James Michael Curley

Diego Arciniegas photographed Curley in the snow tonight (also Kevin White).

The Boston Public Library has posted a ton of photos by Leslie Jones of James Michael Curley as mayor and governor, including this one of him sitting at his fabled desk at what is now Old City Hall in 1933. City Hall panjandrums have long wondered what happened to that desk.

Other photos show him posing with people such as Honey Fitz, Johnny Kelly, FDR, Father Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson, General Pershing and Richard Byrd. He's captured fishing in Jamaica Pond, throwing out the first ball at both Fenway Park and Braves Field, posing as an Indian chief, holding a snowshoe, being inaugurated as governor, visiting the Brockton Fair. His car is shown after two crashes. There's a picture of his son Francis with his pet monkey (and, of course, the photo of Curley with a hat-wearing zebra).

When the mayor packed heat:

The Boston Public Library has posted a bunch of Leslie Jones photos of Curley (and some of predecessor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald), including this one.

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Over in Allston/Brighton, Marcie Laden is advertising responsible, carbon-neutral snow removal, in other words, her daughters with snow shovels.

Contrast that with Mayor Curley's 1948 letter to MIT (found by BostonTweet), asking for the Institute's help in coming up with a way to use flame throwers or chemicals to shrink snow accumulations.

The dining room of the West Roxbury Pub and Restaurant is a paean to the life of James Michael Curley, from boyhood through old age - a Curley mural fills all four walls of the room (local residents paid $20 to have their faces immortalized behind and next to Curley).