Celebrating Scottish Traditions Across the United States
One of our nation’s earliest charitable societies, The Scots Charitable Society of Boston was established in 1657. The Nation’s oldest St. Andrews Society was founded in 1729 in Charleston, South Carolina. Scottish emigrants founded these societies as social gathering opportunities for fellow Scots as well as to assist indigent and troubled emigrants. Today there are St. Andrews Societies in all 50 states.
The first “Highland Games” or gatherings in the United States likely took place as “Scotch Fairs” which were celebrated within some Scottish emigrant communities coinciding with the dates of cattle fairs in Scotland which occurred between the dates of Michaelmas and Martinmas. Though there were primarily trading fairs there are records of athletic challenges and contests associated with them.
The first Highland Games in the United States were held by the Highland Society of New York in 1836. Highland Games and Caledonian Games have proliferated in regions settled by Scots in the 19th century including Detroit (1849) and San Francisco (1866). By contrast, the first Highland Games in the South was the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games (1956) located in a region which did not have significant Scottish settlement.
Bagpipes now are heard throughout the United States, and there are many records of emigrant Scottish pipers from the earliest emigrations to the early 20th century. Though there were groups of pipers who gathered in some communities for special occasions, the first pipe band in the United States was not founded until 1910 in Holyoke, Massachusetts by emigrants.
Though one can see Highland Dancing in its present-day choreographed form at Highland Games throughout the United States, the older Scottish tradition of step dancing (also practiced by the Irish) had a very visible influence on American clogging and traditional dance.
There are thousands of Scottish-related place names which can be found in the United States which document the coming of and settlement of Scots in America. From geographical references such as Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, to towns and communities bearing Scottish surnames, the settlement and influence of Scots is most always nearby wherever you travel.
Scotland’s famed poet, Robert Burns, significantly influenced American poets such as John Greenleaf Whittier, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Ralph Waldo Emerson among others. Musicians from Bob Dylan to Michael Jackson also cited his influences on their own work.
Scottish inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), John Logie Baird (television) and industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie and naturalist John Muir have dramatically impacted American life through their inventions and innovations.