UMass Lowell Develops “Browsing Through Birke’s” Discussion Guide

We have exciting news to announce! An official Discussion Guide to “Browsing Through Birke’s” has been created by two UMass Lowell students — Autumn Sacramone and Suzanne St. Peters — on behalf of the Tsongas Industrial History Center. Please see the excerpt below by BTB’s director Steven D. Grossman, and click the link after the excerpt to gain access to learn all about this remarkable project and access the free PDF download of the Discussion Guide.

From “Browsing Through Birke’s” director, Steven D. Grossman:

“Browsing Through Birke’s has been the most enriching and rewarding labor of love I have ever undertaken. Period. Bar none.

The Birke family came into my world at the suggestion of an old friend, who had settled around Lowell in the early 1990s. She thought the store and the family who ran it would interest me as a subject for a documentary film. How right she was. As soon as I walked into the classic early 20th-century four-story brick façade structure, childhood memories of exploring G. Fox’s Department Store in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, with my maternal grandmother known as “Baba” came flooding back to me. The scale, the humanity, the anachronistic but now newly “vintage” clothing stock, the sui generis feel and smell of the place I daresay, all walloped me with an admixture of nostalgia and a strange romance. I was hooked, and knew right then and there that I should endeavor to find some way to capture this story.”  

( … CLICK HERE to continue reading the full article and to learn more about the BTB’s Discussion Guide!)