Small state.
Infinite stories.

Archaeological evidence in Massachusetts reaches back more than 10,000 years. Indigenous communities remain part of the Commonwealth today.

The name comes from the Massachusett people and is associated with the Great Blue Hill area south of Boston.

English colonists established Plymouth in 1620 at Patuxet, an Indigenous settlement devastated by earlier epidemics.

Boston Common became a public park in 1634, making it the oldest public park in the United States.

Boston Latin School, established by the town in 1635, was America’s first public secondary school.

Newtowne. The Massachusetts General Court established Harvard there in 1636.

John Adams drafted the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. It remains the world’s oldest functioning written constitution.

On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Yes. The Massachusetts District of Maine became a separate state on March 15, 1820.

The Merrimack River supplied water power. Workers, including young farm women and later many immigrants, built the city’s textile economy.

Basketball. James Naismith invented the game in Springfield in 1891.

Boston. The Tremont Street subway opened in 1897.

In 1903, Marconi’s wireless station transmitted a greeting from President Theodore Roosevelt to Britain’s King Edward VII.

Auburn, where Robert Goddard launched the first successful liquid-fueled rocket in 1926.

No. Filling began in 1939 and finished in 1946. Creating the reservoir required taking four towns: Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott.

August 7, 1961. It preserves coastal landscapes across six Outer Cape towns.

Lowell National Historical Park was created in 1978, preserving industrial history and helping the city’s revitalization.

Yes: blue, green and cranberry. They became the Commonwealth’s official colors on February 21, 2005.