Lowell

https://www.nps.gov/lowe/index.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_National_Historical_Park Lowell National Historical Park is located in Lowell, Massachusetts. It comprises a group of different sites in and around the city of Lowell related to the era of textile manufacturing in the city during the Industrial Revolution. Lowell’s water-powered textile mills catapulted the nation – including immigrant families and early female factory workers – into an uncertain new industrial era. Nearly 200 years later, the changes that began here still reverberate in our shifting global economy. Explore Lowell, a living testament to the dynamic human story of the industrial revolution. From Interstate Route 495 take Exit 89C on to the Lowell Connector. From Route 3 take Exit 80A if traveling southbound, Exit 80B if traveling northbound. • Take the Lowell Connector to Exit 5B (Thorndike Street) • Continue right on to Thorndike Street, which becomes Dutton Street • At the third traffic light continue straight under the overpass • At the next light turn right. Free parking is available at the City garage. Follow signs and walk through the mill courtyard to reach the Visitor Center Boott Cotton Mills Museum Don't miss the roar of 85 operating power looms! The Boott Cotton Mills Museum includes a recreated 1920s-era weave room, historical artifacts, interactive exhibits and video programs about the Industrial Revolution and the people of Lowell. Learn more about the city’s role as a cutting-edge developer of technology and hub of social and economic change in the American Industrial Revolution. From Interstate Route 495 take Exit 89C on to the Lowell Connector From Route 3 take Exit 80A if traveling southbound, Exit 80B if traveling northbound. -Take the Lowell Connector to Exit 5B Thorndike Street. -Continue on Dutton St for 1 mile -Take a right onto Merrimack Street -Take the 2nd Left onto John Street Paid city parking is available at the Downes Parking Garage (75 John St, Lowell, MA 01852). This is 1 block away from the Boott Cotton Mills Museum Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center Introductory exhibits about Lowell National Historical Park, tour reservations, and information about local lodging, cultural attractions, and dining. 246 Market Street, Lowell MA 01852. From Interstate Route 495 take Exit 35C on to the Lowell Connector. From Route 3 take Exit 30A if traveling southbound, Exit 30B if traveling northbound. • Take the Lowell Connector to Exit 5B (Thorndike Street) • Continue right on to Thorndike Street, which becomes Dutton Street • At the third traffic light continue straight under the overpass • At the next light turn right. Free parking is available at the Hamilton Canal Innovation District parking garage (350 Dutton St.) Boott Cotton Mills 5 story brick factories with a clocktower surrounding a central courtyard The Boott Cotton Mills is one of the best, most-intact complexes of cotton mills from Lowell's heyday in the 19th century. Tsongas Center Programs Two students weaving on the looms at the education center. The Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership of Lowell National Historical Park and UMass Lowell's Graduate School of Education, offers hands-on interactive education workshops for more than 50,000 students each year. Lowell NHP Trolley Streetcar guided through Lowell by motormen with lots of passengers Lowell National Historical Park operates reproduction vintage streetcars throughout the park and downtown Lowell. Climb onboard for a ride or a ranger-guided tour. Boott Mills Weave Room Two young visitors look over the rail at a room full of working looms The working weave room at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum surrounds you with the sights and sounds of a turn-of-the-century working cotton textile factory. Lowell Folk Festival Street scene with lots of tents and crowds listening to Folk Festival music at Boardinghouse Park. The Lowell Folk Festival, Lowell's signature annual event, brings traditional folk performers to 5 stages throughout the city and a huge variety of traditional ethnic foods from all around the world. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Seeds of Industry The rise of Lowell in the second quarter of the 19th century prompted flights of rhetoric from poets and politicians. The city was an obligatory stop for Europeans touring the United States. Most visitors were impressed by the sheer scale of mid-19th century Lowell, something best appreciated from across the Merrimack River. Massive five- and six-story brick mills lined the river for nearly a mile, standing out dramatically amid the area's scattered farms. Detail of Lowell Mills from the Sidney and Neff map 1850, public domain Lowell: The Story of an Industrial City Prologue America's self-image is founded in part on the nation's rapid rise to industrial preeminence by World War I. While there is no single birthplace of industry, Lowell's planned textile mill city, in scale, technological innovation, and development of an urban working class, marked the beginning of the industrial transformation of America. View of Pawtucket Falls at Lowell in golden light Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Products of the Mills Lowell's cotton textiles ranged from pattern weaves to printed cloths. The Merrimack Company specialized in calico prints and pioneered in the development of cloth printing technology. Skilled printers were recruited from England in the early years. The head printer hired by the company in 1825 commanded a salary higher than the treasurer's. Other companies specialized in coarse drillings, sheetings, twilled goods, and shirtings. Sample of calico printed textile from 1878. Public Domain. