History
The oldest known Ancient and Horribles Parade in New England occurred on July 4, 1851 in Lowell, Massachusetts and was named as a parody of the more somber Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the oldest military organization in the United States. New Englanders in several cities started parading in concert with other New England towns in the middle of the 1800s in "Ancient and Horrible" or "Antique and Horribles" parades. The dress was meant to satirize politicians and other public figures. This had largely died out by 1900 in Vermont. Gloucester, Massachusetts continues to have a "Horribles Parade" into the 21st century but without the satirical political dimension the costumes once held.
Glocester Rhode Island's "Ancient and Horribles Parade" was founded in 1927 when Calvin Coolidge was U.S. President. Coolidge was a member of the original Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in Boston. According to the 2008 chair of the parade, Connie Leathers, "...Rhode Islanders being Rhode Islanders made fun of them." The Parade features both traditional Fourth of July floats and marchers, such as veterans and fire trucks, as well as often irreverent, satirical displays commenting on political and cultural issues.
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“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)