Please join the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester on Friday, November 8 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm for a very special 400 Storytellers Event featuring Captain George Story, Dawn Carpenter, and Reginald Santos as they share and discuss Veteran-themed stories. Light refreshments will be served.
Please let us know you will be attending by registering at sawyerfreelibrary.org.
The Gloucester 400+ and Gloucester Celebration Corp have made a $20,000 investment in the Sawyer Free 2025 capital campaign. This generous gift will fund the innovative Gloucester Timeline touchscreen wall located in the Library’s new Local History Research Center. The Local History Research Center will connect residents and visitors with our local history through compelling special and circulating collections, expert assistance, engaging programs and thought-provoking exhibitions.
“On behalf of Gloucester 400+ and Gloucester Celebration Corp, I am pleased to announce a $20,000 gift to Sawyer Free Library’s Local History Research Center for the Gloucester Timeline interactive touchscreen wall,” said the organization’s Executive Director Elsje Zwart. “We are thrilled to be able to participate in this important space within the newly renovated and expanded Sawyer Free Library, where people can come and explore not only the hundreds of stories about the people of Gloucester collected over our quadricentennial plus year and continue to add to them, but also to research Gloucester history and the people who lived and worked here for 400+ years.”
“We are grateful to the Gloucester 400+ organization and the Gloucester Celebration Corp for their generous $20,000 donation to the 2025 Sawyer Free Library,” said Mern Sibley, President of the Sawyer Free Library’s Board of Trustees. “The Library’s Local History Research Center will be a groundbreaking resource for our city, revolutionizing how we preserve, curate, and access our historical treasures. The interactive touch screen wall, funded through this generous donation, will be a signature feature of the center, providing an innovative and engaging way for residents and visitors to connect with Gloucester’s 400+ years of heritage. We are honored that our longstanding community partner, who shares our same commitment to preserving and sharing Gloucester’s rich history, is now a part of the Library’s transformative building project.”
The centerpiece of the Local History Research Center is the 85-inch interactive digital touchscreen wall, designed to enhance research through the Gloucester Timeline. This online research tool chronicles the city’s history. Launched in January 2024, the Timeline already boasts over 1,500 entries covering notable events, people, and places that have shaped Gloucester’s identity. Accessible both in the Library and online, the Timeline has attracted more than 21,000 visitors, providing a captivating and comprehensive resource for historians, scholars, and residents alike.
The new touchscreen wall in the Local History Research Center will make exploring Gloucester’s past a more engaging and collaborative experience. Visitors can interact with the Timeline, searching through categories, subcategories, and keywords to uncover stories of Gloucester’s history over the past 400+ years.
In addition to historical records, the Gloucester Timeline features the Digital Gloucester 400 Stories Project, bringing a modern, dynamic element through personal narratives and oral histories that reflect the strength and diversity of Gloucester’s people. These stories, compiled during the city’s 400th anniversary, ensure that Gloucester’s evolving history remains inclusive and vibrant for future generations.
The Gloucester Timeline is a living online resource that chronicles the key events and figures that have defined the city. Covering everything from art and literature to Gloucester’s vital maritime heritage, the Timeline weaves together stories from over four centuries. It draws from various assets, including photographs, videos, newspaper articles, and other historical documents, serving as an invaluable research tool.
The 2025 Sawyer Free Library historic renovation, expansion, and modernization project began last September and is now halfway completed. With two-thirds of the $29 million fundraising goal already reached, community engagement remains strong. However, there is still much more to raise, making this significant investment from the Gloucester 400+ and other local businesses and community organizations essential to the project’s success.
Expected to open in 2025, the newly renovated Sawyer Free Library will feature a 14,000-square-foot addition, beautifully restored buildings, and sustainable design elements, all of which will support the greater Cape Ann community.
