Oliver Wendell Holmes

Description

"It was Wendell's father, Dr. Holmes, who coined the term "Boston Brahmin" to describe Boston society in the mid-Nineteenth Century. The name stuck because it was such an apt caricature of the city's elite. Like their Hindu counterparts, the Boston Brahmin were both materially prosperous and spiritually ambitious. Part of their prosperity came from China trade - a commerce that brought with it ideas and culture as well as wealth"--