One of the earliest cotton sample books in Kheel’s collection, this type of object represents the mass production of cotton fabrics in the latter half of the 19th century, often with each design made in multiple colorways.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
One of the earliest cotton sample books in Kheel’s collection, this type of object represents the mass production of cotton fabrics in the latter half of the 19th century, often with each design made in multiple colorways.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Hillsborough Woolen Mill, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. This daguerreotype is one of the earliest to capture an image of a textile mill. The photograph allows a glimpse of the bucolic nature of the U.S. at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Lowell, Massachusetts, was known as “The Spindle City” for being one of the largest textile mill towns in the world. This note, handwritten just two months before the start of the Civil War, lists some of the statistics concerning textiles manufactured in Lowell.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Lowell, Massachusetts, was known as “The Spindle City” for being one of the largest textile mill towns in the world. This note, handwritten just two months before the start of the Civil War, lists some of the statistics concerning textiles manufactured in Lowell.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
This graphic compares the industrialized loom with two hand looms from Europe and Japan to illustrate the idea that modernization was the apex of human creation.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Two examples of bank notes with textile-related motifs and designs demonstrate the economic power of the industry in areas such as Manchester, New Hampshire, which owed much of its wealth to textile manufacturing.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Two examples of bank notes with textile-related motifs and designs demonstrate the economic power of the industry in areas such as Manchester, New Hampshire, which owed much of its wealth to textile manufacturing.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Early Mills Along the River. As with the "Miles of Mills" Merrimack River photo on the reverse, this image shows the early growth of industries along the waterways of New England. Soon the rural character of the area would disappear completely.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
The Pacific Mills Print Works, located in Lawrence, Massachusetts, manufactured printed cotton fabrics. The image shows the scale of the printing machinery that dwarfs the human workers. It also demonstrates the different gender roles within the mills. Here you see mainly male workers, as compared to the weaving and spinning rooms, whose workers would have been predominantly female.
