Mass Memories Road Show is a public history project organized by UMass Boston. It travels around the state and sets up shop in a particular community on a particular day. Residents of that community are then invited to show up with photographs, both old and current, that show the history of people and places in Lowell through the years. The pictures will be scanned onsite and immediately handed back to their owners who will be invited to provide descriptive information about the pictures. Here’s a link the the Mass Memories page for the Sharon, Massachusetts road show in case you want to get a sense of what kind of pictures folks in that town supplied.

The Road Show will visit Lowell on Saturday, March 24, 2012 from 10 am until 3 pm at the Tsongas Industrial History Center which is on the 4th floor of the Boott Cotton Mill Museum. Everyone is invited to attend. The following is the event’s official flyer which contains even more information:

The Mass. Memories Road Show in Lowell

The Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership of the UMass Lowell and Lowell National Historical Park, is celebrating 20 years of programs for school children, teachers, and the community. As part of our series of anniversary events, we are hosting The Mass. Memories Road Show in Lowell on Saturday, March 24, 2012.

We invite you to help spread the word and hope you will join us on this special day!

What is The Mass. Memories Road Show?
The Mass. Memories Road Show is a state-wide project that documents the people, places and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories provided by people in all of the 351 cites and towns that make up our state. The photos, stories, and memories contributed to a Road Show today will become tomorrow’s history, a history that anyone can enjoy and learn from at the Road Show website: http://www.massmemories.org/.

How can you participate?
You and your organization can help us encourage a large number and a true representation of Lowell residents, employees, and community members to come to the Road Show with up to three pictures that they talk about (and have scanned) so that their photos and stories are included in the state database. Participants can go home with a keepsake photo of themselves (holding their photo/s) and can even have their stories videotaped.

We invite you to

• come to the event with your OWN photos (up to three)
• hang flyers at your organization and around the city
• mention the event in your organization’s newsletter, e-mail listservs or website
• link to our Facebook event from your organization’s Facebook page.

For multiple copies of the flyer—or to request an electronic copy of the flyer—e-mail Ellen_Anstey@uml.edu with a count of how many you will need.

If you have any questions about the event, e-mail Ellen_Anstey@uml.edu or call 978-970-5080.

The Mass. Memories Road show is an initiative of the Massachusetts Studies Project in the University Archives & Special Collections Department of the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston and is co-sponsored by Mass Humanities.