New exhibition on the history of the fishing, whaling, and shell fish industries in Massachusetts

Opening this week at the State Library of Massachusetts is a new exhibition entitled “Exercised in Fishing”: A History of the Fishing, Whaling, and Shellfish Industries in Massachusetts. When William Bradford described the Plimoth Plantation settlers’ first harvest celebration in 1621, he wrote: “For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.” The harvesting of animals from the ocean continued to support Massachusetts and its residents for hundreds of years. This exhibition, drawn from the collections at the State Library of Massachusetts, traces that history from before the European settlements to the present.

The exhibition runs from June 6 through August 31, 2016. It can be viewed outside of the Library, Room 341 of the State House, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. 

June Author Talk: The Memoir Project: a presentation by instructors and memoirists from GrubStreet

The Memoir Project: a presentation by instructors and memoirists from GrubStreet

Tuesday, June 14, 2016—Noon to 1:00pm
State Library of Massachusetts—Room 341, Massachusetts State House


The State Library of Massachusetts invites you to join us on June 14th for a presentation on The Memoir Project, which provides writing workshops for Boston’s senior citizens, whose memoirs are then collected and published in anthologies. This project, launched in 2006 by the City of Boston and GrubStreet, a Boston-based creative writing center, has touched the lives of hundreds of seniors from each of Boston’s neighborhoods, allowing them to share their personal narratives to create a living history of Boston.

Chip Cheek, Head Instructor at GrubStreet, and GrubStreet writers Michelle Seaton and Kerrie Kemperman will speak about The Memoir Project and how it gives Boston’s seniors a meaningful artistic experience and allows them to share their memories of Boston throughout the decades. Joining the GrubStreet instructors will be four Boston-area memoirists: Carol D. Carter, Walter B. Jones, Alfred Stinson, and L. Madison Tucker, who will be sharing both their experiences with the Memoir Project and their special memories of life in the Boston area.

Our June Author Talk is free and open to the public, and copies of the Memoir Project’s publications will be available for purchase at the event. Please register online and join us June 14th at the State Library.

Laura Schaub
Cataloging Librarian

Massachusetts’ Tornado Alley

This week marks the 5th anniversary of the last deadly tornado to hit Massachusetts on June 1, 2011 that killed 3 and devastated parts of Springfield and central Massachusetts, hitting especially hard in the small town of Monson. Although tornadoes are a rare occurrence in Massachusetts, the state has had a number of deadly tornadoes throughout history with Worcester County claiming the title of “Massachusetts’ tornado alley” with 42 tornadoes recorded since 1950. In fact, the first probable recorded tornado sighting was made by Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop in his journal on July 5, 1643 of a “sudden gust” in northeastern Massachusetts that downed “multitudes of tress” and “lifted up [a] meeting house at Newbury.” He reported that one Native American was killed by a falling tree as a result of the storm.


The most deadly tornado to hit Massachusetts rated a strong F4 on the Fujita Scale and occurred 63 years ago on June 9, 1953. The tornado formed over the Quabbin Reservoir in Petersham and tracked through Barre, Rutland and Holden, continuing through the city of Worcester and then through the central Massachusetts towns of Shrewsbury, Westborough, and Southborough. The storm left 94 dead, 1,300 injured, and 15,000 homeless in its wake and still ranks as the 20th most deadly tornado in the United States to this day. The fury of the storm even carried debris over 110 miles to Eastham on Cape Cod. The day of the 1953 Worcester tornado was the first time in the history of Massachusetts that a severe thunderstorm watch had been issued and although forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Boston believed there was
a possibility for a tornado, they did not issue a warning to that effect for fear they would cause a panic among local citizens. As a result, this failure was the impetus for the implementation of a nationwide radar and storm spotter service by the Storm Prediction Center to provide daily storm predictions and advance warning of potentially deadly storms that has definitely saved lives in the years that have followed.

The State Library’s collections contain a fascinating, eyewitness chronicle of the 1953 Tornado by John M. O’Toole called Tornado! 84 Minutes, 94 Lives, a photograph collection of views of the devastation at the Great Valley Housing Project in Worcester, as well as two pictorial books on the destruction caused by the 2011 tornado:  Path of Fury and The 39-Mile Path of Destruction.


Judy Carlstrom
Technical Services

A Historic View of the Massachusetts State House exhibit

Our current exhibit, A Historic View of the Massachusetts State House, will close at the end of May, so if you haven't had the opportunity to view it in person you have one more week before it goes away. This unique exhibit displays historical images of the construction of the new State House. You can also check out parts of it in our Flickr page.

Alexander Hamilton: the Massachusetts Connection

No historical figure is hotter in the American imagination today than Alexander Hamilton: a hit Broadway show, saved from the brink of being replaced on the $10 bill, and now serving as an unlikely inspiration to some of today’s Republicans in 2016 for his long-ago example of opposing his Federalist Party’s fellow nominee for President in 1800, John Adams.

Hamilton first set foot on the North American Continent in October of 1772 right here in Boston after sailing from his birthplace, Nevis, in the British West Indies. While he quickly made his way to New York to begin his studies at King’s College (later to become Columbia University), Hamilton was greatly influenced in his beliefs by the protests he witnessed against excessive British authority taking place in Faneuil Hall during his stay in Boston. Hamilton’s lasting impact in Massachusetts ranges from his namesake town on the North Shore founded in 1793, the 26th governor of Massachusetts, Alexander Hamilton Bullock, who was named after him, as well as the impressive memorial granite sculpture by artist William Rimmer that was erected in 1865 that can still be found at the entrance to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall at Arlington Street.

The State Library of Massachusetts has a rich and eclectic collection of works on and by Hamilton ranging from an 1865 reprint of the original Federalist, numerous biographical works including a so-called “dramatized” biography (The Conqueror by Gertrude Atherton), complete sets of Hamilton’s compiled works, and even a fascinating pamphlet chronicling the Burr-Hamilton duel that eventually took Hamilton’s life in 1804. In his short 49 years, Hamilton left a legacy that still lives on in the United States of today.

Judith Carlstrom
Technical Services

Friends of the Library Newsletter -- May issue available

May Author Talk: Dr. James J. O'Connell

Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor by James J. O’Connell 
Wednesday, May 11, 2016—Noon to 1:00pm
State Library of Massachusetts—Room 341, 
Massachusetts State House


The State Library of Massachusetts is pleased to invite you to an Author Talk with James J. O’Connell, M.D., on Wednesday, May 11. Dr. O’Connell, author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor, will speak about his work providing health care services to the homeless population of Boston for over 30 years.

Dr. O’Connell is one of the founding physicians of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, started in 1985 with the goal to provide clinical services to homeless men, women, and children. This program now serves over 12,000 homeless people each year in Boston. Throughout his extraordinary career serving this often marginalized population, Dr. O’Connell has written essays, never intending to be published, chronicling the humanity and courage of those living a life on the streets. These essays have now been compiled and published as Stories from the Shadows, a book which, according to its foreword, “instantly and irrevocably transports you into a fascinating universe of individuals usually invisible to us … The riveting stories presented here capture each life in such moving and vivid detail that you will be forever changed.”

Dr. O’Connell’s talk is free and open to the public, and copies of Stories from the Shadows will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Please register online and join us May 11 at the State Library.

Laura Schaub
Cataloging Librarian