“Short pay! All out!” The Great Lawrence Strike of 1912 is now open on the 6th floor of the Everett Mill, 15 Union Street, Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Exhibit Hours:
Thursday through Saturday
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM
and by appointment by calling the Lawrence History Center at 978-686-9230.
The exhibit is free and open to the public and is fully accessible at the rear entrance to the Everett Mill.
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“Susan, there are over 200 students downstairs waiting to get into the freight elevator,“ whispered LHC Board President, Pamela Yameen, to LHC Executive Director, Susan Grabski on the snowy morning of Thursday, January, 12, 2012. And so began the opening of the bilingual exhibit, “Short pay! All out!" The Great Lawrence Strike of 1912, Bread & Roses Centennial.
100 years to the day after the Great Lawrence Strike of 1912 began, in the place where the strike began, the Lawrence History Center welcomed roughly nearly 500 guests into its 3,000 square foot exhibit space for the exhibit opening and to launch the year long, city wide calendar of events to commemorate the Centennial of the Bread & Roses Strike of 1912.
On behalf of the LHC Board of Directors, Staff, and Volunteers, LHC Director, Susan Grabski, welcomed guests and thanked supporters of and contributors to the development of "Short pay! All Out!"
Grabski then introduced a speaking program that included Marianne Paley Nadel (Everett Mills), Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (Massachusetts’ Fifth Congressional District), State Senator Barry Finegold (Massachusetts’ Second Essex and Middlesex District), Steven Tolman (President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO), Jacqueline Cooke (Regional Administrator, Women's Bureau , U.S. Department of Labor), Rocío Sáenz (President, SEIU Local 615), and Professor Robert Forrant (Chair, Bread & Roses Centennial Committee).
To view excerpts of the speeches, skillfully filmed by Lorre Fritchy of MasterPeace Productions, please visit the Lawrence History Center's YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/lawrencehistory
Guests also enjoyed a scene from "American Tapestry: Immigrant Children of the Bread and Roses Strike" performed by Theatre Espresso.
The Ribbon Cutting was led by members of the Lawrence History Center Board of Directors, Bread and Roses Centennial Steering Committee, Linda and Jurg Siegenthaler (Bread & Roses Heritage Committee), Jonas Stundza (Strikers’ Monument Committee), David Meehan (Strikers’ Monument Committee, Leslie Costello (Essex Art Center), and Louise Sandberg (Lawrence Public Library).
The Lawrence History Center would like to thank our speakers, performers, and guests for making the day a success and so uniquely special. We would especially like to thank our guest of honor, Salvatore Savinelli, who, at 104 years old was the only person in the room who was alive during the time of the strike. In 1912, Salvatore's father was charged with caring for the Lawrence children who were sent away to Barre, VT for safety reasons as conditions worsened for strikers and their families. Salvatore is the blurred image of a boy standing on his father’s right side in the photo below (Courtesy of the Barre Historical Society). He was, without a doubt, the most important person in the room on the morning of January 12, 2012! 
An Online Bread & Roses Exhibit was also launched on January 12, 2012. Please visit http://exhibit.breadandrosescentennial.org/. Mounted within "Short pay! All out!" is an "International Labor Poster Exhibit" by Stephen Lewis, SEIU Local 509 The Centennial celebration is off to a great start!!!
