{"id":4805,"date":"2018-05-04T10:14:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T14:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizzieborden.org\/CuratorsCorner\/?p=4805"},"modified":"2018-05-14T10:13:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T14:13:05","slug":"documenting-mcwhirrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/2018\/05\/04\/documenting-mcwhirrs\/","title":{"rendered":"Documenting McWhirr&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The beginning phase of a yet-to-be-titled project documenting the history of the R. A. McWhirr Company, Fall River\u2019s iconic department store, is currently underway and is beginning to show promise.\u00a0 The intent \u2013 to develop an exhibition and a companion volume.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Founded in 1877 on South Main Street, the city\u2019s best-loved department store \u2013 Fall River\u2019s answer to Selfridges \u2013 operated for decades from the Mills Building on South Main Street; it closed in 1975, leaving a legacy of happy memories for generations of shoppers. If you are a Fall Riverite of a certain age, you know what I am talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First order of business: to interview descendants of the key partners in the store, and individuals associated with its management. The strategy? It makes sense to start at the top.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I am pleased to be working on this project with two FRHS members, Betty Prescott, and Suzie Mills Shaw \u2013 both are descendants of Asa Adam Mills (1864-1941) who served as president and treasurer of the company, hence the \u201cMills Building.\u201d They have a vested interest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The FRHS houses a large collection of artifacts pertaining to the store, as well as a plethora of photographic material \u2013 remarkable interior images \u2013 documenting decades of retail history and ensuring a profusely illustrated end result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This photograph, taken by an unidentified photographer in the very early twentieth century depicts the candy department; it is inscribed on the reverse: \u201cCandy \u2013 Early 1900, Kitty Logan, Buyer.\u201d Katherine A. &#8220;Kitty\u201d Logan (1884-1957) was employed at McWhirr\u2019s from 1899 until the time of her marriage to Gilbert Patrick Cuttle in 1906; she is likely the woman at the right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This image will be used to document the early years of the store\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Great stuff!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The beginning phase of a yet-to-be-titled project documenting the history of the R. A. McWhirr Company, Fall River\u2019s iconic department store, is currently underway and is beginning to show promise.\u00a0 The intent \u2013 to develop an exhibition and a companion volume. Founded in 1877 on South Main Street, the city\u2019s best-loved department store \u2013 Fall &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[35,39,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4805"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4832,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4805\/revisions\/4832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}