Lawrence, Massachusetts

This fascinating visual history chronicles the growth of a city that began to rise from the plains of the Merrimack River in 1845.

Conceived, financed, and managed by Yankee capitalists and designed to be a model town, Lawrence was among the earliest planned manufacturing communities in the country and it quickly became the largest wool manufacturing center in the world. From the outset, Lawrence was the gateway to America for thousands of immigrants; here they found work, acquired skills, learned English, educated their children, and eventually became citizens. By 1910, almost 90 thousand people--representing 25 nationalities and speaking 40 languages--had made their home within the seven square miles that constitute Lawrence. Their unique story is told through images cherished in photograph albums and old cardboard boxes, and gathered over the decades from the tenement attics and basements of those who actually lived the lives shown in these photographs. The images vividly portray America's industrial and immigrant past, and show the lives, work, aspirations, pleasures, and sometimes the suffering, of the people who created the city of Lawrence. This collection is the first extensive photographic history of the city in over 75 years, and it offers more than 200 fascinating images from the renowned Immigrant City Archives--many of them rare and previously unpublished.