‘Here Come the Brides’ exhibit at the MPL

It’s a sunny Spring morning in 2016, and I’m standing outside the First Church in Malden under the shade of a budding tree. A butterfly flits into the sky toward the soaring steeple of the church, and I notice it’s sadly in need of repair. Looking at the facade, it’s hard for me to believe that this building is one of the last links residents have left to Malden’s founding fathers. The congregation of this church virtually “birthed” our present day Malden government and played a prominent role in the Revolutionary War, leading the colonies in support for America’s Independence from Britain. Harder still for me to believe is that anyone could allow this historic treasure to be destroyed. I’m at the church today to attend an estate sale being held before the building is scheduled for demolition later this year. The eighth “Meeting House” of Malden’s founders, this building is reportedly a replica of an earlier church and it will soon be replaced with apartment and retail/office buildings as part of the downtown revitalization […]

By Jennifer McClain This is the first in a series on “Treasures at the Library.” Please note that direct photographs of artwork at the library is not permitted. You may think of Malden Public Library as a place for books, but the library has a surprisingly impressive art collection. One of its  startlingly monumental paintings is “Lincoln at Gettysburg,” by Albion Harris Bicknell (1837-1915). To examine this painting, please click on this link. That the Gettysburg address on Nov. 19, 1861, was astounding speech of eloquence by Abraham Lincoln on that day is well known. Less well-known are the other attendees on that event. According an art collection website from Lafayette College, “Lincoln at Gettysburg” was painted in the late 1870s or early 1880s.  Bicknell depicts  20 important Union leaders, some who did not actually attend the ceremony. In a letter to the Malden Public Library, the National Park Service said the Bicknell work was the only painting made of the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg. All of the twenty men represented in the […]

It was an electrifying evening in Malden on Monday, November 10. The cafeteria of Triangle, Inc. at 420 Pearl St. was transformed into an elegant cafe with lamps and candlelight replacing the overhead fluorescents. The opening to the kitchen was covered by grey-mottled panels and formed the backdrop for a theatrical presentation that left the over 70 attendees to the free event profoundly moved by its power and intensity. Malden Reads: One City, One Book in collaboration with the North Shore Black Women’s Association presented a staged reading of an original play, “Henrietta,” based on the 2014 Malden Reads book selection The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Written by poet, musician, songwriter and (now) playwright Licia Sky, the reading was a moving tribute to the African-American woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge in the 1950s at Johns Hopkins Hospital and have been multiplied and used worldwide since that time to further the field of medical science. Henrietta was a poor black tobacco farmer from the south whose family continued to […]