Official 1804 Session Laws Including Original Charter of Bradford Academy, Among the Commonwealth’s Earliest Coeducational Institutions, 1804

Bradford Academy Women’s Education

Pamphlet

This January 1804 session laws volume preserves the enacted statutes of the Massachusetts General Court, including the original incorporation of Bradford Academy, an institution that became one of the earliest centers of advanced education in the Commonwealth and a foundational site in the history of women’s education in New England. Printed under legislative authority, the volume opens with the formal constitutional language, “BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled,” situating the text within the statutory framework established by the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution. Among its enactments is the charter establishing Bradford Academy, later recognized as the third oldest post-secondary institution in Massachusetts after Harvard University and Williams College. Initially admitting both male and female students at a time when advanced instruction for women remained severely restricted, Bradford evolved by 1836 into the first all-female academy in Massachusetts, marking a significant development in the institutionalization of women’s academic training in the early republic.

Acts and Laws… January 12, 1804 Session. Boston, 1804. Pamphlet volume identified as Vol. 14 of 17 for the legislative session. The title page bears the Commonwealth device and the heading “IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1804,” followed by Chapter I, “An act in addition to an act, entitled, ‘An act to incorporate John Codman and others into a company, by the name of The Suffolk Insurance Company.’” The volume includes commercial, financial, and educational incorporation statutes enacted during the session. Pamphlet format.

Beyond its educational significance, the volume documents the expanding legal infrastructure of early American corporate and civic development. Incorporation acts for insurance companies, academies, and other enterprises reflect Massachusetts’ position as a commercial and maritime center in the Federalist era, when legislative charters served as the primary mechanism for authorizing financial institutions, educational foundations, and public improvements. The Bradford Academy act is particularly notable for embedding coeducational authorization within state law at a formative moment in the republic’s institutional growth. Early session law pamphlets preserve statutory language prior to later codification and revision, offering direct evidence of legislative intent and institutional formation. Edge wear; scattered foxing; small tears along fore-edge; text complete and legible; overall good plus condition. A significant early republic legal printing linking state incorporation practice to the emergence of formalized educational access for women in Massachusetts.

Item #16759

Price: $885.00