A history of Tewksbury,
since 1637
Postcards, papers and photographs of Tewksbury from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Tewksbury was first settled in 1637 and was officially incorporated on December 17, 1734, from Billerica. There is no evidence that the town was named after Tewkesbury, England. The most probable reason for the adoption of the town's name was in honor of George II of Great Britain, who from 1706 to 1714, held the title of Baron of Tewkesbury. Still, Tewksbury, Massachusetts and Tewkesbury, England kept connected through a local committee called the Twinning Committee. Tewksbury also owned a section of Lowell, being the lands east where the Merrimack River and Concord River meet, referred to by Tewksbury citizens as Belvidere.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Tewksbury’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewTewksbury Centre station 1906 pos…, c. 1906: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Tewksbury
See all 6 →
Tewksbury, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as The whitwash is too thin (1883) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.