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The following was originally posted on today’s Substack newsletter. In the future, I will continue transmitting my weekly Lowell Politics newsletter via Substack at 4am on Sundays, but will publish the same content here on richardhowe.com a few hours later. **** I was away last week and was unable to…
Read More »The following originally appeared in part in the 2022 book, Lowell Irish 200. It was also distributed last Sunday as my Substack newsletter on Lowell politics. In the state election held on November 4, 1942, Lowell residents voted to change the city’s charter. By a vote of 16,477 in favor to…
Read More »Thomas Handasyd Perkins – One of Boston’s most successful merchants, Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1764-1854) began as a slave trader out of Haiti and then shipped Turkish opium to China for fine silks and crockery. A model of respectability at home, he supported the Boston Athenaeum and a school for the…
Read More »John Lowell Jr. – The eldest child of Francis Cabot Lowell, John Lowell Jr. moved to Lowell in 1825 where he became one of the principal shareholders of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company and led the effort to annex the Tewksbury neighborhood of Belvidere to Lowell. Tragedy struck in 1830 John…
Read More »Once Upon a Time There Was a Golden Age of Scandinavian Cinema – or Was There? By Malcolm Sharps Malcolm Sharps recalls the films that first drew him to cinema and had an impact on him that no later films could ever have. The importance you allot to those things…
Read More »The Battle of Gettysburg was fought from July 1-3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The United States Army was commanded by Major General George G. Meade. The Confederate Army was commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Before the battle, Lee tried to capitalize on the momentum…
Read More »This weekend, 160 years ago, America was in the midst of its Civil War. On July 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln received word of two great victories by the United States Army. The first was the better-known battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The other the more obscure, but perhaps more strategically…
Read More »Kirk Boott Born in Boston but sent to England to attend Rugby School, Kirk Boott (1791-1837) saw action in the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon as a British Army officer. He returned to Boston in 1817, befriended Patrick Tracy Jackson and was appointed agent to the Boston Manufacturing Company. He moved…
Read More »The following is one of an occasional series of posts I’m doing in recognition of Lowell’s upcoming bicentennial in 2026. These and future profiles were first featured in my 2012 book, Legendary Locals of Lowell. Francis Cabot Lowell Francis Cabot Lowell (1775-1817) graduated from Harvard College then set up as a…
Read More »When Paul Marion and I launched The Lowell Review three years ago, we wanted to create a print product that contained original prose and poetry from writers from or connected to the Merrimack Valley. We were partly inspired by a two-part article called “In the Valley of the Poets” that…
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