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Founded by Boston merchants in the 1820s, Lowell quickly emerged as the foremost industrial city in the United States. These early industrial capitalists, aided by skilled mechanics, borrowed from and improved upon British engineering and manufacturing technology, first on the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts, and later on a far larger scale in Lowell, where they created a massive water-powered textile center on the Merrimack River. They sought to create a factory village that would compete successfully with English manufactures, but co-exist comfortably with the values of a traditional agricultural society. What these founders established, and the massive social, technological, and economic changes resulting from their enterprise, will be the subject of our NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop.
Lowell National Historical Park and the City of Lowell are extraordinarily rich "classrooms," and the Inventing America workshop sessions make full use of them. Lowell's "Mile of Mills" was once powered by canals that the Park now maintains and that we explore on interpreted boat tours through the canals and out to the Merrimack River. At the Boott Cotton Mills, we can observe (and hear the roar of) ninety operating power looms weaving cotton cloth, and use new exhibits and audio-visual materials to learn about topics ranging from farm labor, to the inventions and workers of Lowell's heyday, to modern international textile production. In the nearby Boott boardinghouse, we learn from unique exhibits that bring to life the living conditions of Lowell's "mill girls" and the stories of later Lowell immigrants. Connecting these and other Lowell historical and cultural sites is a trolley system using restored turn-of-the-century trolleys that contribute to the historical ambience that pervades Lowell today.
