Boston Latin School is a public exam school located in Boston, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1635. It is the first public school and the oldest existing school in the United States.^[1][2][3][4]

The school's first class included nine students; the school now has 2,400 pupils drawn from all parts of Boston. Its graduates have included four Harvard presidents, eight Massachusetts state governors, and five signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, as well as several preeminent architects, a leading art historian, a notable naturalist and the conductors of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Pops orchestras. There are also several notable non-graduate alumni, including Louis Farrakhan, a leader of the Nation of Islam. Boston Latin admitted only male students at its founding in 1635.^[4] The school's first female student was admitted in the nineteenth century. In 1972, Boston Latin admitted its first co-educational class.^[5]

Admission is determined by a combination of a student's score on the independent school Entrance Examination and recent grades, and is limited to residents of the city of Boston.^[6] Although Boston Latin runs from the 7th through the 12th grade, it admits students only into the 7th and 9th grades. In 2007, the school was named one of the top twenty high schools in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.^[2][7]

Alumni

Graduate alumni

Image	Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
—	Edwin Hale Abbot	1854	Lawyer, railroad executive	[8]
	Charles Francis Adams Sr.	1819	U.S. Congressman, Ambassador to Great Britain	[9]
	Charles Francis Adams Jr.	—[a]	Union Army General	[10]
	Samuel Adams	1729	Governor of Massachusetts, Boston Tea Party organizer	[11]
	Ed Ames	—[a]	Popular singer, actor	[12]
	James Barnes	—[a]	Union Army general	[13]
	John L. Bates	1819	Governor of Massachusetts	[14]
	Henry Ward Beecher	1826	Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, speaker	[11]
	Jonathan Belcher	1689	Colonial governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey	[10]
	Bernard Berenson	—[a]	Art historian	[10]
—	Thomas Bernard	1763	Colonial governor of Maryland	[15]
	Leonard Bernstein	1935	Conductor, composer, author, music lecturer, pianist	[11]
	George Tyler Bigelow	1824	chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court	[16]
	Edwin Blashfield	1861	Artist	[15][17]
	James Bowdoin	1734	Governor of Massachusetts	[11]
	Thomas Mayo Brewer	1826	Naturalist	[15]
	Phillips Brooks	1846	Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church	[11]
—	Robert A. Brooks	1949	Telecommunications pioneer	[18]
	Raymond Bartlett Stevens	—[a]	U.S. Congressman from New Hampshire	[19][20]
	Charles Bulfinch	1770	Architect of the U.S. Capitol	[11]
	Thomas Bulfinch	—[a]	Mythologist, banker	[10]
	Andrea Campbell		Lawyer and politician (Massachusetts attorney general and former Boston City Council member)	[21]
	Francis James Child	1840	Scholar, educationist, folklorist	[11]
	James Freeman Clarke	1821	Unitarian Clergyman, author	[15]
	Richard A. Clarke	1968	Chief counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council	[22]
—	Marshall Cogan	1955	Investor, banker, entrepreneur; founder of United Automotive Group and investment banking firm Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt	[23]
—	Cid Corman	—[a]	Poet, translator, editor	[24]
	Joseph W. Cullen	1954	Cancer researcher and scientist	[25]
	Thomas Cushing	1740	Acting Governor of Massachusetts	[15]
	Timothy Cutler	1690	Episcopal clergyman and rector of Yale College	[15]
	Francis Dana	1751	Lawyer, jurist, statesman, delegate to the Continental Congress	[15]
	Charles Henry Davis	1815	Rear Admiral in the United States Navy	[15]
	Charles Devens	1829	Lawyer, jurist, statesman, Union Army general	[11]
—	Paul A. Dever	1918	Governor of Massachusetts	[26]
—	Edward Payson Dutton	1844	Book publisher	[27]
—	Ayo Edebiri	2013	Comedian, writer, prodcuer, and actress	[28]
	Charles William Eliot	1844	President of Harvard University	[11][27]
	Samuel Atkins Eliot	1809	U.S. Congressman, Mayor of Boston	[15]
	Christine Elise McCarthy	1983	Film and television actress	[29]
	Ralph Waldo Emerson	1817	Essayist, philosopher, poet, orator, leader of the Transcendentalist movement, Unitarian clergyman	[11]
	William Eustis	1761	Governor of Massachusetts, United States Secretary of War	[30]
	William Maxwell Evarts	1828	United States Attorney General, Secretary of State	[11]
	Edward Everett	1805	Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Senator	[11]
	William Everett	1852	U.S. Congressman	[15]
—	Aaron Feuerstein	1943	Owner and CEO of Malden Mills	[22]
—	Arthur Fiedler	1907	Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra	[11]
—	Thomas Finneran	1967	Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives	[31]
