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This article originally appeared in the Summer 2021 edition of The Epitaph, the quarterly newsletter of Lowell Cemetery. Dr. Gilman Kimball (1804-1892) During the second half of the nineteenth century, Lowell became the center of the lucrative patent medicine business. Three of the primary purveyors – James C. Ayer, Charles…
Read More »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…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Any-reason absentee voting, expanded early voting, drop boxes, all designed to limit exposure to COVID-19, all worked to enhance Massachusetts voter turnout for the 2020 election. 3.7 million – 76 percent of those registered – turned out, the…
Read More »Congratulations to LaLa Books which had its grand opening last Friday (July 23) at 189 Market Street (next to Warp & Weft). I visited on Saturday and was impressed with what I saw. It’s spacious and well laid-out and from its appropriately-sized inventory of books on the shelf, I found…
Read More »A World Underground: Summer Rains Set Off a Merrimack Valley Mushroom Explosion By Doug Sparks This has been and will likely continue to be an exceptional year for Merrimack Valley mushroom hunters because of the unusual volume of rain. Unfortunately, it’s also a great year if you happen to be…
Read More »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…
Read More »Langston Now By David Daniel He was the original marijuana maven. Gastronome of ganja, raja of reefer, sultan of spleefs, hipster of hemp . . . the sobriquets pile up. Skoobie doobie, Puff buff. Not that anyone called him by anything other than his name. Langston. No tie-dyed hippie, he…
Read More »Boarding School Blues By Louise Peloquin Ch. 16: Parlez-vous? The rooftop escapade created a special bond between Titi and Blanche. Their comings and goings had gone undetected but Titi often made conspicuous references to a cigarette shared in the middle of the night. With a pencil between her fingers, she…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. When it comes to securing voting rights, rhetorical flourish will go only so far. At his eulogy for civil rights icon John Lewis last year, former President Obama waxed eloquent in support of comprehensive legislation. Last week in…
Read More »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…
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