It isn't very often when the Worcester City Council spends any time at length talking about the city's history.

But it did so last Tuesday night when Mayor Joseph M. Petty introduced an order that set into motion an effort to erect a monument/statue to honor Abby Kelley Foster, a nationally prominent 19th-century abolitionist and women’s rights advocate who grew up and lived in the city for many years.

The order was enthusiastically supported by the council, with several members saying it was an honor that was long overdue.

But it also got some members talking about how a better job needs to be done when it comes to promoting Worcester's history.

They said while Worcester has a long and rich history of important people, places and events, few people are aware of it, including many of its own residents.

"I've always said that what separates cities like Boston from Worcester, as far as people appreciating it, is its history," said Councilor-at-Large Morris A. Bergman. "Boston does a great job marketing its history.

"It’s not that we don’t have history," he added. "We have that history, but we just have been behind the times a little bit promoting it, though we’re catching up. We have the opportunity, with so many (historical) items to compete with cities like Boston and bring tourism to our city."

Indeed, Worcester has quite a history the it can proudly boast of.

According to the Worcester Historical Museum, some of the more notable Worcester "firsts" it cites on its website are:

• The Declaration of Independence was first publicly read in Massachusetts by Isaiah Thomas in Worcester in July 1776 in front of what is now City Hall.

• The monkey wrench was invented by Loring Coes of the Coes Knife Co. in 1840.

• Worcester resident Charles Thurber patented the first modern-day typewriter in 1843.

• The first national convention of women advocating women’s suffrage was held in Worcester on Oct. 23 and 24, 1850.

• Elm Park became the first public park in the country when land was deeded to the city of Worcester in 1854.

• Worcester resident Joshua Stoddard invented the steam calliope in 1855.

• The first perfect game in Major League Baseball was pitched in Worcester by J. Lee Richmond on June 12, 1880.

• Worcester resident Henry Perky became the first to mass-produce shredded wheat in 1895.

• Albert A. Michelson, chairman of Clark University’s Physics Department, was named America’s first Nobel Prize Winner in 1902.

• Dr. Robert H. Goddard of Clark University patented the first liquid fuel rocket in 1914.

• Harvey Ball designed the world famous Smiley face in 1963.

There was also a significant event that took place in Worcester leading up to the American Revolutionary War that many feel had an enormous impact for both 18th-century Massachusetts and for the emerging nation.

Two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there was the Worcester Revolution of 1774. More than 4,000 militiamen from Worcester County gathered on Main Street to force the British magistrates out of the county government, and it was considered on the first nonviolent acts of the American Revolution.

For nearly 100 years, Worcester was also the center of the commercial valentine industry in the United States. Local folklore has it that when Worcester resident Esther Howland received an English valentine in 1847 it inspired her to design and sell her own.

Worcester also had an important role in the industrialization of the United States, as it became a center of machinery, wire products and power looms. In 1908, the Royal Worcester Corset Co. was the largest employer of women in the United States.

As industry expanded, builders constructed Worcester’s signature three-decker housing, which offered workers affordable housing near the factories where they worked. The three-decker was considered a new building type at that time and it was able to house multiple families in a single dwelling on a relatively small lot.

Worcester was also part of the Underground Railroad, a network of houses and other places that abolitionists used to help slaves escape to freedom in the Northern states or in Canada before the Civil War. Abby Kelley Foster’s Liberty Farm on Mower Street was one of those stops, as were the catacombs under the north end of Main Street.

And let’s not forget that it was a Chatham Street resident, Ernest Lawrence Thayer, who in 1888 wrote "Casey at the Bat," which the Baseball Almanac considers the single most famous baseball poem ever written, or that baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams played his first game in Massachusetts as a rookie with the Boston Red Sox back in 1939 at Fitton Field at the College of the Holy Cross.

Yes, Worcester has history – a lot more that many people probably realize. It may not be as heralded as the history of Boston or other large cities, but Worcester's history is certainly right up there with the best of them.

"Worcester has so much history," Mr. Petty said. "We should be out in front of our history and make people more aware of it.

Councilors-at-Large Konstantina B. Lukes and Kathleen M. Toomey said Worcester’s history is something the city should be proud of and it clearly deserves to be talked about.

"It’s one of those bragging rights that we have to brag about, and we should," she said.

Ms. Lukes said she could envision Worcester having its own version of Boston’s Freedom Trail, with stops at those places that were part of the Underground Railroad, as well as at other historical sites throughout the city.

Mr. Bergman said it’s not impossible or improbable to think that Worcester can develop a tourism market based on its history.

In fact, he believes it’s something that can be done if time and effort can be put into it.

Contact Nick Kotsopoulos at nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @NCKotsopoulos