Topic: Women
Women’s issues, suffrage, girls, anyone using she/her pronouns

Immigrant NeighborhoodModernNew BostonSocial & Religious InstitutionsWomen Portrait of three women in uniform; one sitting and the others to her left and right. The seated woman is holding a document on her lap and the others are holding tambourines. A caption reads, "LIEUT Aldridge; ADJT. Shirley, D.O.; Captain Baker, Lawrence Mass.

The Salvation Army Arrives in Boston

As the Salvation Army stormed into Boston to continue its evangelical and humanitarian mission, it chose a location in the West End for its headquarters in Massachusetts. From this initial foothold in the city, the Salvation Army and its leader Annie Shirley withstood the persecution of established churches and angry mobs, and expanded its operations throughout New England. The organization continues to pursue its mission today as one the country’s largest and most visible charities.

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Immigrant NeighborhoodNeighborhood LifeSportsWomen photograph of a paper program with text Boston Garden presents Colonel W.T. Johnson's Rodeo, November 2 to 11, 25 cents, official program with illustration of a cowboy riding a horse

The Wild West in the West End: The Boston Garden Rodeo

In 1931, just three years after its opening, the Boston Garden hosted a new sports phenomenon sweeping the East Coast; the indoor urban rodeos of the kind produced by entrepreneur and cattleman Col. W. T. Johnson. These rodeos in the West End gave eastern sports fans a rare opportunity to relish in the romanticized cowboy image of the bygone American frontier, while also enjoying skillful, and often dangerous, feats of athleticism. Fans of these rodeos were also witnesses to the emergence of professional female sports and the birth of an organized rodeo profession.

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African AmericansImmigrant NeighborhoodImmigrationNeighborhood LifeSocial & Religious InstitutionsWomen a drawing of a "H" shaped four-story masonry building with a mansard roof

The Home for Aged Colored Women

The Home for Aged Colored Women was founded in the historic West End, on the north slope of Beacon Hill in 1860. The organization’s objective was to financially support and house elderly and poor Black women being turned away from existing charitable institutions. The organization raised enough funds to build an institution that served the community through the 1940s.

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African AmericansArt & LiteratureNew BostonOtherReports & AnalysisSocial & Religious InstitutionsWomen Five women in white dresses and a man in a suit and wearing glasses

The Reddick Story: The Life of Ruthena Felton King Reddick and Ray Reddick

Raymond Reddick, a lifelong Boston resident who is now 74 years old, has spent decades collecting, documenting, and speaking to different audiences about his extensive African-American family history with deep ties to the historic West End. After his grandmother, Ruthena Felton King Reddick, passed away in 1985, Ray began his ongoing genealogical research, which started with stories from family members and countless boxes of family artifacts in his possession. Ray Reddick approached The West End Museum to collaborate on a project that highlights his nineteenth-century ancestors — West Enders and Black Bostonians — captivating lives. Northeastern University’s Reckonings project has collaborated with Reddick and The West End Museum to produce, after a series of oral history interviews, a two-part, co-created report that spotlights Ray Reddick’s family history.

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