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Rebirth of Lowell By the 1960s Lowell’s glory days were far in the past. The city was hard pressed economically, and promising young people were leaving their hometown. Those who stayed were ambivalent about their history, recalling the hard conditions under which their parents had worked. With little sense of a worthwhile heritage, many were ready to erase the past and start over. President Carter signs the creation of Lowell National Historical Park in 1978. NPS. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Mill Power Drives Once a wheel or turbine had harnessed the waters power, the mill engineer had to transfer the power throughout the mill to hundreds of machines. British and early American mills ran a vertical shaft off the main drive shaft, then transferred the power by gears to overhead shafts on each floor. Because it was difficult to get precisely machined gears, American mills were rough and noisy and had to be run at slow speeds. Belt-powered loom. NPS. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Lowell's Other Industry Lowell was dominated by the textile mills in its early years. But throughout the 19th century other important industries grew up in the city. Foremost were textile machinery firms established to meet the demands of textile manufacturers throughout New England. The Lowell Machine Shop and the Kitson Machine Company were the largest of these companies, but there were many others. Father John's Medicine. Photo by Joe Mabel CC by SA 3.0. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Lowell Machine Shop Lowell's machine shop complex was second in importance only to the textile mills among the city's industries. Incorporated as an independent company in 1845, the Lowell Machine Shop had its origins as the machine shop of the Boston Manufacturing Company in Waltham from 1814 to 1824. The Merrimack Company in Lowell then housed the machine shop, which was taken over by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals in 1825. Lowell National Historical Park Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Pawtucket and Middlesex Canals Between 1790 and 1860 America underwent a transportation revolution. Canals, turnpikes, and railroads crisscrossed the nation, dramatically improving inland transportation. Eastern Massachusetts was an early participant in this revolution. Evolution, canal system at Lowell, Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Making Textiles Making textiles: Picking, carding, spinning, warping, and weaving. Spinning Jenny, 1861. Public Domain. 40th Anniversary of Lowell National Historical Park Superintendent Celeste Bernardo of Lowell National Historical Park and Mayor of Lowell, William Samaras cut the 40th Anniversary Cake on June 9, 2018. Cake cutting Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: The Mill Girls As much as the massive brick mills along the Merrimack, "mill girls" were an innovation of the early industrial revolution in New England. Lowell's mill workforce in the antebellum decades consisted largely of young single women from the farming communities of northern New England. Most were between 15 and 25, signing on for short stints that rarely exceeded a year at a time. Portuguese mill girls at Lowell. Collection of Library of Congress. Public Domain. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Boardinghouses The rows of long brick boardinghouses adjacent to Lowell's mills distinguished the city from earlier New England mill towns. Lowell's first female workers at the Merrimack Manufacturing Company were put up in wooden boardinghouses. By the mid-1830s, however, firms were adding brick structures near their mills and requiring women without family in the city to live in them. Brick boardinghouses in Lowell. HABS, Library of Congress, Public domain Lowell National Historical Park Receives Discover Trails Grant From The National Park Foundation Lowell, MA - Lowell National Historical Park in partnership with Lowell Community Health Center, Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, City of Lowell Senior Center, Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School, and YWCA of Lowell has been selected to receive a 2017 Active Trails grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. Curriculum Connections: Making the Most of National Park Experiences Developing curriculum-based programs is the cornerstone for a solid foundation for park education programs. Providing relevant resource-based experiences for people of all ages will ensure a continuum of opportunities for citizens to support their own learning objectives through the national parks and to find meaning in their national treasures. Offering curriculum-based programs, especially for school age children will help foster stewardship. Carriage roads at Acadia National Park. NPS Photo Branding Lowell exhibit opens Branding Lowell team (L-R), Tony Sampas, Mark Van Der Hyde, Sarah Black Laurel Racine. Branding Lowell team (L-R), Tony Sampas, Mark Van Der Hyde, Sarah Black Laurel Racine. 