Editing Northampton, Massachusetts (section)

=== The "Paradise of America" ===
[[File:Recto Northhampton Bank (Massachusetts) 1 dollar 1843 urn-3 HBS.Baker.AC 1141685.jpeg|alt=One dollar note with illustrations of a standing female figure, a seated female allegorical figure holding a scythe and rake; sailing vessels; steam engine, and a building|thumb|Northampton Bank one dollar note from 1843.]]
From 1842<ref name="Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center">{{cite web |url=http://www.historic-northampton.org/highlights/educationindustry.html |title=Northampton Association of Education and Industry |access-date=December 30, 2012}}</ref> until 1846 Northampton was home to a [[transcendentalist]] [[utopian community]] of [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]]. Called the [[Northampton Association of Education and Industry]], the community believed that the rights of all people should be "equal without distinction of sex, color or condition, sect or religion". It supported itself by producing mulberry trees and [[silk]]. [[Sojourner Truth]], a former slave who became a national advocate for equality and justice, lived in this community until its dissolution (and later in a house on Park Street until 1857).<ref>{{cite web |author=Gravity Switch, Inc – www.gravityswitch.com |url=http://www.northamptonma.gov/aboutNorthampton/History_of_Northampton/ |title=City of Northampton: History of Northampton |publisher=Northamptonma.gov |access-date=November 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104090605/http://www.northamptonma.gov/aboutNorthampton/History%5Fof%5FNorthampton/ |archive-date=November 4, 2011 }}</ref>
[[File:Hampshirecountycourthouse.jpg|left|thumb|Hampshire County Courthouse in Northampton, designed by architect [[Henry Franklin Kilburn]].]]

In 1851 opera singer [[Jenny Lind]], the "[[Sweden|Swedish]] Nightingale", declared Northampton to be the "Paradise of America", from which Northampton took its nickname "The Paradise City".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historic-northampton.org/events/jennylind.html |title=Nightingale Uncaged: Jenny Lind in Northampton |website=Historic Northampton |access-date=May 22, 2021}}</ref>

[[Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech]] (formerly the Clarke School for the Deaf) was founded in Northampton in 1867. It was the United States' first permanent oral school for the deaf. [[Alexander Graham Bell]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Our History |url=http://www.clarkeschools.org/about/history |website=clarkeschools.org |publisher=Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech |access-date=19 July 2020}}</ref> and [[Grace Coolidge]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sobel |first1=Robert |title=Coolidge: An American Enigma |date=1998 |publisher=Regnery History |location=1998 (Revised 2015) |page=55}}</ref> have served as heads of school.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Traynor |first1=Robert |title=The Sign of Grace |url=https://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearinginternational/2017/the-sign-of-grace/ |website=hearinghealthmatters.org |date=May 30, 2017 |publisher=HHTM |access-date=19 July 2020}}</ref>

[[Smith College]] for women was founded in Northampton in 1871. Today Smith is the largest of the [[Seven Sisters colleges]]. Well-known Smith alumnae include [[Sylvia Plath]], [[Barbara Bush]], [[Nancy Reagan]], [[Tammy Baldwin]], [[Gloria Steinem]], [[Madeleine L'Engle]], and [[Julia Child]]. The first game of [[women's basketball]] was played at Smith College in 1892.

A [[Northampton Bank robbery|theft of $1.6 million]] ($46.5 million in 2023) from the Northampton Bank took place on January 27, 1876.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Old Bank |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=194870 |website=HMdb.org |publisher=THE HISTORICAL MARKER DATABASE |access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref>

Northampton officially became a city on September 5, 1883, when voters accepted the city charter, "The act to establish the city of Northampton. 1883-Chapter 250," as passed and approved.<ref name="establish" /><ref name="establish2" />

[[Immigration|Immigrant]] groups that settled Northampton in large numbers included [[Ireland|Irish]], [[Poland|Polish]], and [[French-Canadians]]. In 1890 a small number of German-Jewish families arrived in Northampton, most of them coming from New York or Boston.  By 1905 there were almost 5000 foreign-born residents among the 20,000 people of the city.<ref>Glazer, Penina and Glazer, Myron, The Jews of Paradise, Collective Copies Press, Florence, MA, 2004, {{ISBN|0-9600-828-2-4}}</ref>