The UMass Lowell Hang Gliding Collection

The University of Lowell Hang Gliding Club was established in 1974 by faculty member Bill Blood and the late Dr. John Kelly. The club was active until the early 1990s. They had events in Claremont, N.H. and Groton, Mass. The club won several intercollegiate hang gliding competition awards.

The Hang Gliding Club Collection consists primarily of photo and video records of the club's activities. The collection also includes the 1980 plans for an experimental graphite hang glider designed by ULowell student and club member Craig Douglas.

Explore the Hang Gliding Club Collection

We Are America, Voices of the Nation's Future

Expanding Understanding of What It Means to Be American

Featuring a conversation between Lowell High School students, Assistant Prof. Johanna Tigert, from the College of Education at UMass Lowell and Tsongas Industrial History Center Director, Sheila Kirschbaum.

This year students in Lowell High School's Seminar on American Diversity set out to explore their own personal histories and then to draw connections between their histories and the larger history of America.

And then they told their stories, many recorded online. They also published their stories in a book, We Are America.

The event is free and open to the public.

Register Online

Reception: May 2 from 6-8 p.m.
O'Leary Library, Mezzanine
Gallery Show runs May 2-5, 2019

The Locks and Canals Collection

The Library of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals on the Merrimack, one of the oldest corporations in America, contains works used in the construction, maintenance, and improvement of the Lowell canal system and its mechanisms as well as several hydroelectric plants .

The collection is comprised of what would have been state of the art books and pamphlets, in English and French, dating from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Many of the books are beautifully illustrated. Subject areas include architecture, astronomy, civil engineering, law mechanics, and physics.

It is miraculous that this library survived intact. The prospective uses of these antiquarian books are predominantly in the area of the history of engineering.

Explore the Collection