33rd Lowell Folk Festival Sizzles The 33rd annual Lowell Folk Festival came to town from July 26-28, 2019, and it was hot. Not only was the weather hot, but the performances on the stages were hot as well as the food at the foodways demonstrations area. Considered the nation's longest running free folk festival, The Lowell Folk Festival had something for everyone who came. Couples dance outside Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Early American Manufacturing The mounting conflict between the colonies and England in the 1760s and 1770s reinforced a growing conviction that Americans should be less dependent on their mother country for manufactures. Spinning bees and bounties encouraged the manufacture of homespun cloth as a substitute for English imports. Slater Mill by Elliot. HAER Photo, Library of Congress Collections Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Immigrant Communities The failure of mill owners in early Lowell to accommodate the Irish in company housing set a precedent that significantly influenced community life in the city. Immigrant groups resided away from the mills in their own neighborhoods, where old-world cultures came to terms with the demands of American urban-industrial life. By the turn of the century, Lowell was a microcosm of the broader society an uneasy blend of many ethnic groups living in distinct neighborhoods. Cover of the Lowell Handbook Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Decline and Recovery World War I gave a short-lived boost to Lowell's textile and munitions industries as both profited from large military contracts. As more jobs were created, few could see that the end of Lowell's prosperity was near, or that by 1930 the city's once vital economy would grind to a virtual halt. President Carter signs the creation of Lowell National Historical Park in 1978. NPS Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Lowell's Canal System The Lowell Canal system evolved steadily from 1821, when the Boston Associates purchased the old Pawtucket transportation canal in East Chelmsford (which later became Lowell). They initially used the Pawtucket as a feeder canal to channel water into new power canals. Just above Swamp Locks, the Merrimack, Western, and Hamilton canals branched off, taking water to the Merrimack, Lowell, Tremont, Suffolk, Lawrence, Hamilton, and Appleton mills. Development of the canal system in Lowell, MA. HAER, Library of Congress, Public Domain. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: The Industrial Revolution in England British historian Eric Hobsbawm sharply characterized English industrial history: "Whoever says Industrial Revolution says cotton." Rapid industrialization transformed the lives of English men and women after 1750, and changes in cotton textiles were at the heart of this process. Drawing of a Spinning Jenny in 1861. Public Domain. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Jack Kerouac In the late 1950s American readers heard an exuberant new voice. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) wrote a spontaneous, sometimes raw prose that captured the immediacy of experience. Born of French-Canadian parents in the Centralville area of Lowell, Jean-Louis Kerouac grew up immersed in the city's ethnic, working-class culture. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: The Waltham-Lowell System The success of the early spinning mills of southern New England in the years before 1810 and the uncertainties of shipping led the son of a leading Boston merchant family, Francis Cabot Lowell, to seek a haven for his fortune in manufacturing. Having developed the country's first working power loom, Lowell, with fellow Bostonians Patrick Tracy Jackson and Nathan Appleton, established the Boston Manufacturing Company along the Charles River in Waltham in 1814. Silhouette of Francis Cabot Lowell. NPS. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Lowell's Southern Connection When an anti-slavery speaker came to Lowell in 1834, he drew an angry stone-throwing mob. Mill owners and workers depended on Southern cotton, and anyone who threatened the system was unwelcome. Ever since Slater's cotton mill was established in 1790 and the cotton gin invented three years later, Southern cotton and Northern textiles had had a reciprocal relationship. Senator Charles Sumner, Library of Congress Collections. Public Domain Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Working Conditions By 1900 competitive pressures and technological developments had dramatically changed the working conditions of Lowell millhands. In every department of the mills, fewer workers tended more machinery in 1900 than in 1840. Not only did Lowell operatives tend more machines, but the machinery operated at considerably greater speeds. Militia point their bayonets at strikers in Lawrence, 1912. Public Domain. Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: Water Power In colonial America, waterwheels commonly provided power for sawing timber, fulling cloth, grinding grains, and making iron products. Until the second half of the 19th century, water power was the major mechanical power source in the United States. Transmitting water power Archeology ABCs Coloring Book Archeology paints a colorful picture of the past! Download and print this full coloring book packed with archeological objects from A to Z! Title page for coloring book entitled Archeology ABCs Coloring Book National Park Service Commemoration of the 19th Amendment In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment the National Park Service has developed a number of special programs. This includes online content, exhibits, and special events. The National Park Service’s Cultural Resources Geographic Information Systems (CRGIS) announces the release of a story map that highlights some of these programs and provides information for the public to locate and participate. Opening slide of the 19th Amendment NPS Commemoration Story Map Series: Creative Teaching with Historic Places: Selections from CRM Vol 23 no 8 (2000) These articles are a selection from a special issue of CRM Journal, "Creative Teaching with Historic Places" published in 2000. They provide examples of teaching using historic places both in and out of the classroom, helping students connect with history using the power of place, as well as how to prepare lessons making those connections. Teaching with Historic Places is a program of the National Park Service. Cover of CRM Journal "Creative Teaching with Historic Places" Series: Lowell, Story of an Industrial City America's self-image is founded in part on the nation's rapid rise to industrial preeminence by World War I. While there is no single birthplace of industry, Lowell's planned textile mill city, in scale, technological innovation, and development of an urban working class, marked the beginning of the industrial transformation of America. Cover of the Lowell Handbook Victory at Last? Parades and Pink Slips To recognize the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, three New England parks hosted the symposium “Victory at Last? Parades and Pink Slips.” How an Insect Became a National Park Service Superhero Through the power of partnerships, the Dragonfly Mercury Project elevated the importance of a commonly found insect. It also showed that citizen science can be a potent research tool. A group of young people surround a man in an NPS uniform holding a net next to a stream Conservation Diaries: Olf Mouyaka, Advocating for Youth Programs, Volunteering, and Urban Parks Meet Olf Mouyaka, a park guide at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, who has also worked at Lowell National Historical Park and First State National Historical Park. From a volunteer to a youth program participant to a seasonal and finally a full-time employee, learn more about Olf’s incredible journey to the National Park Service. headshot of person wearing traditional african clothing with distinct patterns 2022 George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service The National Park Service is pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2022 George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service. A montage of photos of volunteers working in a national park. Shaping the System Under President Jimmy Carter President Jimmy Carter oversaw one of the largest growths in the National Park System. Explore some of the parks that are part of the legacy of the presidency of Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39th president of the United States from January 20, 1977, to January 20, 1981. Historic photo of Jimmy Carter walking through a crowd at Harpers Ferry Lowell Female Labor Reform Association In January of 1845, the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA) was founded. This organization, which collaborated and fundraised with other local labor groups like the New England Workingmen’s Association and New England Labor Reform League, dedicated itself to advancing the interests of Lowell’s female work force at the state level. Instruments and a scroll. Text reads "Poetry. Written for the Voice of Industry. To the Workingmen." Early Strikes in Lowell Follow the story of two strikes, or "turnouts," that happened while mill girls were the main workforce in Lowell. Why did some succeed, and others fail? Illustration of three people holding symbolic items related to work and justice Series: Women's Activism in Lowell We can trace the origins of women’s civic activism in Lowell to the early 1830s. After leaders within several local corporations voted to lower wages, women in Lowell stood up against the city’s corporate interests. They staged walkouts and later, wrote petitions to fight for better work conditions, including shorter days. But how far could women take a social movement without the right to cast ballots? An illustration of three people holding symbolic items related to work and justice. The 1915 Massachusetts Referendum In 1915 the state of Massachusetts held a referendum on the question of woman suffrage – with a majority vote, all women in the state would be able to vote in state elections. Illustration of a blue bird. On the stomach is written "Votes for women. November 2nd." The 1910 Convention In 1910, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association held their annual convention in the city of Lowell. Learn about how the city's guests and residents spent these two historic days demonstrating and discussing! Historic Building labelled Mechanics Hall The 1910 Suffrage Convention: A Full Timeline An in-depth breakdown of the topics and activities covered by suffragists in 1910 at Lowell's Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association Convention. A sepia photograph of a woman posing Ladd and Whitney Monument Learn about two of the first casualties of the Civil War and the monument that honors their sacrifice.