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Center for Lowell History, UMass Lowell Archives and Special Collections

Almshouse Records

Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Records [1854-1884]

This collection consists of digitized patient intake records from the Tewksbury State Almshouse dating primarily from 1860 to 1884. These records consist of hand-written interviews with patients at the time of admittance.

City of Lowell Documents

Atlases and Maps Lowell, Massachusetts

Contained in this set are atlases, which show lots, buildings, and property for the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. There are additional Lowell maps showing some buildings, wards, and streets.

City of Lowell Department of Planning and Development Collection

This Guide aims to bring together publications, reports, and archival materials created by the City of Lowell Department of Planning and Development. The Building Book, The Sign Book, and the Chapel Hill, brochure exist in hard copy within the UMass Lowell Libraries, Center for Lowell History holdings but are available here in digital form for convenient access. The Planning and Development Reports are comprised of photographs and brief descriptions of Lowell buildings as they existed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Over three thousand of these building reports were digitized through a 2016 Lowell Community Cultural grant.

Lowell City Documents

This collection of official city documents issued by the City of Lowell, Massachusetts includes the Municipal Register along with the annual reports of the City's various departments and offices; it covers the years 1862 to 1928

Lowell City Engineers Collection

The Lowell City Engineers Collection (1916 -1932) is comprised of photographs documenting the work history of the City Engineers and the Department of Public Works. The City Engineers provide analytical analyses and design, develop plans and specifications, and estimates management, coordination, and construction support for the DPW. These images were created to record road and sidewalk construction and repair and to document Lowell buildings and parks, as well as their demolition or reconfiguration. Since some residents were caught on camera during the process, the collection also has an aspect of street photography. 

Community Archives

Little Canada Collection

This collection contains images of Lowell's "Little Canada" neighborhood, which was torn down to make way for urban development. "L'ptit Canada" was home to French Canadians and their descendants who had settled in Lowell at the turn of the century.

Portuguese American Digital Archive 

UMass Lowell's Portuguese American Digital Archive follows in the tradition of an archive devoted to a particular ethnic and cultural group, and concentrates on collecting and preserving archival resources associated with Portuguese communities in the Greater Boston Area. And PADA’s collections reveal the many ways in which generations of Portuguese shaped the region’s culture and society, documenting the struggles and achievements of individuals, families, and organizations. While PADA focuses on the various facets of Portuguese communities and culture, it also seeks to foster a greater understanding of the immigrant experience in the United States.

Southeast Asian Digital Archive

The UMass Lowell Southeast Asian Digital Archive is a community-centered archive of cultural heritage materials from Southeast Asian American communities in the greater Lowell, Mass., region. The Southeast Asian Digital Archive seeks to collect, preserve, and share historical materials related to Southeast Asians in the Greater Lowell area, with particular focus on refugee resettlement and community building from the 1970s to the present. Our goal is to highlight Southeast Asian voices and viewpoints, and to educate the public about the resilience and diversity of Southeast Asian Americans.

Educational Publications and Yearbooks

Greater Lowell Educational Publications and Yearbooks

This collection is made up of yearbooks, literary magazines, and other materials published by educational institutions in the Greater Lowell, MA area.

Lowell History Publications and Exhibits

Organizations

International Institute of Lowell

This collection is composed of client records, annual reports, budgets, Board of Directors meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, club documents, and more from the International Institute of Lowell between 1918 and 1999. Material is related to all functions and services of the International Institute during the 1900s, including clubs, classes, case management, event planning, and administrative documentation. The bulk of the collection is focused on the 1940s through the 1980s.

Lowell Institution for Savings Collection

The Lowell Institution for Savings was established in 1829 as a savings bank to serve the people of the rapidly growing mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts. The bank served clients from the wealthy mill owners to the immigrant laborers and mill girls. This digital collection contains history and records of the early years of the Lowell Institution for Savings. Additional physical records can be found at the Center for Lowell History, University of Massachusetts Lowell.  

