Patriot Ledger reports on Digital Commonwealth collection
The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, MA) headlined its A GOOD AGE column on January 21, 2019, “Discovering a 20th Century Boston ‘camera man’“. The ‘camera man’ is Leslie Ronald Jones of Digital Commonwealth’s extremely popular Leslie Jones Collection from the Boston Public Library. The Patriot Ledger highlights photos of interest to their readership, like shipbuilding in…
New Collections Added to Digital Commonwealth in December
Digital Commonwealth added a lot of new items to existing collections in December, but only Lincoln Public Library and the Massachusetts Archives added wholly new collections. The Archives added a small collection of photographs of founders and commissioners of the Metropolitan Park Commission. Lincoln uploaded the Isabelle Peirce Collection, which consists mainly of 19th century…
A Closer Look: Minnie Avery & bicycle on road between Lenox Dale and New Lenox
I have no idea who Minnie Avery is or why she rode her bicycle out to the road between Lenox Dale and New Lenox at the turn of the 2oth century. It is enough for me that someone captured it on film. My first question is, “Why is Minnie Avery standing in what looks like…
New Collections Added to Digital Commonwealth in November
This month we welcome AgitArte, an organization of working class artists and cultural organizers, who added the scroll, one of their community art projects, at left. Almost unbelievably, the Medford Historical Society & Museum has added several hundred more Civil War photos and the Chicopee Public Library has allowed the harvest of two more collections.…
New Collections Added to Digital Commonwealth in October
Sometimes when I write these blog entries, I mention in passing that, ho-hum, the Boston Public Library or UMass/Amherst have added – again – to their extensive holdings. I like to shine the spotlight on the little guy, like Northfield Mount Hermon or the Sandwich Town Archives. Then I see this month’s addition by UMass/Amherst…
Spotlight on…19th Century American Trade Cards
Written by Anne Berard, Reference& Outreach Librarian, Milford Town Library While the earliest advertising cards first circulated in London, Lyon and Paris in the late 17th century, advances in color lithography and printing in the 19th century made them easier to produce and more ubiquitous. Everything from soap, thread, perfume, hats, shoes, coffee, candy and more were marketed…