The Incredible Ditch

by Carl and Alan Seaburg and Thomas Dahill

To mark the bicentennial of the Middlesex Canal, begun in 1793 and completed in 1803, this work presents an illustrated popular history of the canal during its fifty years of operation. There is much new information in this work, and for the first time many illustrations of the canal are presented in full color. This includes the artist's overview of the canal as it existed in 1829 at the peak of its operation, and aerial photographs of the canal as it existed in the 1970s.

Medford on the Mystic

by Carl and Alan Seaburg

This book, published in 1980 and now out of print, contains a concise overview of the transition of Medford, Massachusetts, from a small settlement of landed gentry to a middle-class streetcar suburb. A pictorial history compiled from an extensive private collection of photographs provides a fascinating and authentic glimpse of historic Medford.

Medford in the Victorian Era

by Barbara Kerr

When the Boston and Lowell Railroad came through in 1835, Medford was a quiet town with fewer than two thousand residents. By the twentieth century, it had become a thriving city of eighteen thousand. In Victorian Medford, everything was new, from the Medford Opera House, the town hall, and the Mystic Lakes to the camera, the bicycle, and the gypsy moth. The shipbuilding, rum and brickmaking industries gave way to new businesses, and traditional houses came to share neighborhoods with Queen Anne and Shingle-style architecture. Medford in the Victorian Era will take you on a voyage back in time to the nineteenth century, when everything was new and nothing was impossible.

Crusader for Freedom, A Life of Lydia Maria Child

by Deborah Pickman Clifford

In the troubled times before the Civil War, Lydia Maria Child's impassioned antislavery writings attracted more people to the abolition movement than any other published works. "Wherever there was a brave word to be spoken, her voice was heard," wrote John Greenleaf Whittier after her death in 1880. Deborah Pickman Clifford here paints a vivid portrait of Child and the social and cultural milieu in which she worked.

Over the River and Through the Wood

by the Class of 1996, Hobbs Middle School

The original poem written in 1844 by Lydia Maria Child is published here along with many interesting facts about Medford history and local landmarks including the Royall House, the Cradock House, the slave wall, and the Cradock Bridge. Also included are two of Fannie Farmer's original recipes (Indian pudding and pumpkin pie) and the musical arrangement for Over the River and Through the Wood.

Your House in the Streetcar Suburb,
The History and Care of Houses in Medford, Mass.

prepared by Cynthia Howard, AIA

Medford has a substantial heritage of old houses from its long past. On this architectural and historical inheritance depends Medford's identity as a city set apart from other cities. A handful of Medford's historical structures are outstanding, and there is an abundance of Greek Revival, Victorian era, and Shingle-style houses as well as more humble structures. Medford must depend upon you, her citizens, to maintain and preserve these privately owned houses in an authentic, respectful way. This handbook helps Medford citizens meet this challenge. Cynthia Howard tells us all how to undertake private house preservation. If you own an old house in Medford, this book is for you!

Royall House Christmas Ornament (limited edition)

Brass ornament, 1.6 " x 2.4 ", struck in 1996 in the image of the Royall House mansion. A banner above the mansion reads, "Isaac Royall House, 1732." Another banner below the mansion states, "Celebrate Medford's History."