The folks at the Fall River Historical Society have added another “tantalizing tidbit” from their forthcoming book on Lizzie Borden—Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.
This time it is a Lizzie Borden letter!
I wonder what goes in the blanks. Let’s guess!
Fall River’s Quequechan River used to flow fairly freely through the city, starting at the Watuppa Pond and exiting at the Taunton River. This River powered Fall River’s mills and help to make Fall River the largest cotton manufacturing city in the US.
According to Fall River, Massachusetts: A City of Opportunity 1914, “Quequechan” means “it leaps or bounds.” “It is an Indian name of the stream — Fall River — signifying falling water or quick running water.”
The Indian name for Fall River was Quequeteant, or “the place of falling water” (p. 136).
Now the river is covered over with highways and buildings.
Here are a few images of what it looked like back when. Thanks to Dave Jennings for the great images.
Ric Rebelo is working on a master’s project titled Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare. It is all about the Lizzie Borden case and asks the question Who Killed the Bordens?
Five minutes of the project has been put together and posted on YouTube. It stars your truly (in my worst hairdo ever!), Len Rebello, author of Lizzie Borden Past & Present, and Jules Ryckebusch, former editor of The Lizzie Borden Quarterly.
Creative little film by TheUnadoyle. 40 seconds in length.
The Fall River Historical Society, both online and in the brick and mortar gift shop on Rock Street, carries many Lizzie Borden items for sale, including the publications of PearTree Press.
Check them out for the two latest issues of The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery & Victorian History, The Preliminary Hearing in the Lizzie Borden Case, and Do Come in And Other Lizzie Borden Poems by Larry Allen.
The Fall River Historical Society is hosting a book signing on June 13 for photographer Richard Renaldi, the author of Fall River Boys. The book is garnering rave reviews.
The signing is from noon until 2:30PM at the Fall River Historical Society, 451 Rock Street, Fall River, MA. It will be the first Fall River signing of the artist. The book will be for sale at $85 plus applicable sales tax.
From the publisher’s website:
In the spring of 2000, Richard Renaldi began making frequent trips to the small New England city of Fall River, Massachusetts. Situated just a short distance from the Atlantic coast, Fall River was once at the very center of American textile manufacturing. Renaldi’s aim was to photograph the young men of Fall River coming of age amidst an industrial landscape well past its boom years. This extraordinary body of images—both portraits and landscapes—is gathered here for the first time in Renaldi’s second monograph, Fall River Boys.
The resulting photographs, made over the course of nine years, are not brief encounters. Renaldi’s quiet gaze considers his subjects with neither judgment nor irony. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a city where young men grow into manhood surrounded by a landscape of idyllic natural beauty, frayed at the margins by darkened relics of an industrial past. Like the city of Fall River itself, the boys looking directly into Renaldi’s lens face an uncertain future, at once hinting of possibility yet promising nothing.
Fall River Boys is a beautiful, clothbound volume of 89 black-and-white images reproduced in rich tritone and published in an edition of 1200. The introduction is an original essay by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham.
Here is a link to Richard Renaldi’s blog.
On May 31, at 3:00 pm at the Polaris Theatre in New York City, paranormal expert Al Rauber will be presenting “The Lizzie Tapes.”
On Sunday, May 31st at 3pm, Sturges Paranormal is pleased to announce a lecture presented by Al Rauber. The price for this lecture is $20 at the door or you can save yourself a couple of bucks by paying $15 in advance (via paypal) when you RSVP.
On the morning of August 4th, 1892, the populace of Fall River, Massachusetts was shocked and horrified by a vicious and gruesome double homicide. The bodies of Andrew and Abby Borden were found in their home at 92 Second St. They had been bludgeoned to death with what appeared to be a hatchet. World renown Paranormal Investigator Al Rauber was commissioned by two different production companies for two different TV shows to come up with evidence of reported haunting phenomena at 92 Second St.
Known for his use of Electronic Voice Phenomena in gathering evidence of hauntings, Rauber offers many of the voices collected over 2 separate weekends of filming from this location. Voices of the spirits of The Lizzie Borden House which may shed new light on the infamous case of murder.Hear the detailed story about the two investigations presented in a new lecture entitled: The Lizzie Tapes-A Paranormal Case Study.
