In The Uprooted (1951), Oscar Handlin states: “Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then, I discovered that the immigrants were American history.” One can certainly say that to understand Lowell history, the immigrant story is central. Newcomers have transformed the city for over two centuries. Irish immigrants dug the canals and built the mills. Immigrants from Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Greece, India, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and numerous other countries and regions joined the workforce, operated small businesses, and raised their families. In just the last three decades temples, mosques, and churches serving diverse immigrant communities and restaurants run by and catering to Southeast Asian, Latin American, African, and Indian customers have opened.
The world has come to Lowell and the rich diversity continues to change the cityscape in dramatic ways. Through oral histories, images, digital animations, and text the site you now enter captures this remarkable story