Lawrence in the Gilded Age

The Gilded Age, c. 1870-1898, was a time of promise and expanding horizons for the people of Lawrence, known as "the Queen City on the Merrimack." Passenger trains, horse-drawn trolleys, and electric streetcars dominated transportation, one-third of the population worked in manufacturing, and thirteen newspapers brought the latest information to the city's burgeoning population of nearly sixty thousand people. Through unique images from the special collections of the Lawrence Public Library, ric