The renovated Gloucester Public Library will offer current and emerging public technology, diverse collections, engaging programs, and new dedicated spaces for collaboration, learning, and relaxation. It will feature a 100-seat Community Room, meeting rooms, study rooms, a digital learning lab, a teen room, an expanded children’s room, an enhanced Matz Art Gallery, and ample space for its book collection.
The Library invites the community to learn how to get involved and support this vital project at 2025.sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Join the Sawyer Free Library on Thursday, September 26 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm for an engaging presentation describing recent discoveries and old mysteries surrounding the life and art of Leonard Craske, the sculptor of Gloucester’s iconic Fishermen’s Memorial, Man at the Wheel. James Clark, of Gloucester, will share insights from his research which began in the small town of Annascaul, Ireland. Clark soon developed his research to become the first biography of Craske’s life. It was presented as a signature story of the Gloucester400+ Commemorative Book, Our People, Our Stories.
Mr. Clark and Terry Weber Mangos, Gloucester 400+ Stories Project Leader, have identified many long-forgotten works by Leonard Craske. Please join us at 21 Main Street to learn more about this remarkably creative life and remember an adopted son of Gloucester!
Registration is required at sawyerfreelibrary.org. Space is limited. For questions, call 978-325-5500.
This event is the result of a partnership between the Gloucester400+ Stories Project and the Sawyer Free Library.
The Sawyer Free Library is pleased to welcome local author Anne Power Parsons on Thursday, July 18, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm as she presents “The Irish in the Fort,” her contribution to the 400 Stories Project. She will share her family story and research about the vibrant community of Irish fishermen and their families living in the Fort from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. The event will occur at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. All are welcome. Registration is requested at sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Anne Power Parsons grew up in Gloucester and became intrigued with her Irish family history, thanks partly to a collection of letters written by her father, Donald Maurice Power. In addition to describing their family history, the letters revealed glimpses of the vibrant community of Irish fishermen and their families living in the Fort during this period.
The event is open and free to attend at the Sawyer Free Library located at 21 Main Street in Gloucester. For more information, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or call, 978-325-5500.
To read her contribution to the 400 Stories Project on this subject, click here.
Please join the Sawyer Free Library and the Gloucester 400+ on Wednesday, January 31 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Beauport Hotel Gloucester to celebrate the launch of the Gloucester Timeline: An Interactive History and the relocation of the digital Gloucester 400 Stories Project to the Library.
The celebratory community event will feature story-tellers from the community, an interactive Gloucester trivia game, and a demo of the Library’s new interactive research tool. The evening is FREE and open to all to attend. No registration required.
The Gloucester Timeline is the Sawyer Free Library’s legacy gift to the City to commemorate its 400th anniversary. The Timeline traces Gloucester’s unique history through culturally and historically significant people, places and events that have made Gloucester what it is today. Spearheaded by Sawyer Free Library with support from the Cape Ann Museum and Gloucester City Archives, the Gloucester Timeline also connects people to cultural organizations, archival repositories and historical collections where more information is available. Gloucester 400+ staff have made extensive use of the Timeline in 2023 to illustrate and highlight significant events in our history. The launching of the Gloucester Timeline by SFL makes this new interactive research tool available to the public online.
The collection of stories gathered over the course of the past year has been assembled into the Gloucester 400 Stories Project. This award-winning digital collection of stories, poems and videos, has until now, been available on the Gloucester 400+ website. The collection is about Gloucester people by Gloucester people and is a powerful voice of ordinary and not-so-ordinary citizens. The Gloucester 400 Stories Project too represents a 400+ legacy gift to the City.
Now that the quadricentennial year is over, the Gloucester 400 Stories Project collection will be permanently housed in the 2025 Sawyer Free Library’s new Local History Research Center located on the first floor of the newly renovated, expanded, and modernized Library, the Local History Research Center.
Event Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2024, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Where: Beauport Ballroom, Beauport Hotel, 55 Commercial Street, Gloucester
The event is free and open to all to attend. Registration is NOT required.
For more details visit: sawyerfreelibrary.org or gloucesterma400.org.
Cape Ann Community 