Eastern States Exposition

The Eastern States Exposition, or the Big E, runs from September 12th through the 28th this year. Above is a shot from the top of the Ferris wheel looking north towards Mt. Tom. The Big E illustrates not only the culture, products, and heritage of the six New England States; it also illustrates the phenomenon of what happens when tens of thousands of people converge upon an otherwise quiet town. As you can see, the fairgrounds is an island in a sea of Western Mass. green.

West Springfield, Massachusetts is the annual location the Big E and has been since its founding in 1917. Through the decades, through the boom of the 1920s when agriculture was becoming mechanized, through the Great Depression years, the wars, the eras which passed and made up our lives, the Big E has been one constant feature that begins our most celebrated New England autumn.


Here is a photo which marks one such event from a Big E and an autumn long ago: the Hurricane of 1938. The photos marks the high water point of the flooding on the fairgrounds. This Friday we begin a three-part series on the Hurricane of 1938.

Here is a link to the website of the Eastern States Exposition with information on events, exhibits, admission and times. Folks from all over New England (and even some of them outlanders from beyond) meet up here. I hope you can, too.

Over the bounding main.

Above, a woman rows a dory off the coast of Rockport, Mass.

Below, a sailboat navigates Nantucket Sound with Martha’s Vineyard in the background, while a passing gull launches itself across the sky.


Dories and sailboats have been with us as workhorses and pleasure craft, the object of artwork and handicrafts, gift shop trinkets, symbols of a seagoing way of life, and sense of freedom. Whether propelled by one’s own strength or the gift of the wind, the sense of freedom is perhaps the same.

Cape Neddick Light - York, Maine

The Cape Neddick Light in York, Maine is also called the Nubble Light, for the island rock on which it sits, called the Nubble.

First constructed in the 1870s, it was automated in the 1980s, and remains one of the most popular tourist destinations among lighthouse fans. A unique attraction is the Christmas celebrations when the lighthouse and outbuildings are illuminated with Christmas lights.

For more information on the history of this lighthouse and the stories of its keepers, have a look at this website.

One-Year Blog Anniversary

It has been a year since this New England Travels blog was started. Thanks for the pleasure of your company.

This month we’ll feature another lighthouse or two to cap off the summer, a nod to the Big E, and a three-part series on the Hurricane of 1938. I hope you can join us.

Labor Day for Industrial New England

Lest we forget, and leave the holiday entirely behind us, this is face of Labor Day. This day has become less political, less infused with debate on social issues, and become a more benign holiday. Perhaps we could say as much for Independence Day or Memorial Day, but then maybe backyard picnics have a way of lulling us into a sense of comfort. We need that. But the desire for comfort rather than the actual attainment of it is what labor was about in the era these photographs were taken.

The photographs in this post are not from my collection, but from the United States Library of Congress. They are from the records of the National Child Labor Committee, and all were taken by photographer Lewis Wickes Hine. They represent an industrial New England before the jobs went overseas, before they even went South. People from all over the world emigrated here for the work, not just for an idealized notion of freedom because the work itself represented freedom.

Pictured aboved, Clarence Wool was 11 years old, a spinner in a North Pownal, Vermont cotton mill. The year was 1910.


This little girl was a spinner in Fall River, Mass. in June of 1916.

Here is the spooling room in an Indian Orchard, Mass. factory.


Most were non-English speaking, many illiterate. These are children. This doffer, a boy who changes the bobbins in a cotton mill, is in Fall River, Mass.


These doffers are in North Pownal, Vermont in August of 1910.

Here is the noon lunch hour at the Sanford Manufacturing Company in Sanford, Maine, in April of 1909.

Here are some workers from the carding and weaving room of the Kilburn Mills in New Bedford, Mass., August 1911.

These girls work at the Amoskeag Mills in Manchester, New Hampshire, in May 1909.

When we fire up the grill, it’s appropriate to remember the “good old days”, and count one’s blessings.

King Richard's Faire - Carver, Mass.

Tomorrow begins the opening of King Richard’s Faire in Carver, Massachusetts. The knights on horseback shown above are ready to joust. The late summer air is filled with anticipation, excitement, drama, the scent of mulled drink, roasting fowl, and the sound of madrigals. Whether you be a comely wench or a noble squire, come all you down to southeastern Mass. and join the revels.

It’s the 27the season of the annual fair, running eight weekends until October 19th. In keeping with the costumed performers and merchants and artisans selling their wares, many of the fairgoers themselves dress in costume. If you’ve come empty handed, you can always rent one there. One of the sweetest things I saw at this fair, apart from little girls dressed as princesses, was the rough-looking biker dude who pulled off his motorcycle helmet, and plunked on a soft cloth jester’s cap with bells on it before going through the admissions gate. Hail and well met, Sir Biker Dude.


If you’ve ever felt like lustily chomping on a roast turkey leg and being as messy as King Henry VIII, or just enjoy a pleasant afternoon under a grove of trees in New England in late summer, join the peasants and the thieves, and the pirate queens, and the highwaymen, and the village idiots, and the executioner, and mostly, King Richard himself, at King Richard’s Faire.

For more information on the fair, kindly have a look at this website.

New London Harbor Light

Above is a photo of the New London Harbor Light of New London, Connecticut. It’s sometimes locally referred to as the Pequot Avenue Light to distinguish it from a handful of other lighthouses in the area. The US Coast Guard Academy includes some material on lighthouse history in its museum in New London, so this city is a good place to visit for lighthouse fans.

The New London Harbor Light was first constructed in the 1760s, and replaced with this structure in 1801. The 1857 Fresnel lens is still in use, and the lighthouse is still active as a navigational aid. The lighthouse tower is off-limits to the public. This beautiful structure can be seen best, as it is here, from the water.

For more information on the history of this lighthouse, kindly have a look at this website, and also this one.