Description
The author, David Cecchi, is a local historian and longtime visitor of the "Big E."
The Eastern States Agricultural and Industrial Exposition was founded more than a century ago to "promote the agricultural and industrial development of the eastern states." Held at the fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the inaugural event was the National Dairy Show in 1916, followed by what would become known as "The Big E," the combined "state fair" of the six New England states. Weathering floods, hurricanes, the Great Depression, and two world wars, it is one of the largest fairs in North America, with an attendance of more than 1.3 million fairgoers in 2015. With a century's worth of photographs from exposition archives, area residents, and his own collection, author David Cecchi presents a fascinating visual history of what he refers to as "the fair."
A native of the Feeding Hills section of Agawam, Massachusetts, Cecchi has exhibited at the fair many times, and is a longtime member of the Agawam Historical Association and the club historian of the Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts.
