It was a few weeks ago, while scanning the various lots of an online auction catalogue, that I noticed a pair of paintings. The artist’s hand certainly looked familiar – unmistakable, really, and...
Of the countless miles of cloth woven or printed in Fall River’s mills during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, surprisingly few samples have survived with documentation of their production...
In a previous post I mentioned that researching the history of material in the FRHS collections is a favorite aspect of my work – “the thrill of the hunt,” you know – and this is another...
In a recent posting I discussed Autumn at Medway, a diminutive 1885 oil on wood-panel painting by the Fall River artist Robert Spear Dunning (1829-1905); it depicts a scene on the Charles River in...
It is surprising what can accumulate between the pages and along the inside spine of an old ledger over the decades – dust, soot from coal or wood fires, long-dead insects (ideally), and the like....
Robert Spear Dunning (1829-1905), the founder of the so-called “Fall River School,” is a painter best known for his opulent still life paintings of fruit, often arranged in elaborate serving...
Work is progressing with our project documenting the history of R. A. McWhirr’s department store. Betty Prescott and Suzie Mills Shaw have wrapped up the first phase of the project, having recorded...
As with most things, there really is no way of knowing exactly what the day will bring at the FRHS – or in this instance, what the mail will bring. That is what makes it interesting – or so it is...
The beginning phase of a yet-to-be-titled project documenting the history of the R. A. McWhirr Company, Fall River’s iconic department store, is currently underway and is beginning to show...
We are currently selecting images to illustrate the soon-to-be-released second volume in the Discourses on History Series, published by the FRHS Press – a fascinating process. Main Street in the...
