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Paul Tsongas (photo courtesy of the Paul Tsongas Congressional Papers, UMass Lowell Libraries) With our eyes on TV coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine today, I was reminded of past fighting by Russians under the USSR banner at the time in the cities and hills of Afghanistan. The Soviets…
Read More »Lowell received its town charter in 1826 which means the city’s bicentennial is rapidly approaching, especially when you acknowledge that the founding of Lowell as an industrial center occurred several years before that. It just took the official town charter a couple of years to catch up. In honor of…
Read More »Contemporary readers might be surprised to learn that of the 47 individuals who have served as President of the United States, at least 15 of them have visited Lowell. Below is my list of the names and dates of these visits. If anyone knows of anymore, please let us know…
Read More »From the Pollard Memorial Library’s “Library History” webpage: Lowell’s public library was founded on May 20, 1844 by an enactment of the Lowell City Council. At the time, the idea of “free” public libraries supported by solely by municipalities was a relatively new one, but the leaders of Lowell clearly…
Read More »Little John and the Sherwoods Rocked the House By Paul Marion “. . . the most exciting and memorable days of my teenage years . . . .”—David Arsenault When “Light My Fire” was number one nationwide in August 1967, the Summer of Love, the Doors played the Commodore Ballroom,…
Read More »A Catholic Schoolboy Discovers The Beatles (Haverhill, Mass., 1964) By Mike McCormick THE AIR CRACKLED as my fifth-grade classmates hung up their coats on the metal racks in the back of the room at St. James School. “Did you see Ringo’s rings?” “I love ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand!’” “Who’s…
Read More »It Needs Sweeping by Susan April On November 25, 1968, The Beatle’s double LP White Album was released. I was twelve, in eighth grade, and I had to have it. Wish I could say I had been swept into Beatlemania after watching their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February…
Read More »The Beatles Land in Little Canada by Charlie Gargiulo An excerpt from Legends of Little Canada: Aunt Rose, Harvey’s Bookland, and My Captain Jack (forthcoming from Loom Press, 2022) Not long after New Year’s Day, we started to hear about a musical group from England called The Beatles. It was…
Read More »Lowell’s Mid-Century Modern Architecture: Eugene Weisberg By Marie Frank Marie Frank is the Director of the Art History and Architectural Studies Programs at University of Massachusetts Lowell. She holds a doctorate in Architectural History from the University of Virginia. Lowell’s nineteenth-century architecture dominates its skyline and the history books. But…
Read More »On Sunday, WBUR (Boston’s NPR radio station) posted a story about race or ethnic-based restrictive covenants in Massachusetts land records. The story also ran in Sunday’s Lowell Sun and was on the air and online from WBUR on Monday. Today I’ll supplement that story with additional information about the documents…
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