Natick
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town of Massachusetts, in Middlesex co. It includes several villages. It is on the Charles river and on the Boston and Albany railroad. It has several important educational institutions, including the Walnut Hill School for young women. It has the Morse Institute, which includes a public library and reading room; the Morse Hospital, and the Bacon Public Library. There are parks, a soldiers' monument, and a monument to the memory of John Eliot. The industries include the manufacture of boots, shoes, shirts, clothing, baseballs, boxes, saws, etc. Natick was founded by John Eliot in 1651, and was incorporated in 1781. Pop. (1910) 9,866; (1920) 10,907. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN. See ACADEMY OF DESIGN, NATIONAL. ACADEMY OF NATIONAL SCIENCES. A society formed in 1863 for investigation of scientific subjects and for the promotion of scientific research in America. Members must be citizens of the United States. Two meetings are held annually; one, the spring meeting, is always ways held in Washington, the other meeting in the autumn may be held anywhere. In 1914 President Wilson requested the society to appoint a member to investigate conditions on the Pribilof Islands for the purpose of suggesting means for the preservation of the fur-seal herd there. The same year the society awarded a gold medal to General Goethals and General Gorgas for their work in the building of the Panama canal. By virtue of a fund given to the society two or three lectures are given at the semi-annual meetings by distinguished scientists from the United States and foreign countries. The United States Government has frequently called upon 381 NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION briand's "The Natchez." They resided the society to undertake special fields of scientific research at the Government's expense. The society has about 150 members and about 50 foreign associates.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 Natick had 10,907 people and lived by making boots, shoes, shirts and baseballs; the shoe factories are long gone and the population is now about 37,000, a commuter suburb on the MBTA line that replaced the Boston and Albany railroad service. The biggest single arrival is the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center, opened in the 1950s, which develops rations, clothing and shelters for the armed forces; the other is the Natick Mall, among the largest shopping centres in New England. The institutions named survive in altered form: the Morse Institute is still the public library, the Bacon Free Library still stands in South Natick, and the Walnut Hill School, then "for young women," is now the coeducational Walnut Hill School for the Arts. Eliot's 1651 "praying town" is remembered less as a monument than through the Natick Nipmuc descendants who still identify with it and have pressed for federal recognition.
Written for this edition, 2026.