John Coolidge, Mill and Mansion: A Study of Architecture and Society in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1820-1865, (2nd edition, (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993), pp. 50-51 & 76-77.
Brian C. Mitchell, The Paddy Camps: The Irish of Lowell, 1821-1861, (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), pp. 63 & 95.
Rev. George F. Kenngott was one of the first to identify the primarily Madeiran neighborhood in Lowell in the vicinity of Tilden Street. George F. Kenngott, The Record of a City: A Social Survey of Lowell, Massachusetts, (New York: MacMillan Co., 1912), map following p. 256.
Thomas Dublin, Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Mas¬sachusetts, 1826-1860, (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1979)
Census of Massachusetts, 1885: Volume I: Population and Social Statistics, Part 2, (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1888), p. 242.
As noted, this data on immigrants, their places of dwelling, and their occupations was obtained by querying the digitized federal census for Lowell in 1920.
Most of the information on Manuel Nunes Cotta and his family was obtained through an extensive search of digitized census, city directory, and immigration documents via Ancestry.com conducted in July 2023. Also see his obituary published in the Tulare [CA] Advance Register, January 26, 1961.
Marc Scott Miller, The Irony of Victory: World War II and Lowell, Massachusetts, (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), pp. 1-13.
The two best sources on the Portuguese population in the United States are: Leo Pap, The Portuguese Americans, (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981); and Jerry R. Williams, And Yet They Come: Portuguese Immigration from the Azores to the United States, (New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1982).
Charles Pereira and his family received extensive coverage in the Lowell Sun following his death in North Africa in 1942. On the front page with a photograph of Pereira the Sun published “Young Athlete First Casualty of No. African Drive,” Lowell Sun, December 15, 1942. For the dedication of the plot of land donated to the city by Manuel Picanso for a memorial to Pereira see “Memorial Plot Dedicated in Honor of Fallen Hero,” Lowell Sun, November 15, 1943. In May of the following year a granite monument, honoring all Portuguese Americans who were killed in the war, was unveiled on this plot of land. U.S. Representative Edith Nourse Rogers attended the ceremony along with Lowell’s mayor and many other dignitaries. “Monument to Portuguese-American War Dead Unveiled at Pereira Park,” Lowell Sun, May 31, 1944.
Most of the information on Francisco “Frank” Leandro was obtained through an extensive search of digitized census, city directory, and immigration documents via Ancestry.com conducted in July 2023. Also see his obituary published in the Lowell Sun, February 2, 1976.
Over the years in Lowell, the city’s newspapers published a great deal on Deolinda (Machado) Mello. See “Pre-Nuptial Testimonial for Popular Couple,” Lowell Sun, April 7, 1940; “Appointed to Institute Staff, Lowell Sun, October 23, 1958; “New Director: International Institute Leader Good Friend to Foreign Born, Lowell Sun, January 12, 1960; “Serving Area Immigrants for 61 Years,” Lowell Sun, October 18, 1979; also see her obituary, “Deolinda ‘Dee’ Mello,” Lowell Sun, March 14, 1988.
“Volcanic Eruption Brings Portuguese Family to U.S.,” Lowell Sun, June 15, 1959.
“Immigrants to Lowell,” Lowell Sun, September 18, 1971.
“Plan Major Redevelopment of 7-Acre South End Area,” Lowell Sun, March 7, 1956; “Church Street Renewal Action Due,” Lowell Sun, November 13, 1960; “Wide Acclaim for Lowell Project,” Lowell Sun, April 6, 1962.
“State DPW Will Study any Connector Plan,” Lowell Sun, December 15, 1970.
Oral history interview with Norberto Felix, who grew up in Back Central in the 1960s into the 1980s, by Gray Fitzsimons, UMass Lowell, March 21, 2023, transcript available at UMass Lowell, Portuguese American Digital Archive.
The federal census in Lowell for 2000 counted 1,759 Brazilians in the Spindle City, but estimates of the number of Brazilians in the city by 2006 reached as high 7,000 to 10,000, many of whom were reportedly “undocumented.” See “From Rio to Lowell,” Lowell Sun, November 13, 2006.
Oral history interview with Maria and Joseph Mendonça by Gray Fitzsimons, UMass Lowell, February 3, 2023, transcript available at UMass Lowell, Portuguese American Digital Archive.
Interview with Maria and Joseph Mendonça, February 3, 2023.