Chester has a long and fascinating history, dating from the arrival of the Roman army around 74 A.D. Their fortress was the stimulus for the growth of a prosperous town with such attributes of classical civilization as bathhouses, central heating, and an amphitheater. The fifth-century collapse was followed by expansion under Saxon Mercia, and the threat of Viking attack was countered by the creation of a burh. Chester prospered as an administrative and trading settlement, ultimately benefiting from commercial contacts with the Viking world. After the Norman Conquest, it became the capital of a powerful earldom and later Edward I's headquarters for his conquest of North Wales. A large abbey dominated the center and swathes of land were enclosed in friary precincts. After the Middle Ages the city lost its harbor to silting and then endured a long and damaging siege during the Civil War. It escaped full-scale industrial expansion, although it did suffer from the accompanying problems of increasing population and poor housing. Despite its varying fortunes the city has never ceased to engage in the trade and commerce that have given the place its own special identity.

The Gateway District in Massachusetts is composed of seven towns served by the Gateway School System: Huntington, Russell, Montgomery, Worthington, Middlefield, Chester, and Blandford. Nestled comfortably together along the banks of the Westfield River and its tributaries, these seven small towns have worked together for over one hundred and fifty years to build a community. This photographic essay chronicles the development of these towns and villages from their earliest days. In the beginning, many were farming communities, sustaining themselves with the earth's bounty. With industrialization in the nineteenth century came numerous mills along the river, and the seven rural towns were forever changed. A look at the people, places, and events of this period will prove surprising for many, and will certainly preserve valuable information about the region's history for generations to come.

Named to the Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year for 2020 20th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards “Must Reads”: A Must-Read Picture Book CYBILS Award short list When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, fifteen-year-old Dan French had no way to know that one day his tribute to the great president would transform a plot of Washington, DC marshland into America’s gathering place. He did not even know that a sculptor was something to be. He only knew that he liked making things with his hands. This is the story of how a farmboy became America’s foremost sculptor. After failing at academics, Dan was working the family farm when he idly carved a turnip into a frog and discovered what he was meant to do. Sweeney’s swift prose and Fields’s evocative illustrations capture the single-minded determination with which Dan taught himself to sculpt and launched his career with the famous Minuteman Statue in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. This is also the story of the Lincoln Memorial, French’s culminating masterpiece. Thanks to this lovingly created tribute to the towering leader of Dan’s youth, Abraham Lincoln lives on as the man of marble, his craggy face and careworn gaze reminding millions of seekers what America can be. Dan’s statue is no lifeless figure, but a powerful, vital touchstone of a nation’s ideals. Now Dan French has his tribute too, in this exquisite biography that brings history to life for young readers.

Chester, part of the Then & Now series, places the history of this North Jersey community in a new light by contrasting the old and the new. Vintage photographs are paired with contemporary ones, showing both the changed and unchanged elements of the scene. Zephaniah Drakes Brick Tavern, established after the opening of the Washington Turnpike, still stands in the center of town. But the Chester that was once an important iron-mining center, with 30 mines and two railroads, has disappeared from view.

A family crosses a river on a ferryboat and observes how the ferry operates.