num_pages: 125
description: Worcester, Massachusetts, a birthplace of the American Revolution, is a city of many industrial firsts, including Eli Whitney's cotton gin, Elias Howe's sewing machine, Dr. Russell L. Hawes' machine for folding plain paper into envelopes, and Ester Howland's mass-produced Valentines. Other Worcester firsts include American postcards, new loom designs, the corset, the all-night-lunch, the first national convention advocating women's rights, the railroad passenger car, and a public city park. See 284 lively, color postcard views and modern photos that help tell Worcester's story, one of the oldest commercial success tales in the country. Learn how Worcester's beneficial location in the center of Massachusetts, with major highways and a rail system, helped it develop into a world-class city.
language: English
title: Worcester, Massachusetts: The Heart of the Commonwealth
publisher: Schiffer Pub Ltd