New Bedford’s Firsts

New Bedford was where abolitionist, orator, writer, and civil rights leader Frederick Douglass first lived as a freeman at the home of Nathan and Polly Johnson in 1838. A year later, Douglass and his wife Anna Murray moved into their first home at 157 Elm Street in New Bedford. He worked as a laborer on the wharves, but his first paid job was moving coal for Mrs. Ephraim Peabody into her home, an offer he proposed and she accepted.

In 1783, the Bedford, a ship owned by William Rotch, was the first American vessel to sail in British waters displaying the American flag. The Bedford sailed down the Thames River in London, marking this historic event of visibility for the sovereignty of the United States. William Rotch’s son, William Rotch Jr., settled in New Bedford, establishing the growing whaling industry, making New Bedford the richest city in the world for some time. You can visit his home and learn about his family and the successive prominent New Bedford families that have lived in the home over the years. Plan your trip to the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum today.

The first Cape Verdean American Church in the nation, Our Lady of Assumption, was established in 1905 in New Bedford and remains an active church and place of community at 47 S 6th Street.

Laurinda C. Andrade established the first Portuguese Language Department in the United States at New Bedford High School in 1955, becoming its first director. She also founded the Portuguese Educational Society, which offers scholarships and promotes cultural exchange between Portugal, the U.S. and Brazil.

Sergeant Willian Carney earned the first Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to an African American for his bravery at Fort Wagner during the Civil War. He was one of forty Black men from New Bedford to enroll in the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. Visit the Fort Taber- Fort Rodman Military Museum to see the wall of New Bedford’s Medal of Honor recipients.

The New Bedford Free Public Library is one of the earliest free municipal libraries in the United States. The Boston Public Library was the first free public library to become incorporated, but New Bedford’s was first to open its doors. Visit the New Bedford Free Public Library and see a portrait of William Rotch that was among the first materials to start the library in 1852.

Robert Mills, the first internationally recognized architect both born and trained in the United States, designed the New Bedford Custom House. This U.S. Customs House was a key site in maritime trade history and is the oldest continuously operating customs house in the nation. Historically, whaling masters registered their ships and cargo here and today commercial fishing and cargo ships log duties and tariffs. Visit the Whaling National Historical Park this summer to see this Greek Revival building and learn more at the visitors center or on a guided tour.

Dr. Juan Bennett Drummond was the first African American woman licensed in the state to practice medicine. Along with Elizabeth Carter Brooks, she opened the New Bedford Home for the Aged.

William Powell Jr. was a Wampanoag and African American, becoming the first to receive a contract as a surgeon with the Union Army.

Raised in New Bedford, Lydia Grinnell Brown became the first African American graduate of Simmons College in Boston. She became a translator of French, German, and Spanish for the Pan-African Congress and a delegate for the Second Pan-African Congress in Paris alongside W.E.B. Du Bois in 1921.

The oldest continually operating elevator in the country is the semicircular elevator inside of New Bedford’s City Hall. This manually operated elevator was built in 1906 and is still operating to this day. Take a ride on this historic landmark by visiting City Hall.

Rosamond Guinn was the first African American woman to become a registered pharmacist in southeastern Massachusetts. At the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy she was one of eight students who founded a club that became Lambda Kappa Sigma, the oldest professional fraternity for women in pharmacy.

Emma Hall started the first Girl Scout Troop in eastern Massachusetts in New Bedford in 1913. “The Red Rose Troop” was the first troop nationally to welcome African American girls and the third official Girl Scout Troop in the U.S. The Red Rose Award is now given to volunteers who demonstrate the values of Emma Hall: diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Mary Ann Flanagan Hayden founded the Donaghy Boys Club in New Bedford’s South End. She was the first female Director of a Boy’s Club in the United States.

New Bedford co-hosts with the Azores the only International Azorean Whaleboat Regatta in the world. The regatta is held every two years, alternating between New Bedford and the Azores. New Bedford’s Azorean Maritime Heritage Society maintains three authentic Azorean whaleboats, the only three in the United States and of the only sixty-three in the world.