ARTICLES

Snippet – The Tail of a Kite

Beatrice Patton knew after years of experience that the trick was “not to say goodbye at all” but to be “very casual about it.” The plan had been for the Pattons’ leave-taking to take place at Bolling Airfield just outside Washington, but when they stood on the tarmac on the afternoon of October 23, 1942,…
Snippet – The Birth of Beatrice Banning Ayer

Beatrice Banning Ayer (left) was born in one of the upstairs bedrooms at the Ayer Mansion in Lowell on January 12, 1886. She had blue eyes, blonde hair, and a little dimple in her chin just like her mother. Ellie named her daughter Beatrice not because of a family connection, but because of its meaning.…
Frederick Ayer and the Suppression of the 1871 Smallpox Epidemic in Lowell, Massachusetts

Frederick Ayer — born on December 8, 1822, in Ledyard, Connecticut — was a man of character, honesty and hard work. He possessed a “quick vision and keen judgement,” but the one characteristic which defined him above all else was his firm belief in progress. His “extraordinary youthfulness of mind” allowed him to discuss “all…
A Perfect Man at Arms

The modern pentathlon was tailor-made for Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr. Conceived by Baron de Coubertin, the father of the Modern Olympic Games, it tested “the fitness of a perfect man at arms” through a series of five (pen) competitions (-athlon): shooting, swimming, riding, fencing and cross-country running. De Coubertin considered these the five skills a…
The Georgie Patton, the new old fashioned

About three years ago I celebrated my birthday at Keens, a famous steakhouse close to Herald Square in New York City, known for its collection of church warden pipes. Due to the fragile nature of clay pipes, a tradition sprung up in 17th Century England of leaving one’s pipe in the capable hands of a…