Al Rauber
Al Rauber has been in the field of paranormal research for over 40 years and has investigated haunting and poltergeist cases throughout the US and Europe. He has been featured on and consulted for a number of television shows including Sightings, The Other Side, The Paranormal Borderline, Encounters, Unsolved Mysteries and specials for The History Channel and The Travel Channel. He can currently be seen on The History Channel’s program, MonsterQuest. Al is co-founder of Haunted New Jersey and a current member of The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena and the prestigious Paranormal Research Organization. He is a past member of Vestigia as well as the Georgia based Parapsychological Services Institute and The Psychical Research Foundation. Known for his use of Electronic Voice Phenomena in gathering evidence of haunting, Al will offer many different voices caught on-site including one particular voice that he believes could be that of the still unidentified murderer.
Tickets are going fast. Check it out here!
The new book on Lizzie Borden and Fall River, due out late this year, and written by the curatorial staff of the Fall River Historical Society, promises to be a humdinger.
According to a “tantalizing tidbit” on the FRHS website, we will finally find out the identity of Todd Lunday, author of the 1893 pamphlet The Mystery Unveiled:—The Truth About the Borden Tragedy.
The identity of Lunday has long been the object of debate. Those who have spent a great deal of time with this issue have their best guesses. I know that one eminent scholar has compared the words used with known publications to help determine the name of the person who wrote the book (ala the deciphering of who was Anonymous, the author of Primary Colors, using word and textural identification).
One novice writer has based their opinion on the “phrasing, sentence structure, vocabulary, wit, and general degree of callousness” that they find in the writings of Lunday and one “James Dennan O’Neil, Irish Catholic, managing editor of the Daily Globe.” I guess the fact that the gent was an Irish Catholic is somehow important to his identification, although I cannot imagine why.
So those who care about such things, and there are many, will soon find out whether they are correct or not.
I can’t wait!
The Fall River History Club is presenting a talk by Dave Jennings titled “The Battle of Fall River.”
The talk is free, and open to the public.
WHERE: Fall River Public Library
WHEN: Wednesday, May 20, 2009, at 6:30 PM.
Please tell your friends!
The new Fall River Historical Society website was launched today, and it promises to be an active site that you should plan to return to often!
Not only is it easier to navigate, looks great, and is up to date, but it also has an entire section on the Society’s new publication: Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.
Plus, tantalizing tidbits from the new Lizzie Borden book are offered to make us salivate for more!
In the spirit of full disclosure, I am the new webmaster for the Fall River Historical Society website.
It happened today. Alice Russell’s former abode on Hillside Street, in Fall River, Massachusetts, was razed to the ground, along with the other 7 homes on the same block, to make way for a parking lot. Gone forever.
Shame on you SouthCoast Hospital Group for destroying another neighborhood. Shame on you for taking 8 houses worth of property taxes off the rolls, just when the city of Fall River needed the revenue the most. Shame on you for not informing any of the neighbors that this was your plan all along, and only bringing them into the “conversation” when Save Our Neighborhoods stood firm and fought your moves.
And shame on Fall River for not giving a damn about it all.
BEFORE
AFTER
The rest of the block, including the rear of Alice Russell’s house, before the tear-down today.
The Fall River Historical Society has opened for the season.
Museum Hours:
May through October: Tuesday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Tours: Beginning on the hour from 9:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m, excepting 12:00 noon.
Additional Weekend Hours:
June through September: Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Tours: Beginning on the hour from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Museum Shop:
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. (June through September)
For the past six days, the Lizzie Borden Society Forum has been experiencing intermittent problems. I have alerted the service provider and they have been working on the problem. Unfortunately, the problem keeps changing, and just when they think they have resolved the matter, something else happens.
I am fearful that the provider is now unstable. If so, I will have to move my entire website to another host. This could be problematic. I will keep you updated.
The problems are also affecting MondoLizzie. When it rains, it pours.
