Abby Epplett, Historian

Today marks the second birthday of Abby Epplett, Historian . Two years ago, I posted my first review, which featured the “How Do You See the World?” Experience & Mapparium . Last year, on the first birthday of the blog , I counted down my top ten best performing posts, along with giving a general overview about blog viewership, and I will do the same this year. This is the 281 st post for the blog, bringing me to 156 posts in my second year, compared to 125 posts in my first year.

Last Sunday, March 19, I visited Old Slater Mill from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and joined a host of community groups advocating for the building of a fish passage. This is the third event I have attended to raise awareness around this issue, the first two being the Fish Passage Celebration in May 2023 , and Be the Voice of Kittacuck in October 2022 . Since the construction of dams in the 18th century to control water power on the Blackstone River and its tributaries, herring and other migratory fish have been unable to properly make their seasonal journeys. This has disrupted the ecosystem and badly affected fishers.

I had been meaning to watch the Ann & Hope Documentary by David Lawlor from  Run of the Mill , which debuted on YouTube in August 2023, and I finally got around to doing it! This fact-paced film gave the history of the three iterations of Ann & Hope — a boat, a mill, and a department store chain — through twelve chapters, with plenty of interviews, drone shots, music, and animation segments. Rhode Islanders who grew up near an Ann & Hope store will have the chance to reminisce, historians will enjoy the fact-packed content, and cinefiles will appreciate the clever editing. After an opening music video, “Chapter 1: The Creation of the Blackstone River Valley” and “Chapter 2: William Blackstone” focused on the history of the Blackstone valley before the Industrial Revolution. The film introduced park rangers Allison Horrocks (who frequent readers of the blog will remember from Parked at Home ) and Kevin Klyberg of Blackstone River Valley National Historical P...

Last Saturday, April 13, I finally visited the Massachusetts State Police Museum located down the street in Whitinsville, MA, which had received three previous mentions on my blog: during the 250 th anniversary of the founding of Northbridge, MA ; the National Park Service Ranger Walkabout “Wonders of Whitinsville” ; and my Quick History Stops of Whitinsville from a few weeks ago. I received a personalized one-on-one tour from a retired state trooper and learned both the history of the police force along with its connections to other events in Massachusetts history.

Last night — April 11, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. — was the sixth and final installment of the webinar series Parked at Home hosted by the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) . Park ranger Allison Horrocks led the session with guest speaker Andrew Donovan, supervisory park ranger at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site and Salem Maritime National Historic Site , which I most recently visited in October 2022 . Sherrolyn K. provided American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. I had last visited Saugus Iron Works about eight years ago and appreciated the opportunity to refresh my knowledge about post-medieval mills leading up to the Industrial Revolution. Horrocks explained that Saugus, MA and Pawtucket, RI — one of six sites within BRVNHP — shared a business connection. The founder of Pawtucket in 1671, Joseph Jenks Jr. , originally settled in Saugus with his father, iron worker Joseph Jenks Sr. Years earlier while in England, the Jenks Sr. had worked for ...

Last year during Day 2 of Smithsonian National Education Summit 2023 , I learned about Becoming US , a high school level educational resource for teaching about immigration and migration. Based on the website of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) , this resource includes classroom guides, a glossary, news articles, videos, and activities for students in 8 th through 11 th grade. Although I have not been in that demographic for over ten years, I enjoyed learning about these topics from multiple perspectives. About This section explained that the online project began in 2014 as part of a collection of in-person, print, and virtual productions. The exhibit Many Voices, One Nation and accompanying book Many Voices, One Nation: Material Culture Reflections on Race and Migration in the United States provided much of the material found in the lessons. Resources Preparing to Teach NMAH provides a forty-four page guide made in collaboration with Teachi...

Last night — Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. — was the fifth installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home hosted by Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) . This webinar featured curator Beth Miller of Edison National Historical Park as a guest speaking about the work of Mina Edison, “Home Executive of Glenmont”. Park Ranger Allison Horrocks began by describing the life of Betsey Fletcher Whitin , born April 1777 in Northbridge, MA. Her father, Colonel James Fletcher , built the community’s first iron forge along the Mumford River. He married Margaret Wood , the daughter of Colonel Ezra Wood , and inherited a “prime piece of real estate”. In 1793, when Betsey was sixteen years old, she married local blacksmith Paul Whitin , a partner at Fletcher’s Forge forger. Historians call this match “The smartest thing… Paul Whitin, Sr. could have ever done”. As “Cotton Mill Fever” hit the waterways of New England, Whitin and Fletcher established Northbridge Co...

Last night — March 29, 2024 — I watched the latest installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home hosted by the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) . During this webinar, chief of interpretation Todd Smith joined us from Fairbanks, AK to discuss Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) . Park Ranger Mark Mello began by remarking how people tend to look down at phones and tablets instead of up at nature even when visiting a national park. Mello grew up in a relatively rural part of southeastern Massachusetts where he saw many stars at night. He first experienced severe light pollution as a teenager when he visited Boston and realized he could not see the stars. In contrast, while working at Arches National Park , he saw significantly more stars than at home and understood why the area was dedicated an International Dark Sky Place . The first people to inhabit the Blackstone River Valley had a close connection to the sky. The name Wampano...

Despite all my travels, I have never done Quick History Stops for local towns. Since I completed updates on my adventures from last museum season, and the next season does not start until April, I will be revisiting small towns within the Blackstone River Valley to showcase all the history they have to offer. The first stop is Whitinsville, a village of Northbridge, MA and one of six sites in Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park . These quick history stops have some overlap with the Wonders of Whitinsville ranger-led walking tour from June 2023 and is based on a class that I taught through Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Tufts University . Overlooking the mills and Mumford River is the James Fletcher Homestead built in 1770. James Fletcher constructed a blacksmith shop near his home in 1772. Twenty-one years later, in 1793, Paul Whitin  married Fletcher’s daughter Betsey . By 1809, Whitin and Fletcher established Northbridge Cotton Manufacturing Comp...

Yesterday — Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 p.m. — I watched the third installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home featuring Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas with park archaeologist Jack Johnson. Park ranger Allison Horrocks of Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park started the webinar by explaining the migration of butterflies between New England and Texas, which takes four generations to complete. She compared this migration to “The Butterfly Effect”, a theory that small events can affect people around the world. In this way, the dam and mill in Pawtucket, RI built in 1793 started social changes and industrialization across the young United States.

Last night — Thursday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. — was the second installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home, a webinar series hosted by the National Park Service . In this talk, park ranger Mark Mello of Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park was joined by park ranger Rebecca Schroeder of the Ten Thousand Islands District of Everglades National Park to talk about the history of these sites as related to water.

The 2024 season of Parked at Home hosted by Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) returned last night — March 8, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. — with guest speaker and park ranger Samantha Baranski of First State National Historical Park (FSNHP) in Delaware.

In August 2023, I took a day trip to Cambridge, MA. My first major stop on my adventure was Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service (NPS). The double name of the property explains that the home was not only used leading up to the American Revolutionary War as a military headquarters for  General George Washington , but also as a family dwelling owned by poet and abolitionist Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . The standard tour of the interior, led by a park ranger, explored both time periods along with telling the story of how the house was lovingly preserved. Harry Dana & the Longfellow Legacy With a fully name of Henry “Harry” Wadsworth Longfellow Dana , the Harvard academic and expert on Russian drama preserved his family’s story, including extensive documentation and their historic home. Besides his love of literature and history, Dana was an early LGBTQ rights activist and union supportor...