Politicians

Butler Ames Collection 

Butler Ames (1871 - 1954) was born in Lowell, the son of General Adelbert Ames and the grandson of General Benjamin Butler. He was a politician, soldier, engineer, inventor, and businessman. He held the offices of alderman of the city of Lowell, representative in the Massachusetts State Legislature, and congressman in the U. S. House of Representatives. Ames served in the military during The Spanish-American war and World War I, where he was Major General of the Massachusetts State Guard. He was president of the United States Cartridge Company, treasurer of the Heinze Electric Company and the Wamesit Power Company, and vice president of the Ames Textile Corporation.

Niki Tsongas Social Media Collection

Nicola Dickson Sauvage Tsongas served as the Massachusetts 3rd congressional district representative (2007--2019). The Niki Tsongas Social Media Collection was created by UMass Lowell Libraries to supplement ARCHIVEIT's work capturing Tsongas' web presence and focuses on preserving the Congresswoman's Instagram and Flickr accounts. These platforms give a comprehensive representation of her engagement with her constituents and documents public events that she sponsored or attended.

Paul Tsongas Digital Archives

Paul E. Tsongas, a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, served two terms as the 5th Congressional District’s U.S. Representative (1975 - 1979) followed by one term in the U.S. Senate before ill health forced his early retirement in 1985. Despite his short time in national politics, Paul Tsongas achieved a remarkable impact, particularly in areas of environmental and economic policy. His pursuit of liberal ideals culminated in a popular run for President in the 1992 Democratic campaign. UMass Lowell Libraries has digitized over 10,000 documents from the Paul E. Tsongas Congressional Collection as part of a LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant, "Digitizing Historical Resources," awarded by the MBLC (Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners) in 2010 for FY 2011.

Lowell National Historical Park

Lowell Cultural Resources Inventory

Collections for the Lowell Historical Architectural Inventory. These collections are the Lowell Massachusetts: Building Surveys Overview Reports, Lowell Neighborhoods: Historical and Architectural Survey, and the Lowell Cultural Resources Inventory.

Lowell Cultural Resources

Report and Cultural Resources Inventory of the Lowell National Historical Park and Preservation District prepared for the Division of Cultural Resources, North Atlantic Regional Office, National Park Service by Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, Architects, Boston, Massachusetts, 1980. In 1979, after legislation creating the Lowell National Historical Park and the Lowell Historic Preservation District was adopted, the Park commissioned a survey of all the properties within the Preservation District [134 acres] including commercial, residential, recreational, municipal, and industrial sites.

Lowell Massachusetts: Building Surveys Overview Reports

This collection consists of items from the Lowell Massachusetts: Building Surveys Overview Reports collection hosted by University of Massachusetts Lowell Libraries.

Newspapers

Greater Lowell Newspaper Archive

This collection brings together digitized copies of historical and contemporary newspapers from the Greater Lowell, Massachusetts area, including newspapers put out by schools, clubs, and other organizations beyond the traditional sources. All copies on here are available in high-quality, text searchable PDFs.

Photograph and Video Collections

Films of the Vozeolas Brothers

From the 1940s to the 1970s, Lowell, MA brothers, El and Arthur Vozeolas made their own home-grown documentary films with 8mm and 16mm cameras as they attended civic events, football games and other major events in Lowell, and elsewhere. Working with their family, El Vozeolas donated the films to UMass Lowell, which preserved and digitized them in conjunction with the Hellenic Culture and Heritage Society. The project was funded in part by a grant from the Lowell Cultural Council, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

George Russell Photograph Collection

George Russell was an early 20th century commercial photographer based in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was known for large, panoramic, group photographs. He traveled throughout New England photographing class graduations, group outings, conventions, social events, and fraternal, military, and union organizations. In the 1990s, his estate donated to the Lowell Historical Society those photographs with Lowell connections.

Lowell Stereoview Collection

Lowell Stereoviews 1860s-1890s were selected from collections owned by the Lowell Historical Society and the University of Massachusetts Lowell and housed at the Center for Lowell History. These Stereoviews show three-dimensional images of various places and topics, allowing armchair travelers to have a "you are there" experience. 

Lowell TeleMedia Center (LTC)

LTC is an independent 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization that provides residents of Lowell and Surrounding areas the training and tools to create non-commercial television and radio programming that expresses their viewpoints and perspectives to the community at large. LTC members volunteer their times and talents at our productions facilities, working collaboratively to help create programs which are then aired on LTC's channels through your Comcast cable provider.

