About the Annual Meeting and Dinner – 5:30 pm:
The 32nd Annual Meeting will include a cash bar and buffet dinner provided by Ristorante Molise, a brief business meeting, and followed by a special program featuring guest speaker, Dr. Patrick Malone.  Our meeting will highlight the progress made over the past twelve months, a brief summary of our plans for 2018, and an opportunity to meet museum leadership. 
 
The cash bar will open at 5:30 pm – the dinner will be served at 6:00 pm!
 
There is a $30 charge per person for the dinner; pre-registration by September 14 is required.     
 
About the Annual Meeting Program – 7:00 pm
The Annual Meeting Program follows the dinner and features the nationally known historian, Dr. Patrick Malone, who will share his work researching the industrial history of water-powered mills throughout New England.   The presentation supports the efforts of the Amesbury Carriage Museum to document industrial sites in the city including textile mills, carriage manufacturing companies and other workplaces.

The Program:      
CITIES AT THE FALLS:   WATERPOWER IN LOWELL AND AMESBURY
Waterpower spurred the industrialization of the United States and was the dominant form of power for manufacturing until after the Civil War.  It is not surprising that both Lowell and Amesbury grew at major drops on the Merrimack River system, one on the main stream and the other on a small but steep tributary.  This illustrated presentation will look at how these manufacturing centers harnessed the energy of falling water to drive machinery and support economic development.  Professor Malone will focus primarily on Lowell, the subject of his recent book, but he will also demonstrate the significance of waterpower in Amesbury.

The Speaker:       
Patrick M. Malone is professor emeritus of American Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University.  He is a past president of the Society of Industrial Archeology, author of Waterpower in Lowell (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), and co-author, with Robert Gordon, of The Texture of Industry (Oxford University Press, 1994).  His current research project is a collaborative investigation of the promise and failure of nineteenth-century tide mills in the Back Bay of Boston.