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Once a rural paradise known as'Noddle's Island,'East Boston is the site of key developments in the nation's history, including the first naval battle of the American Revolution, the creation of the world's fastest sailing ships, the country's first underwater tunnel, and the nation's first public branch library. It has had its share of famous residents, from Colonial governor John Winthrop and repentant Salem witch trial judge Samuel Sewall, to clipper ship builder Donald McKay and the world's first female clipper ship navigator, Mary Patten. Women's suffrage activist Judith Winsor Smith called East Boston home, as did the first Civil War nurse, Armeda Gibbs; Massachusetts governor John Bates; and Boston mayor Frederick Mansfield. Pres. John F. Kennedy's paternal grandparents and father were born in East Boston, where they started their first businesses and political ventures, and the neighborhood has produced numerous community activists, musicians, artists, writers, and athletes.

A rural village that was once the entry point for the slave trade and home to a cotton plantation, Scotlandville became the largest majority African American town in Louisiana. Located in the northern part of East Baton Rouge Parish, Scotlandville's history is intricately tied to Southern University and A&M College System, the only historically black university system in the United States. Southern University relocated from New Orleans to the bluff of the Mississippi River on the western edge of Scotlandville in 1914. The story of the university and town is a tale of triumph and struggle in the midst of racism, inequality, and oppression. Presented through the theme of firsts in businesses, churches, schools, residential developments, environmental issues, politics, social organizations, and community service, Images of America: Scotlandville focuses on the people who shaped the community economically, politically, socially, and culturally.