It’s no secret that the Register Forum boasts an extensive history, but few are familiar with exactly how the newspaper came to be. The answer, however, lies within the Register Forum’s name itself.
In 1888, the Cambridge Manual Training School (C.M.T.S.) opened its doors to Cambridge’s teenage boys. C.M.T.S. taught students woodworking, mechanical drawing, and ironworking, among other trades. And three years later, in 1891, C.M.T.S. established their own newspaper, the C.M.T.S. Register.
A single line was printed on the front page of each C.M.T.S. Register edition; it read, “Work is one of the greatest blessings: Every one should have an honest occupation.” This was the high school’s motto, devised by local philanthropist Mr. Frederick Hastings Rindge. In 1887, Mr. Rindge donated land and sponsored the construction of the C.M.T.S. building, in addition to gifting Cambridge the Public Library and City Hall. Ten years later, paying tribute to a retiring Mr. Rindge, C.M.T.S. was renamed the Rindge Manual Training School (R.M.T.S.). The C.M.T.S. Register, reflecting this change, became the R.M.T.S. Register in 1899.
Mr. Rindge had intended C.M.T.S. to teach boys “the plain arts of industry … how arms and hands can earn food,” but by the early twentieth century, R.M.T.S. had garnered a reputation for sending students to MIT. As R.M.T.S. pivoted away from strictly “manual training” education, it was renamed the Rindge Technical School—signifying its broadening curricular offerings in science and math. With this change, the R.M.T.S. Register was renamed the Rindge Register.
In 1910, Cambridge’s other two public high schools, the Cambridge Latin School and the Cambridge English High School, merged to create the Cambridge High and Latin School (CHLS). Unlike Rindge Technical School, CHLS was co-educational. But, CHLS, too, had a lengthy history of student-run publications. The Latin and High School Review, which was later renamed The Cambridge Review, existed as early as 1886, before presumably dying out around 1952. A decade later, in 1966, the Cambridge High and Latin Forum, the newspaper that would later merge with the Rindge Register, was established.
For the 1977–1978 school year, the Cambridge School Committee voted to combine CHLS with the Rindge Technical School. Initially, the new, united school was to be called the Frederick H. Rindge Memorial High School. But CHLS students, outraged, staged a walkout. They argued that the new name only paid tribute to the Rindge Technical School and ignored CHLS’s legacy. Amidst the backlash, the school committee ultimately decided on the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
On October 4th, 1977, the Register Forum’s very first edition was printed. It read, “The editors and staff of the new REGISTER FORUM wish to congratulate all who helped make the merger of our schools a successful one[,] and thank all for the calm opening of the school year at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.” Combining the Rindge Register and the Cambridge High and Latin Forum, the Register Forum was born.
This article also appears in our January 2026 print edition.
