford headquarters of Aetna is housed in a 1931 Colonial Revival building.
Image 38The White Mountains of New Hampshire are part of the Appalachian Mountains.
Image 39The New England Ensign, one of several flags historically associated with New England. This flag was reportedly used by colonial merchant ships sailing out of New England ports, 1686 – c. 1737.
Image 40World's largest Irish flag in Boston. People who claim Irish descent constitute the largest ethnic group in New England.
Image 41An illustration from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick
Image 42A 1638 engraving depicting the Mystic massacre
Image 43Opera houses and theaters, like the Vergennes Opera House in Vergennes, Vermont, are popular in New England towns.
Image 44A New England town meeting in Huntington, Vermont
Image 452. Worcester, Massachusetts
Image 46Autumn in New England, watercolor, Maurice Prendergast, c.1910–1913
Image 47The Green Line in Boston
Image 48Location of New England (red) in North America
Image 495. Bridgeport, Connecticut
Image 50Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a high concentration of startups and technology companies.

Did you know...

... that the racing roller coaster Derby Racer (pictured) killed or critically injured at least five people in its 25 years of operation, leading to a Massachusetts Supreme Court case?
... that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has been praised for an initiative to reduce health care spending, but public anger ensued when the compensation for its departed CEO was reported?
... that the Bank of New England went bankrupt in 1991, but its liquidation is still in progress?
... that New Hampshire-born Charles Coffin Harris, who served as cabinet minister and judge in the Kingdom of Hawaii, also had a business selling fern hair?
... that Ellen Hayes was not only a rare 19th-century female mathematics professor but was also the first woman to run for statewide office in Massachusetts?