The Photographic Legacy of Martha Nickerson
Martha L. Nickerson was not only the donor of the 48 acres of land that is now the Nickerson Walking Woods Preserve. Her life was filled with accomplishments. She held a doctorate in education and served as a school librarian and teacher, not only in Attleboro, but at U.S. military installations around the globe. On her travels she excelled at photography, capturing what she saw in color slides. Those images are now in the care of artist Kalliope Amorphous, who first began posting them online in 2014 under the title “A Life in Kodachrome.” She recently felt a renewed desire to share her appreciation for these amazing photographs. The expanded online collection, now renamed “Midcentury Archive,” can be viewed at these locations:
https://midcenturyarchive.com/
https://www.instagram.com/midcentury_archive/
https://www.facebook.com/MidcenturyArchive
https://www.pinterest.com/midcenturyarchive/
An earlier version of the website can still be found here:
https://marthanickerson.wordpress.com/
This post first published 7/23/19
Summer Color
Rhododendron thicket, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 6/28/22
Deborah’s Garden, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 7/14/18
Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)
Lower Hayfield, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 6/26/16
Great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
Lower Hayfield, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 6/26/16
Common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Lower Hayfield, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 7/16/16
Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) alien
Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve, 8/31/13
Spotted Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum)
Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve, 8/31/13
Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Shaw-Denham Memorial Forest, 8/20/13
Don Doucette, Devoted Steward of Our Watershed
Don Doucette at the 2011 Attleboro Land Trust Annual Meeting.
Don Doucette, long-time advocate of watershed conservation, passed away on May 9. Don was devoted to the preservation of our local environment and its history. He was a founding member of the Ten Mile River Watershed Alliance (TMRWA) in 1990, and he with his wife Nancy were early members and supporters of the Attleboro Land Trust, which was founded that same year.
A partnership between the two organizations resulted in the donation of Larson Woodland to the land trust by Ray Larson in 1997. Don played a key role in that acquisition. Earlier, in 1996, the TMRWA had dedicated a 3-mile urban trail beginning at Balfour Riverwalk Park and following the Ten Mile River upstream as far as West Street. A guide to the Ten Mile River Heritage Trail, written by Don, described historic stopping points along the route.
2011 Attleboro Land Trust Annual Meeting.
One of the land trust’s most memorable annual meetings was in 2011, when Don was our keynote speaker. His talk, “The Ten Mile River Watershed: A Walk Through Time,” was accompanied by a stunning slide show consisting of mostly of postcards he had collected of scenes photographed up and down the Ten Mile during the early decades of the twentieth century. Don’s authoritative grasp of his subject reflected not only painstaking research, but the fact that, with fellow TMRWA member Mark Benoit, he had trekked the entire 27-mile length of the river, from Plainville to East Providence, in 2 days in 1995.
Keynote speaker Don Doucette at the 2011 Attleboro Land Trust Annual Meeting.
Of his motive, Don wrote, “The primary intent was adventure–to cross, as does water, all human imposed, social and physical bounds that tend to fragment the Ten Mile River Watershed. Envisioned was a more intimate encounter with the river–we were not disappointed.”