For 25 years, the citizens of Lawrence used wells and cisterns to supply water for domestic use. In 1848, John Tenney of Methuen, Alfred Kittredge of Haverhill, and Daniel Saunders of Lawrence, with other associates, formed a corporation called the Lawrence Aqueduct Company to bring water in... more

The Lawrence Municipal Airport was originally constructed in 1934 under the Civil Works Act. 312 acres of land in North Andover were acquired for the project. Today’s (2009) present configuration was finalized in 1946 with three runways. In 1968, both runways 05-23 and 14-32 were extended to... more

This growing collection includes photos of events that took place at the Lawrence Portuguese American club. The Club's soccer team is heavily featured.Biographical Note:     The Portuguese American community in Lawrence is as old as the city itself. When the city received its charter in 1853,... more

Lawrence Public Library photograph collections that were used as part of a Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System digitization project.

The Lawrence Public Library has a an interesting collection of maps and atlases. Represented here are individual maps of Lawrence and Essex County.

The Franklin Library Association was formed on March 31, 1847 with Capt. Charles H. Bigelow, the engineer, under whom the great dam was built, functioning as the library's first president. Abbott Lawrence donated $1000 to purchase books that would "tend to create mechanics, good Christians and... more

This collection contains photographs of the various schools in Lawrence, Massachusetts, as well as some class photos.

6,000 men from Lawrence served in the First World War. Lawrence’s first draft registration was conducted on June 5, 1917. The National Guard also prepared for deployment. In addition to the two regular infantry companies and the battery, the headquarters company of the 102nd Field artillery and... more

As a teenager in Baltimore, Lawrence Sykes discovered his love of photography, which initially he combined with sports, his other passion. Mr. Sykes, who became an accomplished athlete before choosing photography, art, and teaching as his life’s path. “The amazing Larry Sykes, a professor to... more

This collection includes documents relating to laws, regulations, and the general conduct of commerce during the period of dramatic change from the late-19th century through the Great Depression and World War II. 

The Lee Library Association was organized in 1874 and was granted the use of two large rooms in Memorial Hall. In 1903, funds were secured from Andrew Carnegie, the Town of Lee, and generous citizens to build a new library. The Lee Library--built from Lee marble and completed in 1907--is the... more

These plans are part of the Local History Collection at the Leicester Public Library. They are full sized architectural drawings related to the 1895-1896 construction of the Leicester Public Library at 1136 Main Street Leicester. The pink granite, Classical Revival style building was designed by... more

The items in this collection relate to the Leite and Loureiro families, two families who lived in Lowell, MA. The photographs mostly cover life in Lowell from the first half of the 20th century. Both families contributed to the cultural vibrancy of the local Portuguese American... more

Represented here are items that document history local to the town of Lenox, Massachusetts.

Presented here are items included in the time capsule sealed within the cornerstone of Leominster’s then-new municipal building during the town’s 175th-anniversary celebration on July 4-5, 1915. Later the same year, Leominster became a city. The capsule was remembered, located, and successfully... more

The photographer Leon Hampartzoum Abdalian was born in Cilician Armenia, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), circa 1884. He moved with his family to the United States in April of 1896 and eventually settled in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.It is not known if Abdalian had any formal training... more

Leonard Bernstein was born at Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Sunday, 25 August 1918. Lawrence was the home of his maternal family, the Resnicks, who came from Russia. He later lived in Boston and went on to become a renowned composer, conductor, pianist, author, and... more

Polish immigrants Jan Lesinski and his wife Weronika (Rusin) settled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, in 1909 and worked in the textile mills there for decades. Married in 1922, the couple raised a son and daughter in their home on Franklin Street. Weronika Lesinski died in Northampton in 1961,... more

This collection consists of items from the Lesley Dillingham Bangs Photograph Collection (PC058) collection hosted by Historic New England. Information about the items has been provided by the holding institution so that they may be included in Digital Commonwealth.

Modest about his abilities as a photographer (he called himself a camera-man, not a photo-journalist), Jones quietly built an unrivaled collection of photographic negatives, almost 40,000 of which were given to the Boston Public Library by his family in the early 1970s. The collection is a... more