January 15, 2004 marks the 85th anniversary of Boston ’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919.  The Boston Public Library (BPL) is exhibiting material from its extensive newspaper and print archives to tell the story of this bizarre tragedy that claimed 21 lives and flattened several blocks in Boston 's North End.

Molasses Flood: The 1919 North End Disaster will be on display through January 2004 in the BPL’s Deferrari Hall at 700 Boylston Street in Copley Square .

On January 15, 1919 just after noon , a huge steel structure filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses split with a tremendous roar. The resulting flash flood of sticky liquid pounded the streets in a 15-foot wave, wiping out everything that stood in its way. It smashed freight cars, demolished buildings and drowned people and animals. Scores of people were buried in the ruins, some dead and others badly injured.

Images in the exhibit show the devastating impact the disaster had on the neighborhood, and newspaper accounts bear eyewitness to the tragedy.

For more information on the exhibit, call 617-859-2212 or visit www.bpl.org. The BPL is a great place to go to learn more about Boston ’s unusual and deadly disaster of 1919. Just ask any librarian for help.

For more than 150 years, the Boston Public Library has pioneered public library service in America with revolutionary ideas and famous firsts. Established in 1848, the BPL was the first publicly supported municipal library in America, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library and the first to have a children’s room. Today, the BPL boasts 27 neighborhood branches, free Internet access, two unique restaurants, an award-winning website www.bpl.org and an on-line store featuring reproductions of the BPL’s priceless photographs and artwork. Each year, the BPL hosts nearly 5000 programs, answers more than one million reference questions and serves millions of people in its National Historic Landmark McKim Building in Copley Square. All of its programs and exhibits are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning!

Prepared by the Boston Public Library's Communications Office. For more information about news, programs and events at the BPL, call 617-859-2212 or send a message to the Communications Office.