TIDE MILL INSTITUTE reports that it has received the bulk of the research papers of a noted tide mill historian. The late Peveril Meigs III began studying Atlantic Coast tide mills when he retired, but died after a decade or more of study and field work about tide mills. He wrote only a few articles about them. His extensive collection of data about this early American industrial technology has been unavailable for sixty years.
The institute reported this week that it has received the bulk of the Meigs papers – information about 300 tide mills from Nova Scotia to Florida – and will begin organizing them for eventual deposit in an academic museum archive. The papers were saved and carefully protected by his son, Willard Meigs of Lewisville, North Carolina, whose hope has been to have them preserved for scholars.
Continue reading “Organizing a Tide Mill Treasure”
The Middlesex Canal Association of North Billerica, Mass., has published an in-depth paper about Boston area tide mills in its long-running periodical, Towpath Topics. The paper, by Tide Mill Institute founder and Dorchester Historical Society president Earl Taylor, describes tide mill sites from Revere to Quincy, Mass., including Boston. The paper also places the tide mills in historical context and discusses why use of tide power faded away.