More Lowell, MA - American Textile History Museum
Salisbury, MA - Events of Saturday, August 3, 2013
From the Lowell National Historical Site, we headed down the block to the American Textile History Museum. Like so many other things in Lowell, the museum is located in an old mill building. Also in the same building were offices and a restaurant.
American Textile History Museum
While the Boott Cotton Mills Museum presented a history of the cotton textile industry in Lowell, the American Textile History Museum tells the more general story of all textiles in America.
Because fabrics were made at home on manually-operated spinning wheels and looms, early colonists couldn't meet all their needs for textiles. Therefore, most of their fabric had to be imported.
Display of a spinning wheel used to make thread and yarn at home
Examples of colonial garments made from imported fabrics
In addition to wool, linen was one of the early types of cloth the colonists were able to make. Linen comes from the flax plant. The process of extracting the fibers from the plant is very labor intensive. The plants are first dried, then the seeds are removed. The stalks are then left exposed to dew in the field or submerged in water to partially rot and begin to break down the outer part of the stalks. After drying again, the stems of the plant have to be crushed in a flax break, which is the wooden device to the left in the photo below. The fibers are then beaten with glancing blows from a broad, wooden paddle in a process called scutching to remove the hard bits of outer layers and chaff from the soft fibers. The fibers can then be spun into thread to be used for weaving.
Flax break (left), flax fibers (center)
In the latter part of the 1700s, professional hand-weaving shops sprang up, primarily in Pennsylvania. In these shops, women did the spinning and men did the weaving. Around 1800, however, women were beginning to take over the weaving.
Recreation of a professional hand-weaving shop
Along with wool, flax and cotton, silk is another of the natural fabrics. Silk is a protein fiber produced by larvae of certain moths in the making of their cocoons. Most silk was produced in Asia, but silk was also being produced in Italy by the 1300s. Some silk was also produced in England and in North America.
Silk cocoons
Examples of uses for silk fabrics
Of course, cotton is the most widely used of the natural fabrics. In our last post, we covered the growth of the cotton textile industry in Lowell and how Lowell figured prominently in the mechanization of textile manufacture. Although the American Textile History Museum doesn't have the elaborate weave room setup that the Boott Cotton Mills Museum has, they do have some examples of early cotton-producing equipment.
Loom at the American Textile History Museum
Carding machine from the 1800s
Another important step in the production of textiles is dying and coloring. Early dyes were natural products extracted from plants, animals, insects or minerals. Synthetic dyes were developed beginning in the mid 1800s.
Display of vintage fabric dyes
Scientists began developing plastics in the early 1900s, and many of those materials were used to make fibers that could be woven into cloth. Early materials like acetate and rayon are man-made, but they are based on cellulose which comes from wood so they are not true synthetics. Nylon was the first true synthetic fiber. And who can forget polyester and the leisure suit scourge of the 1970s. The next photo doesn't show a leisure suit, but the plaid sport coat is almost as bad.
Polyester clothing
Carbon fiber is a high-tech, modern synthetic that is used to make light-weight, high-performance parts like racing bicycles and helicopter blades by combining the fibers with high-performance polymers like epoxy. Nomex is another high-tech fabric. Its major advantage is it inherently flame resistant, which makes it very useful for things like fire suits for race car drivers and for turnout gear for firefighters.
Nomex firefighter's turnout gear
The museum also has temporary exhibits that change from time to time. The exhibit when we were there was called "Behind the Veil," which was an exhibit of wedding dresses that had interesting stories behind them.
The story of the gown in the next photo involved a woman who could not afford the gown of her dreams at the time of her wedding. Eventually, she purchased the gown below and made it into a quilt. That is an interesting idea for all those wedding gowns stored away in preservation boxes, but why would someone spend all that money after the fact and not even wear the dress (questions Paul)?
Wedding dress quilt
Since Saturday also happened to be our 45th wedding anniversary, we took a slight detour on our way back to the motor home from Lowell to stop at Bahama Breeze for lupper. We always like how the island atmosphere makes us feel as though we are on a mini tropical vacation. Bahama Breeze restaurants aren't that plentiful. Therefore, since we had a coupon, and since we found one not too far out of our way, Bahama Breeze was the perfect choice. This one was in the small town of Tyngsborough a little to the north of Lowell. It was the smallest Bahama Breeze we have ever seen, but it still had the same Caribbean feel to it and the same great food.
Bahama Breeze
We started off our meal with an appetizer of firecracker Shrimp. Yum!
A toast to our wedding anniversary
Margery had her usual - almond crusted talapia, and Paul had one of his two favorites - grilled chicken with cilantro crema and smashed potatoes. Paul's other favorite, jerk chicken, wasn't available on the lunch menu. We topped off our celebration with a Chocolate Island for dessert - chocolate mousse on a brownie base topped with whipped cream and candied almonds all swimming is a sea of chocolate sauce and vanilla anglaise. Double yum!
After our delicious dinner, we headed back to the motor home. We have more adventures to report on from our stay in Salisbury, MA. Stay tuned.
I can almost picture the gal behind that spinning wheel.
When we were visiting the mill in Augusta, GA, we were told horrible stories of people getting hurt using that carding machine. Many times it was just a child working the machine.
My exact thoughts...not even wear the dress?
Posted by: Marsha Weaver | August 13, 2013 at 05:58 PM
Great report on Lowell mills. Surprisingly we havent been there yet even though we live in MA and my sister lives in Lowell. I worked in a textile mill in the 1970's with my Dad, Sister & 2 Brothers in-Law. The rythym of the looms is still in my mind today. I will visit there soon.
Posted by: Allen & Donna | August 14, 2013 at 08:12 AM