Portal:New England

The New England Portal

Location of New England (in red) in the United States

New England is a region consisting of 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 Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean are to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city and the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston, comprising the Boston–Worcester–Providence Combined Statistical Area, houses more than half of the region's total population. The Greater Boston 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, the Pilgrims established Plymouth Colony, the second successful settlement in British America after the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia, founded in 1607. Ten years later, 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 the late 18th century, political leaders from the New England colonies initiated resistance to Great Britain's monarchist enforced taxes without the consent of the British American colonists. Residents of Rhode Island captured and burned a British Royal Navy ship which was enforcing unpopular trade restrictions, and residents of Boston threw British tea into the harbor. Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government which the colonists called the "Intolerable Acts". These confrontations led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, and it was the first region of the U.S. transformed by the Industrial Revolution, initially centered on the Blackstone and Merrimack river valleys. (Full article...)

Selected article

The north facade of the Rhode Island State House in Providence

Providence is the capital of, and the most populous city in, Rhode Island, and one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the estimated third-largest city in the New England region. Despite the city proper only having an estimated population of 178,042 as of 2010, it anchors the 37th largest metropolitan population in the country. With an estimated MSA population of 1,600,856, it exceeds that of Rhode Island itself by about 60% due to its reaching into southern Massachusetts. Situated at the mouth of the Providence River, at the head of Narragansett Bay, the city's small footprint is crisscrossed by seemingly erratic streets and contains a rapidly changing demographic. Providence was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence", which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers to settle. One of the first American cities to industrialize, Providence became noted for its jewelry and silverware industry. Today, the city's economy has shifted into the service industries, though it still retains significant manufacturing activity. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected biography

This portrait, first published in 1885, was alleged to be a 1625 likeness of Standish, although its authenticity has never been proven

Myles Standish was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its inception. On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served as an agent of Plymouth Colony in England, as assistant governor, and as treasurer of Plymouth Colony. He was also one of the first settlers and founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. (Full article...)

Selected picture

Ambrose Burnside

Credit: Mathew Brady (c. 1863)

Portrait of Civil War General and Governor of Rhode Island (1866–1869) Ambrose Burnside

General images -

The following are images from various New England-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1John Foster's A Map of New England, the first printed map of New England, first published in Narrative of Troubles with the Indians, Boston clergyman William Hubbard's 1677 narrative of King Philip's War (1675–78). (from New England)
Image 2Flag of New England flying in Massachusetts. New Englanders maintain a strong sense of regional and cultural identity. (from New England)
Image 3Southeastern New England is home to a number of Lusophone ethnic enclaves. (from New England)
Image 4Indigenous territories, circa 1600 in present-day southern New England (from New England)
Image 5Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital in the United States. (from New England)
Image 610. Manchester, New Hampshire (from New England)
Image 7Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (from New England)
Image 85. Bridgeport, Connecticut (from New England)
Image 97. New Haven, Connecticut (from New England)
Image 10Alumni Hall at Saint Anselm College has served as a backdrop for media reports during the New Hampshire primary. (from New England)
Image 11New England is home to four of the eight Ivy League universities. Pictured here is Memorial Hall of Harvard University. (from New England)
Image 123. Providence, Rhode Island (from New England)
Image 13Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire (from New England)
Image 14Autumn in New England, watercolor, Maurice Prendergast, c. 1910–1913 (from New England)
Image 15The Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (from New England)
Image 16Map of the British and French dominions in America in 1755, showing what the English considered New England (from History of New England)
Image 17A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland, Massachusetts (from New England)
Image 18A 1779 five-shilling note issued by Massachusetts (from History of New England)
Image 19First Boston Latin School house (from History of New England)
Image 20A classic New England Congregational church in Peacham, Vermont (from New England)
Image 219. Cambridge, Massachusetts (from New England)
Image 22The 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. (from New England)
Image 23New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy (from New England)
Image 24The Port of Portland in Portland, Maine, is the largest tonnage seaport in New England. (from New England)
Image 251. Boston, Massachusetts (from New England)
Image 26Boston's Symphony Hall is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—the second-oldest of the Big Five American symphony orchestras. (from New England)
Image 27The Hartford headquarters of Aetna is housed in a 1931 Colonial Revival building. (from New England)
Image 286. Stamford, Connecticut (from New England)
Image 29Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston and spent most of his literary career in Concord, Massachusetts. (from Culture of New England)
Image 30Bread and Roses Strike. Massachusetts National Guard troops surround unarmed strikers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912. (from New England)
Image 31Soldier and explorer John Smith coined the name "New England" in 1616. (from New England)
Image 32Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a high concentration of startups and technology companies. (from New England)
Image 33A 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. (from New England)
Image 34New England regionalist poet Robert Frost (from New England)
Image 35Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom is set on a fictional New England island and was largely filmed in Rhode Island (from New England)
Image 36The White Mountains of New Hampshire are part of the Appalachian Mountains. (from New England)
Image 37A Hartford Line train at Hartford Union Station (from New England)
Image 38A plowed field in Bethel, Vermont (from New England)
Image 39Opera houses and theaters, like the Vergennes Opera House in Vergennes, Vermont, are popular in New England towns. (from Culture of New England)
Image 40Köppen climate types in New England (from New England)
Image 414. Springfield, Massachusetts (from New England)
Image 42Classic New England Congregationalist church in Peacham, Vermont (from Culture of New England)
Image 432. Worcester, Massachusetts (from New England)
Image 44Phillips Exeter Academy and Phillips Academy at Andover are two prestigious New England secondary schools founded in the late 18th century (from New England)
Image 45The New Haven system (from History of New England)
Image 46Largest 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. (from New England)
Image 47Flag of the New England Governor's Conference (NEGC) (from New England)
Image 48The 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. (from New England)
Image 498. Hartford, Connecticut (from New England)
Image 50World's largest Irish flag in Boston. People who claim Irish descent constitute the largest ethnic ancestry in New England. (from New England)

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that the Hotel Marcel has been called both Connecticut's ugliest building and one of New England's best hotels?
... that the first time the New England Revolution competed in an international competition, they played their "home" match at their opponent's stadium?
... that Cora Agnes Benneson, one of the first female lawyers in New England, was rejected by Harvard Law School because "the equipments were too limited to make suitable provision for receiving women"?
... that New England Revolution manager Bruce Arena led the club to a record-breaking 73 points in the 2021 season?
... that the first draft pick in New England Patriots' history, Gerhard Schwedes, was born in Nazi Germany?

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... that at the 2012 Olympics, Kayla Harrison became the first American to win a gold medal in judo?
... that prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics American javelin thrower Craig Kinsley had never competed in an international competition?
... that the Connecticut Supreme Court found that giving the finger was offensive, but not obscene?
... that Puritan Reverend John Wilson implored Mary Dyer to repent and not be "carried away by deceit of the devil" before her execution in Boston as a Quaker martyr?
... that pioneering immunologist Bunny Koshland helped develop an oral cholera vaccine before she worked on the Manhattan Project?

More did you know facts

Selected State

Flag of Maine

Maine
Incorporated 1820
Co-ordinates 45.5°N 69°W

Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost portion of New England. It is known for its scenery—its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, its heavily forested interior and picturesque waterways—as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.

As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements survived. Patriot and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts. On March 15, 1820, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise. Maine is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the 50 United States. (Full article...)