‘Here Come the Brides’ exhibit at the MPL

By Jennifer McClain This is this is another in the series on “Treasures at the Library.” Please note that direct photographs of artwork at the library is not permitted. Even as William Bradford  was stranded on an ice-locked ship. he kept drawing and photographing. The eerie and desolate view of frozen water everywhere was for him the epitome of magnificence. As one of Bradford’s companions, Alpheus Spring Packard, wrote in his journal: “From the mountains above us we watched, day after day, the ceaseless march of icebergs and cakes, large and small.” Viewing In the Lee of the Iceberg (1883), a painting at the Malden Public Library by Bradford, you can imagine this very scene. The ship is placed just right of a massive mountain of snow and ice that dwarfs the ship before it. The water appears hard and cold with sheets of ice that seem to be moving as you look at them. To emphasize the grandness of the expanse, another tiny ship is placed just to the left of the iceberg. Bradford (1823 […]

The Pacific Ocean loomed just over the Santa Cruz Mountains about thirty miles away in California. Growing up in San Jose, Steve Winslow yearned to ride over the mountains to the coastline, but it never happened.  Later in 1989,  as a married couple, Helen and Steve Winslow moved from the bicycling nirvana of Davis, California to Malden as a most convenient place to commute to work in Boston.  Winslow recalls, “I remember trying to bike up Washington Street to Melrose and it was horrible.” The Winslows were appalled by the local horrendous biking conditions and the resulting lack of cyclists. It was time for change in their new community. Winslow explored the abandoned railroad bed running through Malden.  He followed it to where he could smell the salt marshes of Revere. Winslow reflects,“We are really close to the ocean and wouldn’t it be great to bike to the beach!” This would be such an easy and fun ride with a total elevation of 108 feet. But, the virtual challenging mountains of Malden, Everett, Saugus and […]

Five hundred years ago, the streets we drive everyday in Malden were vast swampland dotted with rocky outcroppings and covered with dense forest. A wide, winding river cut through this hilly forestland and Indian tribes like the Massachusett could live safely under the cover of the forest and watch for enemies approaching up the river. Tidal salt water flowed into the river from the ocean and with it came abundant fish, shellfish and sea fowl, and the large furry animals which preyed on them, providing plenty of food and clothing for the Native Americans. In the 1600s a few brave Pilgrim settlers from Boston found their way up the river and realized its value. The river provided a quick means of travel, alewife, blueback herring, oysters and clams could be found in the tidal stream and salt flats, the soil was ripe for planting and the trees that grew thick along its shores provided timber for building cabins. According to The History of Malden, 1633-1785, by Deloraine Pendre Corey (1899), the Native Americans in the […]