	John F. Fitzgerald	1880	Mayor of Boston, U.S. Congressman	[26]
—	Tom Fitzgerald	1929	The Boston Globe sports journalist and recipient of the Lester Patrick Trophy and the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award	[32]
—	John Bernard Fitzpatrick	1826	Roman Catholic Bishop of Boston	[11]
	James Freeman	1766	Unitarian clergyman and writer	[15]
	James A. Gallivan	1884	U.S. Congressman	[33]
—	Dave Gettleman	1968	General manager of the New York Giants	[34]
	Christopher Gore	1765	Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Senator	[11]
	Nathaniel Gorham	1746	President of the Continental Congress, signer of the United States Constitution	[15]
—	Mike Gorman	1965	Television play-by-play commentator for the Boston Celtics	[35]
	Benjamin A. Gould	1835	Astronomer	[15]
	Robert Grant	—[a]	Novelist, probate court judge	[36][37]
	John Chipman Gray	—[a]	Harvard Law School professor	[38]
—	Adolphus W. Green	1859	Attorney, businessman, founder of Nabisco	[39]
—	Richard Saltonstall Greenough	1829	Sculptor	[15]
	Edward Everett Hale	1831	Author, Unitarian clergyman	[11]
	Franklin Elmer Ellsworth Hamilton	1883	Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church	[40]
	John Hancock	1745	Merchant, President of the Second Continental Congress, first Governor of Massachusetts	[11]
—	Nat Hentoff	1941	Historian, novelist, jazz critic, columnist, civil libertarian	[22]
	Henry Lee Higginson	1846	Businessman, philanthropist, founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra	[11]
	William Hooper	1749	Member of the Continental Congress, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence	[11]
	Samuel Gridley Howe	—[a]	Physician, abolitionist, advocate of education for the blind	[10]
—	John Hull	1637	Merchant, military officer, and politician in the Massachusetts Bay Colony	[41]
—	Leavitt Hunt	1839	Attorney, photography pioneer, brother of Richard Morris Hunt	[15]
	Richard Morris Hunt	1843	Architect, founder of the American Institute of Architects and the Municipal Art Society	[42]
	Thomas Hutchinson	1716	Colonial Governor of Massachusetts	[10]
—	Charles Jackson	1784	Jurist, judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court	[10]
	Joseph Kennedy	1908	Businessman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, first Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission	[11]
	John King	1981	Journalist, reporter	[43]
	Henry Knox	1758	Bookseller, chief artillery officer of the Continental Army, first U.S. Secretary of War	[11]
—	Yehuda Krinsky	—[a]	Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi	[44]
	Samuel Pierpoint Langley	1845	Astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer, pioneer of aviation	[11]
—	Philip J. Landrigan	1959	Epidemiologist, pediatrician	[45]
—	Samuel Langdon	1734	US Congregational clergyman, President of Harvard University	[11]
—	William L. Langer	1912	chairman of the history department at Harvard University, head of the Research and Analysis branch of the Office of Strategic Services	[22]
—	Norman B. Leventhal	1933	Developer and manager of office buildings, housing, and hotels	[46]
—	Joseph R. Levenson	1937	University of California, Berkeley Historian of China	[47]
	John Leverett the Younger	1669	President of Harvard College	[11]
—	Howard Lindsay	1907	Broadway producer, playwright, librettist, director, actor	[10]
	James Lloyd	1776	U.S. Senator	[15]
	Edward Lawrence Logan	1894	Militia officer, jurist; namesake of Logan International Airport	[48]
	Ruthzee Louijeune	2004	At-large Boston City Council member	[49]
—	James Lovell	1744	Educator, delegate to the Continental Congress	[15]
	Augustus Lowell	—[a]	Businessman, philanthropist	[50]
—	Burton Malkiel	1949	Economist, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street	[51]
—	Charles F. Manski	1966	Econometrician	[52]
	Jonathan Mason	1774	U.S. Senator	[15]
	Cotton Mather	1669	New England Puritan minister, author, pamphleteer	[11]
	Wade McCree Jr.	1937	First African American judge appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit; second African American solicitor general	[11]
	Robert F. McDermott	1955	Brigadier General; first permanent Dean of the Faculty at the United States Air Force Academy; Chairman and CEO of USAA	[22]
	James F. McNulty Jr.	1943	U.S. Congressman from Arizona	[53]
	Martin Milmore	1859	Sculptor	[11]
	Alfred Moore	1763	Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court	[15]
	Perez Morton	1760	Lawyer; Patriot during the Revolution	[15]
—	Hosea Ballou Morse	1866	Sinologist, Chinese Maritime Customs Service	[15]
	John Lothrop Motley	1824	Historian	[11]
	Barry Newman	1948	Actor	[54]
—	Jack O'Callahan	1975	Professional ice hockey player and member of the 1980 Winter Olympics United States national team	[55]
—	David Ochterlony	1766	British general	[15][56]
	Harrison Gray Otis	1773	Federalist party leader, U.S. Senator, Mayor of Boston	[15]
