Call for Items
A 50-Year Commemoration of the 1977 New Bedford Gas Explosion
Submission deadline: October 31, 2026
Before dawn on a January morning in 1977, a gas explosion tore through downtown New Bedford. I'm currently curating an exhibit that is about that morning, but even more about everything that came after it. The blast could have finished off the whole neighborhood. Instead, it turned into a beginning, and in the years since, downtown has been rebuilt one block at a time. That's the part of the story I most want to tell, and I could use your help telling it.
Inflection Point: A 50-Year Commemoration of the 1977 New Bedford Gas Explosion will run from January 16 to February 29, 2027, at 33 William Street. The formal opening is Saturday, January 16, and anyone who'd like to come and share a memory of that day is welcome.
So here's what I'm after. If you've kept something from 1977, or from the long rebuilding that followed, I'd like to see it and maybe put it on display as part of the exhibit:
• Photographs, old or recent. The explosion and the wreckage, or those same streets as they look today.
• Newspaper articles and clippings, from that winter or any time since.
• Objects tied to the blast, to the buildings that were hit, or to the work of putting them back.
• Personal accounts and papers that get at what those years meant to you, your family, or your business.
Maybe you were there that morning. Maybe you lived nearby, kept a shop downtown, had a hand in the rebuilding, or just held onto something without quite knowing why. Any of it could belong here.
And to be clear, nothing is being collected to keep. Whatever you lend is cared for and comes back to you right after the exhibit closes at the end of February.
To submit, fill out the form at [Google Form link] by October 31, 2026. Describe what you have, add a photo, and leave your contact information. Anyone whose item makes it into the show is credited, unless you'd rather not be named.
Questions, or want to talk it through first? Please get in touch. You can reach me at anthi.frangiadis@gmail.com or 508-992-3494