The Boston Associates

The Boston Associates is the term historians use for an inter-linked group of investors in 19th-century New England. They included Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos Lawrence. Often related directly or through marriage, they were based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Associates built a vast business empire between 1810 and 1860 that included textile manufacturing, transportation companies, and financial institutions. Their motivation was not just profit, but a desire to maintain their own social standing and secure the status of their children. This drive to preserve class position led them to innovate in business while also reinforcing social hierarchies and class consciousness through large-scale philanthropy. The Boston Associates’ pursuit of social stability and class continuity drove them to create new forms of industrial capitalism, reinforce class structures, and shape the economic and social landscape of 19th-century New England.