To celebrate Annie’s work in and around Lowell, by Annie Powell 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.
Poster 5 of 100
Back Central friends proud to serve
On or near Charles Street, 1918
As the United States entered World War I in 1917, Annie Powell took this masterful portrait of four Portuguese-American soldiers. An immigrant from West Yorkshire, England, she had strong professional and personal ties to her Swedish- and Portuguese-American neighbors. She kept this image among her personal possessions.
Within days of this photo, she took another of two related Portuguese-Americans men and their families on Charles Street. We believe the image commemorates the day they shipped out (see the image at the bottom of page). Our reaseach shows her personal connection to the families. Approximately four years earlier, Annie photographed the first communion of the tall girl in the front row. She kept that photo in her personal effects. Four members of that same family appear in other photos Annie took between 1909 to 1922 at Appleton Mills and the Back Central neighborhoods. These images are a core part of UMass Lowell’s Portuguese-American Camara Collection.
It took highly developed skill to set up this pose and manage so many subjects. The young men needed to become comfortable in their uniforms and with the formal staging. They needed to trust the photographer at a moment when they knew this might be the only family photo for which they would ever pose. Annie managed both her subjects and their affect to create a memorable family photograph that was most certainly dear to all involved.
This poster is placed at the Portuguese American Center, 59 Charles St., Lowell. There is some chance that the photo was taken across the street, which is now a parking lot.
Credits: above, Annie Powell Family Collection; below, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History Camara Collection.