More from the Big E - West Springfield, Massachusetts

Lunch time.

 

Charming contestants.

 

Suppertime.

 

Cheering for hatching chicks louder than you've ever heard at the Super Bowl.

 

A newborn gladiator.  He'll be cuter in a little while when he dries out and

gets all yellow and fluffy.  Aww.

The Big E - Through Sept. 29th.

It's time for the Eastern States Exposition, or Big E, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, known as New England's "Great State Fair" in which all six New England states participate.  It runs every day  through Sunday, September 29th this year, so you've got plenty of chances to grab that caramel apple, that clam fritter, that Maine baked potato, that new gadget they're demonstrating you just can't do without, or yet another map of Vermont. 

Have a look here at the official website for more info on exhibits, contests, and attractions.

And food vendors.

See you there.

New Book - Ames Co. - a Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War

This is to announce a new book I'm publishing next month titled The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War.

It will be comprised of two essays previously appearing on this blog, in addition to a third article never before published, and will contain many photographs.   Here is an excerpt from the foreword:

The three articles that comprise this book tell different stories about the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, which played an important role as an arms manufacturer during the American Civil War.  Together, they make up a kind of composite of the Northern Civil War experience in the small, but dynamic, universe of a factory town.  We meet Nathan P. Ames and James T. Ames, brothers who founded the firm, the younger burdened with the responsibility after the tragic and grisly death of the older.

We meet two workers in the factory, one of whom, Charles Tracy, was a machinist who left his position to join the army, and came home without a leg—and was awarded the Medal of Honor.  He was cared for by Clara Barton--and comforted by President Abraham Lincoln on a visit to his hospital ward. The other man, Melzar Mosman, just a boy of nineteen, worked in the foundry department forging canon.  He also left to join the army, but after the war would become celebrated for forging bronze statuary, including a number of Civil War monuments.

We meet the townspeople of Chicopee, the minister who hid slaves on the local Underground Railroad, and the high school principal, who purchased a military substitute to fight in his place.  Later, he would become Governor of Massachusetts and the successful defense lawyer of the infamous Lizzie Borden.

 

More on this book when it is available both as an eBook and in paperback.

 

A last look at summer...Mystic Aquarium

A last look at summer, with a few of the outdoor residents of the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut.