Ryan W. Owen, Writer and Photographer
An article by Lowell Historical Society Curator Ryan W. Owen appears in the May/June 2016 issue of Merrimack Valley Magazine, which hits Greater Lowell newsstands soon. Lowell has lots to see, and do! Some of Lowell’s best history-related points of attraction are featured in the article, A Peek into Lowell’s Past. The list includes the downtown […]
Read More
At the Lowell Historical Society, we run across some interesting items in our collection of historical artifacts. Recently, we came across this pocketwatch, dated 1900, with its old-timey reference tag still attached.
Read MoreAt the Lowell Historical Society, we get to see and study some really interesting artifacts, like the wooden stake from the Central Bridge fire of 1882 or the Hi Hat Guy from Lowell’s Hi-Hat Rollaway, or even the Box of Cinders from the Pollard’s Department Store fire of 1926. A lot of these, we inherited from long […]
Read More
During these last few weeks, we’ve been busy at the Lowell Historical Society. As we near the end of our 2013-2014 year, we had our annual meeting last weekend at Lowell’s Pollard Memorial Library where our society’s Vice President Kim Zunino spoke about some of the fascinating finds she’s encountered in the attic of Lowell’s City […]
Read MoreWe call him Hi Hat Guy, at the Lowell Historical Society, after the name of roller skating rink that is lettered across his red tie. To the modern eye, Hi Hat Guy looks a little like Phil Dunphy, at least at first glance. He’s the father figure played by Ty Burrell on ABC’s Modern Family. Hi […]
Read MoreWe’ve been active lately, at the Lowell Historical Society. Among the responsibilities of my role as curator of the society’s art and artifacts is not only to figure out and document what we have, but also to share this information with the public, many of whom have parents and grandparents (and maybe great-grandparents too) who […]
Read MoreMy fingers first brushed across the small metallic oval a few weeks ago. It was right next to Officer Lee’s Lowell PD badge. This very different badge was light, too old to be plastic. I figured it was probably aluminum. As I slid out the drawer at the Lowell Historical Society’s archive, the flourescent […]
Read MoreAt the Lowell Historical Society, we sometimes get the question: “Hey, what’s the strangest thing you have in your collection?” That’s a tough question to answer. The Lowell Historical Society has been around for a long time. I’m reminded of this each time I visit our archive. Just this morning, I found a book, one […]
Read MoreCheck out this badge. I came across it in the Lowell Historical Society’s vast archive, located in the city’s Boott Mills complex. As the society’s newly-appointed Curator of Art and Artifacts, I got to spend some time with the badge, recently, and other items that came with it. The badge, it turns out, comes from […]
Read More
Forgotten New England 