Boston Latin School (BLS), founded 1635, is the oldest school in America, one year older than Harvard University. BLS is a public school, serving students who are residents of Boston. However, BLS is also an “exam school,” i.e., to be accepted, prospective students must pass a battery of achievement tests. Consistently ranked as one of the Nation’s top academic high schools, BLS offers a full curriculum, including math, science, literature, languages, etc. Classes are taught by “Masters,” teachers who are noted in their fields for their scholarly contributions and experience. In addition, BLS offers a full slate of extra curricular activities, sports, clubs, and organizations. It’s not all hard work. Nevertheless, BLS sends more students to Harvard and other top universities than any other high school in America, public or private.

SPI was privileged to work with BLS on a multi-year contract. Long before online student/teacher communications had become standard practice among other institutions, SPI’s Sue Sours developed an information system that gave Masters access to their own “space” for assignments, exercises, multimedia, and email. In addition to a robust administrative backend, SPI developed a variety of web design templates. Scroll through carousels of templates for homepages, and interior pages.

The graduates of BLS constitute a big slice of American History. Historical figures including abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher; architect of the US Capitol, Charles Bulfinch ; literary giants including Ralph Waldo Emerson and George Santayana; revolutionaries including Sam Adams; Founding Fathers including John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin; and musicians including Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Fiedler; all were BLS graduates. (For a full list see the Wikipedia article.) The names of the most notable of these are engraved on the frieze surrounding the school’s main assembly hall. SPI created a special page with a clickable pano of the “Hall of Fame” with biographical links to each individual.

The heart of Boston Latin School (BLS) is the Keefe Library. Rivaling the breadth of media resources of a college library, the Keefe Library also retains BLS’s vast archives going back to its founding in 1635. In keeping with the overall look and feel of the BLS web presence, SPI created a separate site for the Keefe Library, including homepage and interior page templates, a multimedia tour, and the template for access to the BLS archives.