2019.033.002

This is a scrapbook about the water department in Lawrence, a less comprehensive addition to another municipal water department scrapbook donated at the same time. The topics of this scrapbook include obtaining a new water supply for Lawrence due to the citizen’s distrust of the Merrimack River, the difficulty of curbing this distrust despite water department engineers assuring the safety of the filtration system and the constant search for a water supply/solution to the Merrimack’s appearance. The articles in the scrapbook jump from year to year, ranging from 1913 to 1923, and though most of the articles surround the topics listed above, some miscellaneous articles are also present. These include stories about Lawrence obtaining new and improved firetrucks, quarrels at Lawrence Water Department board meetings, and the opening of the Cambridge Filtration plant. As stated by the articles in the scrapbook, water department engineers in 1923 tried quite hard to reassure the citizens of Lawrence that, despite the look of the water in the Merrimack, the improved filter systems made the water 100% consumable according to health regulations. This filtration system even allowed for the water department to cut the cost of water for citizens, a move intended to appease Lawrencians until the legal barriers stopping Lawrence from obtaining a water source outside of the state were solved, as any attempt to obtain one within the bounds of Massachusetts proved either inconsequential or temporary at best.

A black U-File-M Reference Album, a particular type of scrapbook using a patented adhesive tab system to adhere clippings to the book.