Percival Lowell Percival Lowell Percival Lawrence Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855, in Boston, Massachusetts, the first son of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lowell. A member of the Brahmin Lowell family, his siblings included the poet Amy Lowell, the educator and legal scholar Abbott Lawrence Lowell,
Lowell State College Lowell State College Lowell State College was a public college located in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1894 as the Lowell Normal School, it was chartered as teacher training institution for women. The college merged with nearby Lowell Technological Institute in 1975 to become the University of Lowell, a comprehensive institution. In 1991, the campus was incorporated into the University of Massachusetts system as the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The Lowell Normal School was chartered in 1894 as a teacher training institution for women. The tenth and final normal school to be established in Massachusetts, it opened in 1898