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Poet Joe Donahue: Game-Changing Review of His Latest Books
Michael Leong in the online cultural publication hyperallergic.com contributes what could be a game-changing review of recent books by poet Joseph Donahue (Lowell-connected and holder of an endowed professor’s chair at Duke University). Here’s the opening paragraph: Among contemporary American poets, Joseph Donahue is an underrecognized master. For years, he…
Read More »Garden & Yard Notes, South Common Historic District
I will post updates on the wild and cultivated things around my house this spring and summer in the spirit of the “Flowering City” concept of our community. These are my notes from yesterday when the morning air was cooler than today.—PM The air still has a chill in it…
Read More »Tourist in Your Own Town
About ten years ago, there was an annual program called “Be a Tourist in Your Own Town” organized by the Lowell Historic Board, Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitor Bureau, National Park Service, and others. It was a franchise-type operation like the various “First Night” celebrations around the country. I…
Read More »Cambodian History: A Brief Review
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s vote by the Lowell City Council to renounce the upcoming visit to the city by Hun Manet, a general in the Cambodian Army and the son of that nation’s prime minister, a number of non-Cambodian residents have expressed their unfamiliarity with Cambodian history and politics.…
Read More »From the Lowell Historical Society Curator: The Pocketwatch
From time to time Lowell Historical Society Curator Ryan Owen gives us a look at a gem from the LHS collection. Here Ryan shares the latest in his post about a nearly forgotten time piece on this blog site “Forgotten New England.” The back of the pocket watch, Lowell Historical Society Collection.
Read More »Community Preservation Awards Nominations
Here’s the link for the 2016 nominations for Community Preservation Awards offered by Lowell National Historical Park in collaboration with the Lowell Heritage Partnership. The deadline is April 8. Categories are Cultural Heritage and Historic Preservation. The awards are presented in a classy ceremony during the week of the Doors…
Read More »Primary Rant
New York, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oregon, Indiana, Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona, and many other states have not yet held primaries or caucuses for the presidential race, and yet the media experts are in a rush to declare victors on both sides. This is what’s wrong with the approach used every four…
Read More »Parker Lecture this Sunday: The Solon Perkins Flag
This coming Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 2 p.m. at the National Park Visitor Center at 246 Market Street, Lowell, I will be presenting a Moses Greeley Parker lecture. My topic will be the Solon Perkins flag. Perkins is best known for his service as a Union Cavalry officer in…
Read More »Parker Lecture: Empire of Cotton
Last evening, I joined an overflow crowd at Lowell National Park Visitor Center to hear Harvard history professor Sven Beckert talk about his bestselling book, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (chosen by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2015; also a finalist for…
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