Lowell has much to celebrate in 2026. Even as the United States honors its 250th year, the city of Lowell, founded in 1826, observes its bicentennial.
Whistler House Museum of Art Director Sara Bogosian is passionate about her city. She personally curated the exhibit “200th Anniversary of Lowell 2026,” to mark the city’s historic anniversary. Bogosian selected work which ranges from realistic representations of the city’s factories and neighborhoods to allegorical images of Lowell’s innovations and will to survive, as embodied now by Lowell’s immigrant citizens from around the globe. Bogosian is notably proud of her Armenian heritage and understands the circumstances which lead families to emigrate to America. Her vision of creating a modern and vibrant museum within a 200-year-old house, defines the Whistler House today. The museum provides exhibition space for local artists from the Lowell Art Association (LAA), studio space for area artists and summer classes for Lowell’s children. Based in its newly renovated, beautifully decorated circa 1825 home on Worthen Street, where painter James McNeill Whistler was born, the museum maintains both historic and contemporary exhibition and event spaces such as the Parker Gallery.
Historic migrations have shaped Lowell from its initiation as an industrial city in 1826. Now home to residents from the Cambodian diaspora, Brazil and Vietnam, among many other countries, Lowell’s textile factories were in the 19th century fueled by the labor of migrant workers from across New England and Canada — many of them women and children — seeking a more prosperous life. Lowell’s English settlers recognized the advantages of locating water-powered industry at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers, ancient fishing grounds of Indigenous Pennacook and Pawtucket confederations. Newly invented hydropower technologies, flood gates and water turbines, ensured that the city’s power looms were able to outproduce competition. Lowell’s fame was not restricted to technology. One of the first labor movements in United States history took place in the 1820s when Lowell “mill girls” staged a “turnout,” a tactic they invented in response to wage cuts and increased hours; stopping production in unison until employers were willing to negotiate.