February is Black History Month. Gray Fitzsimons in 2011 created a downtown walking tour of sites associated with the anti-slavery history in Lowell. Gray, a former Historian at Lowell National Historical Park, offers extensive commentary on the twelve highlighted sites. He got an assist on this project from Martha Mayo, UMass Lowell librarian and director of the school’s Center for Lowell History at the Mogan Cultural Center. Martha herself has done significant research on African Americans in the city, notably the Lew Family history.

See the text and illustrations here, from the Center for Lowell History’s website.

When you get out on the streets in Lowell, you are walking into history with every step.

The Pollard Memorial Library on Merrimack Street is one of the sites on the walking tour. On the second floor inside there are extraordinary paintings of Civil War scenes. (Web photo courtesy of commons.wikipedia.org)