Pat Malone Lowell Slides Collection

This collection of slide transparencies, the majority of which were taken in the Merrimack Valley between the late 1960s and the 1990s, documents 19th Century urban industrial technology and were used by Prof. Malone in his teaching and public presentations. The primary focus of the collection is the Lowell, Massachusetts canal system, but it also includes other urban landmarks pertinent to Prof. Malone’s areas of study. 

Proprietors of Locks and Canals

Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River Engineering Drawings

Proprietors of Locks and Canals provided the engineering skills, capital, and managerial knowledge to build a complex canal system. In the 1950s, the Proprietors donated much of their technical library, architectural, and engineering drawings and photographs to the University.

University Archives

UMass Lowell Libraries Archives and Special Collections

Home page for the UMass Lowell Libraries Archive and Special Collections on InternetArchive

The Connector (1975-Present)

This collections presents digitized versions of the majority of "The Connector," the student newspaper and source of student news of the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The collection spans from 1975 to 2002, with a gap between 1980 and 1985. 

Elmer P. Trevors Lowell Textile Institute Glass Plate Negatives

The earliest incarnation of UMass Lowell, the Lowell Textile School was established in 1897. Modeled after the Polytechnical School at Philadelphia, the school originally opened in three rented rooms on Middle Street in downtown Lowell. The college offered three year diplomas in cotton or wool manufacture, design, or textile chemistry and dyeing. Tuition at the time was one hundred dollars. This collection brings together glass plate negative photographs of the faculty, students, and infrastructure of the LTS from 1922 to 1938. All of these photographs were taken by local photographer Elmer P. Trevors.

The Shuttle

The Shuttle was a bi-weekly publication produced by the University of Massachusetts Lowell's Office of Public Affairs during the 2000s. It was the primary means of communication for showcasing university achievements and milestones. The title derives from Lowell's textile history with which UMass Lowell's legacy institutions, the Lowell Textile School, Lowell Textile Institute, and Lowell Technological Institute were closely tied. In 2008 the cover title changed from "The Shuttle to the "UML Shuttle," while the attribution title remained "The Shuttle." Publication of the Shuttle ended as campus communication shifted to UMass Lowell "enews."

The Text (1919-1975)

The Text was the official student newspaper of the Lowell Textile School, and its successor schools, the Lowell Textile Institute, and the Lowell Technological Institute.

UMass Lowell Architectural and Campus History

A collection of materials from UMass Lowell Libraries Collections, documenting the architectural history of the UMass Lowell campuses. Files include, photographs, drawings, surveys, and Cultural and Architectural reports ranging in date from the 1890’s to the present.

UMass Lowell Center for Irish Partnerships

In September 2009, Chancellor Marty Meehan and Provost Ahmed Abdelal established the Center for Irish Partnerships at UMass Lowell, one of six international partnership centers. The aim of these centers is to strengthen and coordinate ongoing international partnerships as well as to develop new education and research partnerships in areas of the world that pose strategically important opportunities. The Center had four directors: Dr. Frank Talty, Dr. Stephen McCarthy, Professor Ann Marie Hurley and Victoria Denoon.

UMass Lowell Course Catalogs

This collection brings together course catalogs from UMass Lowell and its legacy institutions.

UMass Lowell Hang Gliding Club Collection

This collection consists primarily of photo and video of the club's activities, as well as the plans for an experimental graphite hang glider designed by ULowell student and club member Craig Douglas in 1980. The club was active from 1974 to the early 1990s.

UMass Lowell Nursing Collection

The UMass Lowell Nursing Collection was established in 1989 by UMass Lowell's Nursing Department and the local chapter of the National Nursing Honor Society to support and promote the study and research of nursing and health care through the records and collections of the University, local health care organizations, and nursing professionals.

UMass Lowell Photos of People and Events

Walter Hayes Collection, The Allen House

The images of this collection are from Walter E. Hayes, the chaffeur and groundskeeper of Governor Charles Herbert Allen's residence, "The Terraces," on Rolfe Street [now part of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, South Campus].

About Our Digital Collections

All of our online digital collections are housed on the following platforms. Click each image to view the complete list of items on each website.

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