History

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, here’s a poem (with some Lowell connections) by Billy Collins that we originally posted ten years ago on Sept 11, 2011.  The Names by Billy Collins Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night. A soft rain stole…

My recent post on the military history of the Lake Champlain region omitted mention that volunteer soldiers from this area – the town of Dracut, to be specific – participated in many of these engagements. In his poem “The War Place: The War of Independence” (reproduced below), Paul Marion makes…

William C. Crawford is a social worker, writer, and photographer who lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina. He was a photojournalist in Vietnam and has since written a number of books of photography and on other topics. The following story about Crawford’s friend and mentor Ollie Noonan Jr. (an AP…

Last week a friend emailed that he was taking a quick vacation trip to the shore of Lake Champlain. While the lake is a delightful destination relatively close to Lowell, I know it best as one of the most important places in American history, especially American military history. Noted British…

In 1930, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts observed its 300th anniversary, its tercentenary. To help commemorate the occasion, historical markers were erected around the state to mark important events in our history. The text of the markers was composed by Samuel Eliot Morison, Professor of History at Harvard University. The Secretary…

One of the oldest documents in the records of the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds was created in 1629. It’s a deed from a number of the various native American tribes in the Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire to John Wheelwright and several other residents “of the Massachusetts Bay…

Last Sunday, June 27, 2021, several hundred people from across the region gathered on Market Street at the Western Canal to witness the dedication of the Philip L. Shea Bridge. The cement and steel structure that was totally rebuilt in 2019 now bears the name of the only individual to…

In honor of Juneteenth, here are some snippets of African-American history with Lowell connections: Harry “Bucky” Lew, born in Lowell in 1884, was the first African-American to play professional basketball. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached in Lowell on April 12, 1953, at the First United Baptist Church on Church…