Papers, pins, photographs, and documents from the estate of Joe and Mary (Taylor) McCarthy. The McCarthys had no children. The material consists of personal papers as well as documents related to WWII.
“A small (4 1/4" X 6 3/4") clothbound notebook containing many pages of notes, measurements and sketches of a number of different 'wagons' that were used to move bolts of material around in what I believe was the Lower Pacific Mills in Lawrence, MA. There are references to a 'warp room', 'spooling room', a wool washing room and so on. There is a handwritten note inside the notebook written on Lower Pacific Mills notepaper dated May 22,1900 addressed to G. H. James from George Oliver that includes a detailed sketch of a wagon and an order, including measurements, for this wagon to be built. The notebook also includes a few bits of what appear to be sample color swatches on paper and a detail of a design pattern that I cannot identify but are somehow related to the work being done at the mill.
This little notebook is in poor/fair condition and was rescued by my late mother, Joyce Butler, a well-known writer and local historian in southern Maine who also was the Curator at the Maine Historical Society and worked at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk for several years. I discovered it while going through her records following her death in 2023 and feel that it may belong in your archives.”
Books to be added to the Michael Nestervich Collection. Michael Nestervich was a WWII veteran who served in the Navy in the Pacific and went to school on the GI Bill when he came home. He attended Lowell Tech. His wife was a mill girl, a bobbin girl who eventually became floor manager. The material is comprised of published books, textbooks, recipe books and samples, tools, and artifacts.
A Manual of Engineering Drawing for Students and Draftsmen by Thomas E. French, 1947
America’s Fabrics/Origin and History, Manufacture, Characteristics and Uses by Zelma Bendure and Gladys Pfeiffer, 1947 (inscribed with Michael Nestervich)
1951 Yearbook “The Pickout” for The Lowell Textile Institute, Lowell, MA, featuring Michael Nestervich (only in a listing as he graduated in 1952) as well as other Lawrence graduates.
Brown family archives, 1890-1930. Many members of the Brown Family were architects and builders. The following info was provided by the donor:
“Horace Brown and his son Elmer Brown owned a building company in Lawrence, MA from the late 1800s to mid-1900s. They built many homes on Howard Street and Woodland Street on Prospect Hill in Lawrence.
The Woodland Street homes were primarily from East Haverhill Street to Platt Street. Professional photographs, ledgers, and documents included with this collection.
They also built the Walter G. Hall building on Essex Street in 1925. It was a hardware store. Walter G. Hall was my mother's father. My mother's name was Charlotte Hall Dallon. She was raised in one of the Woodland Street homes with her mother, Charlotte Miller Hall, her grandparents, Sarah and Joshua Miller, and her 3 brothers, Wallace, Russell, and Walter Hall.
I was raised in another one of the Brown-built homes, 418 Howard Street, with my parents, Charlotte Hall Dallon and Martin Clifford Dallon and my siblings.
The Browns also built 432 Howard Street, and their whole family lived there - Horace, his wife, their son Elmer and his first wife, Helena, and children and others unknown to me.
Elmer later divorced and married Florence Hall Brown. Elmer died in 1960 and Florence in 1964.
My husband Richard P Thibodeau and I purchased 432 Howard Street from my parents in 1976 and sold in 1986. The documents in this archive donation were found in the attic of 432 Howard Street.”