Ralph Fasanella’s painting “Lawrence 1912: The Bread and Roses Strike”

The history of the Merrimack Valley is twined throughout with many significant issues and events – many related to the causes of the Labor Movement in America. I caught this article the other day in the Eagle Tribune that gives us a heads-up on the centennial remembrance of the Great Strike of 1912 in our sister-city of Lawrence Massachusetts. This importance historical event is better known to some as the “Bread and Roses” strike.

UMass Lowell professor Bob Forrant is the Chairman of the Bread and Roses Centennial Committee who working with the Lawrence History Center and grants from Mass Humanities and the Massachusetts Cultural Council is mounting an commemorative exhibition at the Everett Mill.The exhibit will include a display of the famed labor activist and artist Ralph Fasanella’s original paintings – the most famous being “Lawrence 1912: The Bread and Roses Strike” which is on permanent display at the Lawrence Heritage State Park.

Read the full article here and get the story of the 1912 strike and the range of actvities planned for the centennial come January, 2012.