The poet Anne Bradstreet turns 400 years old in 2012. You can get in early and be a hero all at the same time – a hero for your business or organization, for your community, and for Anne.

How?

Anne Dudley Bradstreet has a huge following, and interest in her will only grow during her 400^th. A native of England, Anne arrived with the Arbella fleet in 1630, whose most famous passenger was John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Anne lived in Boston, “Newtowne” (today, Cambridge), Ipswich, and Andover, Massachusetts.

In addition, because the Arbella fleet first moored off the coast of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, and first disembarked at Salem, just to the south, those communities “claim her” as well. From there, the colonists sailed south to Charlestown, before settling in Boston, the famous “city upon a hill” that John Winthrop described in a speech delivered on board the flag ship of the fleet. Those communities also have a stake in Anne Bradstreet, especially Boston as the state capital.

Who was Anne Bradstreet?

Anne was the educated daughter of minor royalty. Her father, Thomas Dudley, served as the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as did her husband, Simon Bradstreet.

Anne Bradstreet was the first woman poet published in America (The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, 1650), and her work was widely acclaimed in both the Old World (England) and the New World (America). It’s worth noting that she accomplished this feat while giving birth to eight children and following her husband across the Atlantic to unpredictable circumstances, and then to the two colonial frontier towns of Ipswich and Andover (today, North Andover)!

Not only does Anne have a fierce following in each of the communities I mentioned, she also has a presence at Harvard University, where a gate to Harvard Yard is named after her, and at the First Church in Boston, which displays a memorial in her honor.

Are you adding up the numbers here – the sheer number of people you can reach by getting involved in a visible, strategic way with her 400th?

Add to that the networks of each one of these people, and the “reach” of the media attention the 400^th will generate! That’s huge!

Add to that the girls and young women Anne’s anniversary will impact through school projects and after school offerings. Add their parents.

Then, add all the literary scholars, the writers, and the women’s history folks who will pay attention. Add all the colonial history enthusiasts on two continents.

We are talking about:

• Huge numbers of potential clients

• You being seen as a hero because you are backing something a whole lot of people care about

• You being seen as classy, high caliber, and high quality because of your involvement with history and with the official Anne Bradstreet 400^th.

You can win big here, and so can all of the people you will reach through your investment in the 400th.

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