Ameican Notes BOSTON

One of Boston's most popular tourist attractions is its Freedom Trail, which passes by the historic houses and meeting places of some of the nation's Founding Fathers -- but no founding mothers. Now the city's educators are rectifying this neglect of women in U.S. history by establishing a Women's Heritage Trail.

The first 20 women whose homes or workplaces will be marked by plaques include Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words of The Battle Hymn of the Republic; Dorothea Dix, the 19th century social reformer; and Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science movement. Even in Boston, these local heroines have been overlooked. When the trail's organizers asked schoolteachers to identify some of the chosen 20, many questionnaires were returned blank.