Poster and Report by Rachel Hambuchen '26

Disgusted by obscenity in printed materials, in 1878, a group of Boston elites banded together to found the Watch and Ward Society. For the next 79 years, the organization would go on to fight for the censorship of books by pressuring law enforcement and courts to enforce the Comstock Laws, an 1873 Federal Act that limited the circulation of obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, or immoral materials among the public. The work of the Society gained national attention with “Banned in Boston!” becoming a nationally recognized catchphrase. In response to pressure from the Watch and Ward Society, a room called the “Inferno” was established in the Boston Public Library to restrict access to books with perceived immoral content. In order to access such materials, patrons were required to prove scholarly intentions and obtain special permission from a librarian. George Herbert Putnam, librarian of Boston Public library from 1895 to 1899, saw the Inferno as an important safeguard against anarchy. By limiting access to literature from French and German socialists and anarchists, Mr. Putnam believed he was protecting the city of Boston. In addition to housing political books, the Inferno was home to books that were deemed immoral for containing sexual content, for example Boccaccio’s Decameron and Sir Richard Burton’s Arabian Nights. Even books on gynecology were determined to be inappropriate for unmonitored circulation. Lindsay Swift, an editor and cataloger of the library, spoke to the Boston Globe about his rationale for the Inferno: “‘the Inferno’ is open to readers as well as any other part of the library, but we may have to discriminate between them, and I do not believe that parents or guardians of the younger class of library readers would wish them to indulge in this class of literature” ("Boston's Forbidden Books"). The Watch and Ward Society framed their efforts not as censorship, but as simply carrying out the will of the public. At the society’s annual meeting, resident Frederick Baylies Allen addressed the crowd, saying “we are simply trying to represent you, the thoughtful, pure-minded men and women of this community” (Miller 17). However, as time passed and public attitudes surrounding censorship changed, the influence of Watch and Ward Society dwindled. The Society eventually merged with the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Delinquency and then later changed its name to the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction (MCCC). Coinciding with these name changes was a change in purpose: once concerned with immoral books, the MCCC’s focus turned to improving the state’s law enforcement and penal system (Davis). By the 1960s, books containing sex and other themes that had once been considered obscene populated the shelves of the Boston Public Library and traveled to the hands of readers, a reality almost unimaginable several decades prior.

Sources:

Blakemore, Erin. “The History of Book Bans—and Their Changing Targets—in the U.S.” National Geographic. April 24, 2023.

"Boston's Forbidden Books: Index Expurgations of the Public Library Has on It Political Literature as Well as Obscene--Is the Librarian Infallible?" Boston Daily Globe, Aug. 01, 1897, pp. 28. ProQuest.

Davis, William. "Days of 'Banned in Boston' Gone with the 'Watch-Ward'." Boston Globe, Dec. 25, 1969, pp. 49. ProQuest.

Miller, Neil. Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward Society's Crusade Against Books, Burlesque, and Social Evil. Beacon, 2011.

"Very Naughty Books:  They Are Locked in Public Library 'Inferno'." Boston Daily Globe, Apr. 29,1894, pp. 28. ProQuest.