Although seventeenth-century New England has been one of the most heavily studied subjects in American history, women's lived experience of Puritan church membership has been incompletely understood. Histories of New England's Puritan churches have often assumed membership to have had universal implications, and studies of New England women either have focused on dissenting women or have neglected women's religious lives altogether despite the centrality of religion to the structure of New England society and culture. This thesis uses pamphlets, sermons, and church records to demonstrate that women's church membership in Massachusetts's Puritan churches differed from men's because women were prohibited from speaking in church or from voting in church government. Despite the Puritan emphasis on spiritual equality, women experienced a modified form of membership stemming from their subordinate place in the social hierarchy.

Thesis. 1977. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Meteorology. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography : p. 194-197. / Ph.D.

Long-term declines in birth rates pose a threat to the economic viability of higher education institutions (HEIs), and these institutions must strategically plan for these changes. Increasing the enrollment and retention of underrepresented Black and Latinx students is one potential strategy to offset declining numbers of high-school graduates. While educational attainment has increased overall during the last two decades, Black and Latinx students continue to have lower educational attainment levels than White students. This study uses quantitative data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from 2000 to 2018 to estimate enrollment and retention levels of Black, Latinx, and White students in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in the New England Region (NER). The study estimates correlations between Black, Latinx, and White enrollment and retention levels, revealing a negative impact on Black and Latinx enrollment and retention as White enrollment increases. This research likewise reveals a decrease in White enrollment as Black and Latinx enrollment increases. Additionally, this study uses a K-means cluster analysis to understand the association between enrollment and retention level performance of NER HEIs. Findings from two different cluster analyses show 1) a negative pattern of retention of Blacks and Latinx students as enrollment for these populations increases in HEIs and 2) a positive retention pattern for a subset of HEIs with higher retention levels with lower numbers of Black and Latinx enrollment totals. This proposal describes and interprets these findings and proposes new research examining institutional characteristics that may give rise to Blacks and Latinx students' retention levels. This study considers a wide range of institutional characteristics, including supportive programming and the types of financial aid packages specifically designed to retain students, while accounting for endowment and institutional size. This dissertation aims to provide NER HEI administrators with data that can inform short and long-term strategic planning. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

This design explores an alternative approach to New England home construction which emphasizes construction efficiency as well as ease of maintenance, renovation, and reconfiguration throughout the structure’s lifetime. The structure’s efficiency and flexibility is achieved by using the Bosch-Rexroth framing system and strategic placement of building systems. The reconfigurable structure paired with a changeable cladding system anticipates necessary seasonal and programmatic changes. The buildings systems are concentrated together for increased accessibility and serviceability. The design proposes a house that is inexpensive and easily maintained and adapted by the occupants throughout its lifetime.

This thesis examines Henry David Thoreau’s relationships with New England-based authors, publishers, and natural scientists, and their influences on his composition and professional development. The study highlights Thoreau’s collaboration with figures such as John Thoreau, Jr., William Ellery Channing II, Horace Greeley, and a number of correspondents and natural scientists. The study contends that Thoreau was a sociable and professionally competent author who relied not only on other major Transcendentalists, but on members from an array of intellectual communities at all stages of his career.

In December 1905, a large granite monument was erected at the birthplace of Joseph Smith on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. This thesis relates the history of the Joseph Smith Memorial Monument from its origins through its construction and dedication. It also explores its impact on the memory of Joseph Smith in the local, Vermont, and national context. I argue that the history of the Joseph Smith Memorial Monument in Vermont is the story of the formation and validation of the memory of Joseph Smith as an American Prophet.Nineteenth century Mormons remembered a variety of individual memories of Joseph Smith that were aggregated through reminiscences, hymns, and commemorations into three dominant collective memories: Joseph Smith as prophet, martyr, and Vermont schoolboy. During the first decade of the twentieth century, these three memories of Joseph Smith were filtered through the social, religious, and political interests and concretized into the Joseph Smith Memorial Birthplace Monument. The dedication of the Joseph Smith Monument on 23 December 1905 and the messages presented at the site by Junius F. Wells over the next five years shaped a broader interpretation of Joseph Smith as an American Prophet.The impact of the monument in Vermont is examined through a case study of Royalton, Vermont. Vermont's past had been aggregated into a tradition emphasizing the virtue, patriotism, and individuality of Vermonters, and Royalton residents responded to the Joseph Smith Monument by concretizing their own memory of Royalton as a typical New England town through monuments, a town history, and an annual town holiday. Competing memories of an American Prophet and the New England town collided during construction of the Royalton Memorial Library in 1922, and settlement of Royalton's division over the definition of a New England Town validated the memory of Joseph Smith as an American Prophet. Throughout the twentieth century, the memories of an American Prophet and New England Town accommodated each other. Vermont's validation of the memory of Joseph Smith as an American Prophet represents a national transformation in the memory of Joseph Smith.

Passive solar design can be an effective means of reducing conditioning loads in residential buildings by utilizing free solar heat during the heating season, and blocking unwanted solar heat during the cooling season. The objective of this thesis was to use energy modeling software to simulate the effect that incorporating passive solar design strategies into typical New England style houses would have on their energy usage for heating and cooling. The designs that were studied were Capes, Colonials, and Saltboxes. Four versions of increasing energy efficiency were studied for each style. After measuring baseline energy usage for each model, four passive solar variables were incorporated: orientation, allocation of windows to southern façade, shading devices, and thermal mass. After determining the ideal orientation of each building, 300 combinations of window allocation, shading device depth, and amount of thermal mass were simulated for each model. From this pool of simulations, the model with the lowest conditioning costs was selected and compared to its respective baseline design. As a general trend for each style, as the level of energy efficiency decreased, the savings from incorporating passive solar design increased. For the colonial models, the savings ranged from $422-$150. For the Saltbox models, the annual savings ranged from$398-$116. For the Cape models, the savings ranged from $303-$75.

Whether in terms of political and military threats or economic and demographic growth, this thesis argues that Rhode Island’s involvement in this period of imperial warfare was characterized by self-interest on a variety of levels. The government’s military plans, the expansion of provincial power, attempts to raise expeditionary forces, the use of privateers, and the indirect participation of non-combatants all depict a colonial society very interested in its own local political and economic interests. Although literally “provincial,” these interests exhibit the Atlantic and global networks that the smallest of the New England colonies was situated in. These two different sets of concerns, the political and economic, sometimes clashed and at other times combined as politicians, merchants, sailors, soldiers, and citizens participated in the dual conflicts. The War of Jenkins’ Ear and King George’s War may have been imperial in origin, but personal and colonial interests were paramount to regional New England and imperial British concerns.

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