	Andrew Oliver	1713	Merchant, public official	[15]
—	Isaac Parker	1777	U.S. Congressman	[15]
—	William Parmenter	1800	U.S. Congressman	[15]
	Robert Treat Paine	1738	Signer of the Declaration of Independence, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives	[11]
—	William Dandridge Peck	1771	America's first native entomologist, professor at Harvard College	[15]
	Wendell Phillips	1822	Abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orator	[11]
	Edward Charles Pickering	1857	Astronomer, physicist	[11]
	William Dummer Powell	1762	Lawyer, judge, political figure in Upper Canada	[15]
—	J. Pickering Putnam	1860	Architect and designer	[15]
	Josiah Quincy II	1754	Lawyer	[11]
—	Sumner Redstone	1940	Majority owner and Chairman of the Board of National Amusements; majority owner of CBS Corporation, Viacom, MTV Networks, BET, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks	[22]
	Vivian Rich	1911	Silent film actress	[57]
—	George T. Richardson	188?	journalist, playwright, theatre critic	[58]
	Marie Mercury Roth		synthetic organic chemist	[59]
—	Stan Salett	1955	National Education Policy Advisor (an architect of Upward Bound, Head Start); Civil Rights Organizer; Author	[60]
—	George Sanderson		Pennsylvania State Senator and 10th mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania	[61]
	George Santayana	1878	Philosopher, essayist, poet, novelist	[11]
	Winthrop Sargent	—[a]	Secretary of Northwest Territory, Governor of Mississippi Territory	[10][62]
—	Benjamin I. Schwartz	1934	Harvard University historian of China	[63]
	Roger Hale Sheaffe	1770	American-born General in the British Army	[15]
	Nathaniel B. Shurtleff	1822	Twentieth mayor of Boston	[15]
	Samuel Francis Smith	1828	Baptist minister, journalist, author, wrote lyrics of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"	[11]
—	Guy L. Steele Jr.	1972	Computer scientist	[64]
—	Julian Steele	1925	Social worker and activist, Massachusetts' first African American town moderator, state agency head	[65]
	Moorfield Storey	—[a]	Lawyer, publicist, and civil rights leader	[66]
	William Stoughton	—[a]	Judge during Salem Witch Trials; Acting Colonial Governor of Massachusetts	[10]
	Charles Sumner	1821	U.S. Senator, leader of the Radical Republicans	[11]
—	Joseph Henry Thayer	1842	Biblical scholar	[15]
	Edward Tuckerman	1827	Botanist, professor	[15]
	Frederic Tudor	1793	Founder of the Tudor Ice Company	[15]
	Edward D. Townsend	—[a]	Adjutant General of the United States Army, 1869–1880	[67]
—	William Tudor	1758	Lawyer	[15]
—	Isadore Twersky	—[a]	Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University	[68]
	Royall Tyler	1765	Jurist, playwright	[15]
—	Henry Van Brunt	1844	Architect, architectural writer	[15]
—	Andrew Viterbi	1952	Electrical engineer, philanthropist	[22]
	John Collins Warren	1786	Surgeon, pioneer of ether anesthesia	[11]
—	Clifton R. Wharton Jr.	1943	Economist, first African-American university president and chairman of a Fortune 100 corporation,[69][70][71][72][73] United States Deputy Secretary of State	[22]
	Helen Magill White	—[a]	First woman in the United States to earn a PhD	[74]
—	Theodore White	1932	Political journalist, historian, novelist	[22]
	Robert Charles Winthrop	1821	Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator	[11]
—	John Joseph Wright	1927	Prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy	[22]
—	Daniel Yankelovich	1942	Public opinion analyst, social scientist	[22]

a ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8} "—" indicates the year of graduation is unknown.

Non-graduate alumni

Image	Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
—	Walter A. Brown	—	Original owner of the Boston Celtics	[75]
	Louis Farrakhan	—	National Representative of the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad	[76]
	Torin Francis	—	Professional basketball player	[77]
	Benjamin Franklin	—	Founding Father of the United States of America, polymath, author, printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, diplomat	[78]
	Mike Sherman	—	Head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies football team	[79]

Abraham Captain Ratshesky ("Cap"). At age 14, he left Boston Latin School to work with his father. In 1895, he and his brother founded the U.S. Trust Company and was one of the founding members of Beth Israel Hospital.^[80] He donated a building in Boston to the American Red Cross, and was founder of the "Pennies Campaign" in 1925 where school children throughout the country raised money to restore the U.S.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides"). In 1917, Ratshesky organized and financed relief efforts for the Halifax Explosion which killed over 2,000 Haligonians when an ammunition ship exploded in Halifax Harbour. The work of Ratshesky and his colleagues inspired the annual gift of the Christmas tree each year from Nova Scotia.^[81]