{"id":5210,"date":"2019-04-16T16:54:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T20:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lizzieborden.org\/CuratorsCorner\/?p=5210"},"modified":"2019-04-16T17:11:42","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T21:11:42","slug":"discourses-on-history-number-2-main-street-in-the-eighteen-seventies-and-eighties-a-businessmans-reminiscences-of-fifty-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/2019\/04\/16\/discourses-on-history-number-2-main-street-in-the-eighteen-seventies-and-eighties-a-businessmans-reminiscences-of-fifty-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Discourses on History, Number 2: Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties & A Businessman\u2019s Reminiscences of Fifty Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this time last year, I wrote that we were in the process of selecting images to illustrate the second volume in the Discourses on History series, published by the FRHS Press. Indeed, Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties<\/em> by Thomas Richmond Burrell (1861-1953) was in the final stage of production, with its publication originally planned for May, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the case, until the transcription of another paper written by Burrell \u2013 A Businessman\u2019s Reminiscences of Fifty Years<\/em> \u2013 prompted the very wise decision to halt the presses in order to amend the second Discourses release.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burrell\u2019s Reminiscences<\/em> was the perfect companion to his Main Street<\/em> in scope and content, making it clear that they had to be published together in one volume. Hence the delay.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both manuscripts were originally conceived as lectures; it was on the evening of February 17, 1936, that Burrell presented his paper, \u201cMain Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties,\u201d to the members of the FRHS in the parish hall of the First Congregational Church. His presentation, based on his vivid recollections \u2013 brilliant, really \u2013 \u201cof those persons who carried on business on Main Street and the central section of the city,\u201d was delivered in his amiable, chatty style, much to the delight of all those present.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years earlier, on May 22, 1933, he had presented another paper, \u201cA Businessman\u2019s Reminiscences of Fifty Years,\u201d in which he detailed his recollections \u201cof men \u2026 with whom [he<\/em>] came into contact at the beginning\u201d of his lengthy business career; many of those individuals were also mentioned in his \u201cMain Street\u201d paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the 1936 paper was not, apparently, conceived as a sequel to the 1933 work, the text was highly complementary. Due to the narrative and historical nature of the content, it was decided to publish the two papers in an order opposite than that in which they were originally delivered as lectures. Simply put, they flow much better that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

What of the author?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Richmond Burrell Sr. was a successful Fall River businessman with a diverse seventy-five-year working career. Through his near-daily interactions with many of the city\u2019s leading industrialists and other key players in the business and civic community, he gained a unique personal insight into the prodigious business acumen possessed by some of the city\u2019s grandees, as well as their personalities, peculiarities, and, in some cases, their peccadillos. So, too, did he engage with the shopkeeper, the politician, the clergy, and the common man-on-the-street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps unknowingly, much of this interaction was seared into his extraordinary memory, allowing him decades later to conjure up \u201cout of the distant past\u201d a \u201cflood of memories \u2026 grasping one here and there as they whirled through [his<\/em>] mind.\u201d As these scenes played out in thought, as they once had in reality, and \u201cslowly \u2026 approached and passed from [his<\/em>] vision,\u201d they flowed, ink-like, to his descriptive pen as he put thought to paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burrell was a long-time member and director of the FRHS and one of its most popular lecturers, and it was noted that his papers \u201cserved to perpetuate the history of Fall River.\u201d When he was being introduced as a speaker by the secretary of the organization, his talks were habitually complimented with the words: \u201cAll of those who have heard Mr. Burrell\u2019s former papers will know what an interesting evening is in store for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His anecdotal recollections are fascinating, and make for a great read.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with the first volume in the Discourses on History series, the text comprises expanded versions of Burrell\u2019s original manuscripts, which are housed in the Charlton Library of Fall River History at the FRHS. The formats of the manuscripts were slightly edited for punctuation and readability, and italicized information in square brackets has been added for the purposes of clarification and context. To preserve the integrity of the original manuscripts and retain the \u201cvoice\u201d of the author \u2013 Burrell, a great wit, clearly wrote as he spoke \u2013 the phraseology and opinions conveyed in the text remain that of the writer.<\/span><\/p>\n

To illustrate the 130-page volume, 113 images \u2013 some fabulous photographs \u2013 pertinent to the text have been selected from the collections of the FRHS, as well as private collections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties<\/em> and A Businessman\u2019s Reminiscences of Fifty Years <\/em><\/span>will be released in early May, and will be available for purchase at the Museum Shop or via mail order through the FRHS website.<\/span><\/p>\n

The release date and price will be announced shortly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this time last year, I wrote that we were in the process of selecting images to illustrate the second volume in the Discourses on History series, published by the FRHS Press. Indeed, Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties by Thomas Richmond Burrell (1861-1953) was in the final stage of production, with its …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210"}],"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=5210"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5216,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5210\/revisions\/5216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/CuratorsCorner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}