A Visit to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts

New England Quilt Museum

18 Shattuck St., Lowell, MA 01852

P: (978) 452-4207

https://www.neqm.org

This little gem museum is in the center of Lowell and on the corner of two cobblestone streets! I haven't been there in over 13 or so years and thought it was time for another visit because of two reasons. The first was, this time I could take photos for this blog, in the past, it wasn't allowed.

The other reason for visiting was to honor my mother. She was a long-time dedicated volunteer for the museum and a quilter. I recently came across a notecard from her (written when the museum was in another location) and her last line was about the museum. She died on her bike at the age of 70, 31 years ago. I'm also sharing an appreciation notice from the museum written after her death. She even rode her bike 15 miles to get to the museum.

I know there are a lot of genealogy friends who love quilting, so this is for you, those who love to quilt, and those who love Lowell. I, however, do not quilt.

The Yellow and Orange collection was in the central exhibit area. I believe all of these quilts were made in Pennsylvania. There are several separate rooms housing special collections like the Modern quilts, the permanent collection of Nancy L. Donahue of Lowell, and several rooms had holdings made by Wendy Caton Reed of Bath, Maine.

The above and below are my favorites.

Looking out the back window you'll see Merrimack St., the Lucy Larcom Park, and the building addition to the Lowell High School.

This small square is in the large hanging above. Can you find it?

The first floor has a nice gift shop and class rooms for lessons.

The backside of the museum at Christmas..

This card folds over.

She drew the arrows with appropriate building names on tissue paper to show me where things were when I placed it on the card (see below).

I just read the Spring/Summer 2015 newsletter of the

FRIENDS OF THE BRUCE FREEMAN RAIL TRAIL. There was mention of my mother 25 years after her death. I'm sharing it because it shows how much she loved biking.

Two samples of my mother's work.

21 Years ago, Everything was about Quilts.

Putting My Lives Together

A little update. I have not posted a blog since December 2019, but I feel like I've been blogging the entire 2020 year posting to my journal in a private blog. The working title is called Putting My Lives Together and I thought it was an appropriate title because I was constantly getting my life's facts wrong. This isn't like a genealogy post or research, but I was dealing with my own documents and memory. The thing that started me on this trail was I discovered I had seen the Gateway Arch in St. Louis three times instead of one time, and since I didn't remember that, I decided to do something about it.

So, my 2020 New Year's Resolution was to do a journal about my life. I knew I had lived in 18 different locations covering four states (California, Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts, and a few months in Texas when I was in the service).  I also remember the four different fourth grades (in three different states), and the two high schools in different towns in Massachusetts, the last year was my senior year.

I've never used scrapbooks or journals, but I did have a 5-year diary for years 1963/4-68, and a lot of loose papers, some with a date of what I did. However, I was a huge collector of mementos, playbills, tickets to concerts, theaters, various events, a lot of letters because I was always moving, flyers, newspaper clippings, photos, and other items. These were always stored in a big Rubbermaid container. Nothing organized (just like genealogy sometimes). When I began going through my paper treasurers, I found my baptism certificate and had no idea I had been baptized in Illinois! That along with finding photos of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis got me thinking about my life. I also couldn't remember the chronological order of some of my jobs and dates to many of my moves. And, the letters from my grandparents, aunt, and mother (hidden away for 25 to almost 50 years) provided a wealth of information. I had everything saved that mattered.

In January 2020 I made eight piles of what I wanted to cover. Where I lived, various friends in each location, jobs, plays, my family, trips all over the United States. Doing this helped me immensely. I always knew I saw the St. Louis Gateway Arch in 1979 with my sister on a west-to-east coast road trip. but I had completely forgotten a 1988 trip from Virginia to the midwest with my husband, and a 1976 road trip from Virginia to St. Antonio. Thank goodness I had photos of all three and they were dated on the back. New York City trips were pretty much jumbled, I just knew I visited about 25 times, but with whom, where did we stay, and what we did was driving my mind crazy.

Fortunately, after a week or so, I got the piles done but wasn't sure how to begin putting them together. So, I began with Journal #1 sharing all I knew about my birth in New Britain, CT, and that my grandmother was the attending nurse. My grandfather was an architect of the house, and I only lived there for about 9 months before moving to California...that location was covered in Journal #2.

When I began this journal I told my husband that I would allow myself one year. So, my friends, this is why I didn't write any genealogy blogs last year. The project was very therapeutic because my husband died on April 14th. Throughout the 2020 year, many of my memories with past boyfriends and former husband, my DAR and VA jobs in Virginia cheered me up. My husband and I began our lives together about 52 years ago, so there was a lot of coverage regarding him, both in Massachusetts and Virginia.

We loved genealogy, cemeteries, and libraries. This is my favorite photo of him. Thank you Bill for the memories.

I put this information into a new Blogger file, printed it out in color, and copied it to Dropbox. I went through so much ink and paper of course, but the 350-page pile was worth it.

If I had children, I believe this would be something they could be interested in, rather than reading about the old people in my genealogy reports.

So, I have spent the last few days working on some posts, one is recent, the others were done in a draft in 2019. You will see a few new posts down the road very soon.

Historical Society of Wells and Ogunquit, York Co., Maine

Historical Society of Wells and Ogunquit, York Co., Maine

938 Post Rd

Wells, Maine 04090

(207) 646-4775

https://www.wellsogunquithistory.org/

The Historical Society of Wells and Ogunquit in Maine is on Route 1, a heavily traveled road during the summer. Most people don't expect to see a historical society in a church, so they are surprised when they discover that fact. My husband and I have been members for close to 20 years. My husband has quite a few local ancestors and relatives, but I have none. The library has holdings for all the New England states, and I believe the complete set of TEG (The Essex Genealogist) journals. The inclusion of a museum in the church is a benefit.

Table space was limited because the archivist was working on an exhibit. Seeing those items was a bonus.

The rooms below were in the process of being painted and prepared for the new historic exhibits.

Bryce Waldrop, the administrator, showed me a copy of an original photo taken when the church had a memorial service shortly after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Looking at the back of the church. 

Front hallway, and door to the right. However, to enter the Historical Society, the door is at the back of the church.

The Google map shows the Historical Society at the bottom of the map.

Waves and Furrows (December 2019) is the name of the newsletter for the Society. I'm sharing an old page because I love the Harbor Candy Shop in Ogunquit, and I wanted to share a bit of information. (If you are in the area, I suggest you stop in for some candy.)