Boston Brahmins

 

                                                                       Boston Brahmins

The term "Boston Brahmin" was coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. in the 1860s.

"Brahmin" (from the Hindu caste system) was used metaphorically to describe Boston's old, aristocratic elite—people of WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) background.

These families traced their roots to early English settlers and saw themselves as the guardians of New England’s Puritan legacy.

 Elite Education: Many attended Harvard University, considered a bastion of Brahmin culture.

Dr Shiv Pillai

Dr. Pillai coined the term “surrogate light chains” for proteins that he identified (with David Baltimore), as part of a novel receptor, now known as the pre-B receptor,  that drives early B cell development. His laboratory at MGH postulated and provided evidence for the first ligand-independent signaling model during lymphocyte development, now a widely accepted mechanism for both pre-B receptor and pre-T receptor signaling. 

His laboratory also showed that Btk, the product of the gene mutated in X-linked agammaglobulinemia, is functionally linked to the pre-B receptor and the B cell receptor.

Snapshot

Institutions Tied to the Brahmins

Harvard University: The academic home of many Brahmins.

Massachusetts General Hospital, 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Athenaeum,

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Unitarian Church.