Park Service Civil War Trading Cards - Last Week for Luther, Abba's Up Next

This is the last week to pick up your Luther Ladd Civil War Trading Card created by the Lowell National Historical Park and available now at our public desks. Get 'em while they last! Beginning next Monday, August 1st and for the rest of the month of August we will be offering Abba Goddard's trading card, which is ironic because she wrote for the Lowell Offering. Here are some other facts about Ms. Goddard and her connection to the Civil War from her Park Service Trading Card:

Abba Goddard moved with her family to Lowell in 1834. She wrote for the Lowell Offering in the 1840s under the pen names A.G.A. and A.A.G. In October 1861, Goddard left Portland, Maine with five other women to accompany the 10th Maine Infantry as a nurse. "Miss Goddard will receive the blessings of our sick boys to the end of life," stated John M. Gould, a veteran and historian of the 10th Maine.

Civil War Trading Cards Now Available

The sesquicentennial commemoration of the opening of the Civil War continues this summer at the Pollard Library (a.k.a. Memorial Hall). We have five Civil War Trading cards created by the Lowell National Historical Park each featuring a different Lowellian who was somehow involved in the conflict between North and South. Look for them on the various public desks in the library, we'll be putting out one card per month available for free (while supplies last). Collect them all!

Out now until the end of July (while supplies last):

Luther Ladd, a mill worker and soldier from Lowell who was killed along with two other soldiers (including fellow Lowellian Addison Whitney) on April 19, 1861 while marching through Baltimore on the way to Washington with the Lowell City Guards (6th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers) making he and Whitney two of the first four casualties of the Civil War. Ladd and Whitney are buried under the obelisk in front of City Hall.

And coming up in August: Abba Goddard.