Rockland's roots run deeply into American history. Originally a village of Abington, Rockland broke away in 1874 to form its own economically strong and enterprising shoe-manufacturing community. This book transports the reader back in time to meet six-year-old George Rockland Hunt, the "first citizen of Rockland"; Hulda Barker Loud, the irrepressible editor of the Rockland Independent; and Judge George Kelley leading his parade through the center of town. Rockland captures the lives of the merchants of Union Street, the heyday of the local shoe industry, and the stories of Rockland's past as told through the eyes of the camera.

Rockland (MA) (Images of America)

Arts & Photography

Donald Cann

John Galluzzo

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

Once known to native inhabitants as Manamooskeagin, or "the land of many beavers," Abington became an important manufacturing and financial center in Plymouth County by the early twentieth century. Postcard photographers and publishers caught every stage of the community's growth and broadcast it to the world through images of workmen at shoe factories, parades celebrating the town's 1912 bicentennial, and the dedication of the Island Grove Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a nineteenth-century gathering site for abolitionists that is today one of America's newest districts in the National Register of Historic Places. Abington captures the nostalgia of this town during the postcard era.

Abington (MA) (Postcard History Series)

The eyes of the United States Navy first focused on Quincy’s Squantum peninsula in 1909, when daring young pilots from around the world gathered for the Harvard Air Meet. By the 1930s, the Victory Plant―a destroyer plant that set production records―had come and gone and the navy had set up the nation’s first naval reserve aviation training center on the site. When air traffic over Boston Harbor thickened in the 1930s, the navy moved its aerial operations inland to the South Weymouth Naval Air Station. That base and its ubiquitous hangar became South Shore landmarks for more than a half-century. Squantum and South Weymouth Naval Air Stations brings back to life the early age of naval aviation on the South Shore, from biplanes to blimps to bombers and beyond.

Squantum and South Weymouth Naval Air Stations (MA) (Images of America)

History

John J. Galluzzo

Americas

A century ago, the words “Rockland” and “shoes” were synonymous. On any side road off Union Street, the town’s main thoroughfare, were some of the most important shoe-manufacturing facilities in America, among them Emerson Shoe, Wright Shoe, and the Hurley Brothers Shoe Company. As the industrial revolution reigned, Rockland peaked, but Rockland had another side to it. Postals sent from Rockland exported the innate beauty of Reed’s Pond, Cushing’s Pond, and Whiting’s Woods. These images proved to those folks who had never been to the town thateven among the brick-and-mortar giants of the shoe industry, Rockland’s natural side thrived.

Rockland (MA) (Postcard History Series)

Postcard publishers had plenty to work with in the Boston area at the beginning of the 20th century, the heyday of the American postcard. The Boston Harbor Islands offered romantic scenery with their stunning natural features, historic lighthouses, and majestic coastal artillery forts. Picturesque summer destinations like Hull and Revere offered everything from sandy beaches to raucous amusement parks to grand hotels. Even the working waterfront in Boston, Quincy's Fore River Shipyard, and quiet Hingham Harbor provided excellent postcard imagery, scenes to be sent home with a "wish you were here" message on the back.

Boston Harbor (MA) (Postcard History Series)

It is hard to believe that just three little words, Isles of Shoals, can evoke as much romanticism as they do. Yet when those words are spoken, remembrances of years long past―of one of New England’s earliest and most prosperous fishing communities; of Celia Thaxter and her life well spent surrounded by beautiful flowers, fine art, and high-society friends; of “Uncle Oscar” Laighton and his ancient but unfailing smile; and of the Victorian grandeur of the expansive Oceanic and Appledore Hotels―bring one back to the glory days of the Isles of Shoals.

Isles of Shoals (NH) (Images of America)

Gayle Kadlik

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