"A WILDERNESS OF WHIGS"

The article discusses the wealthy men of Boston, Massachusetts, which historians have claimed were largely members of the Whig political party. A study by Frank Otto Gatell of New York City's rich found that nearly 85 percent of those surveyed were members of the Whig party. The paper uses wealthy citizens list that provide the name of affluent Bostonians to recreate Gatell's survey and apply it to Boston in the nineteenth century, thereby testing the validity of the claim that most wealthy Bostonians were Whigs.