In the days after Amesbury was featured as a “hidden gem” on a recent edition of WCVB-TV’s “Chronicle,” the small city on the New Hampshire border greeted a swarm of new visitors. Many of them were charmed to see a local artist at work on a large mural along Elm Street, on the approach to the city’s old millyards downtown.

Amesbury native Jon Mooers was putting the finishing touches on his latest work: a triptych of images from his hometown’s industrial past. The mural spotlights Amesbury’s nationally recognized roles in the carriage industry and the development of the electric car, as well as a little-known bit of history from the latter years of the city’s production heyday: a months-long stint in which a young Massachusetts resident named Amelia Earhart taught English to Amesbury’s immigrant workers.