To celebrate Annie’s work in and around Lowell, we’ve launched the 100 Posters Project. We are currently in the process of distributing 100 posters to local businesses, nonprofits and government agencies that now occupy buildings or have addresses on streets that Annie photographed one-hundred years ago. Our goal is to show how Lowell neighborhoods appeared in Annie’s time in relation to Lowell today.
About the 100 Posters Project
Poster 4 of 100
Train mechanics suited up
Billerica B & M repair shop, circa 1920
Surely the vested suits and hats the men wore that day were not standard issue for climbing up Locomotive No. 2724. This was a well-planned, unusual group photo at the Billerica B & M repair yard. These working guys may have been more comfortable dressed in work clothes and and hauling grease buckets and not standing around in their Sunday suits.
Some of the workers were identified by Marshall S. Morris, who donated the image to the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society. Standing upper left are: John A. Morris, foreman and his grandfather; and Ernest S. Morris, his father and the assistant foreman.
We also know from public records that Hubert Wood, then in his early 20s, would have been on-site. His aunt, who escorted his family from West Yorkshire, England to Lowell when he was 11 months old, was Annie Powell. Another likely person in the photo is Manuel Correa, who worked on that crew and who Annie likely photographed at least one other time. These connections along with her ability to choreograph subjects into natural, fun poses, leads us to believe this is likely her work.
The shop opened in 1914 and at one time had 15 miles of associated track. Operations moved to Waterville, Maine in the early 1990s. The site is now Iron Horse Park.
Source: Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society Archives. Cat. No. 2005.21.1. Gift of Marshall Sanborn Morris. Copyright Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society, Inc. Photo 3252