Boott Cotton Museum

Colby Sedlier

Professor Julian Zabalbeascoa

F.Y.S.H Sec 303

6 September 2013

 Boott Cotton Museum

           

To be quite frank, my experience at the Boott Cotton Museum in Lowell, MA was something out of the ordinary. The experienced took me back almost an entire century as soon as I stepped into the main room of looms. The tour began in this main room where the noise was overwhelming despite there only being about a tenth or less of the machines functioning. Our tour guide struggled to capture our attention while attempting battle his voice against that of the looms. I cannot even begin to imagine the ringing in the workers ears each and every time they left the workplace. Not only was I lead on a tour of where hundreds of immigrants manned assembly machines and looms, I actually was forced to walk in their footsteps. Along with my fellow classmates, I was placed at a station that resembled an assembly line and was put in charge of a certain job. The goal of the exercise was to reenact what the workers went through in their everyday lives. The experience went so in depth that the “overseer” even made sure to play his part by keeping us in line and focused on our work.

During our visit, I noticed that the entire museum was organized in a manner similar to the old mills. There have been minor renovations such as the elevator and fresh coats of paint but the museum staff and city of Lowell have done their best to keep their depiction of the history very accurate. To add to the organization, the design and layout of the factory and the dormitories have been preserved as well. As far as the physical location of the mills, it seemed to be among the outskirts of the city rather than right in the middle. I am sure that this is because they would have rather had more inviting shops and industries closer towards the center to attract the attention of the citizens more. Despite its physical location, the cotton mills were a perk to the city of Lowell grasping attention from hundreds of immigrants in need of work to provide for their families.

The mills were used mainly for one thing; the production of cotton (threads) into cloth. The work was tough within the factory as workers risked injury while working long hour shifts sometimes lasting twelve

hours (the time from sunrise to sunset). This was because the machines worked at rigorous paces and if a worker lost focus either from drowsiness or from not being able to see since they relied on natural light, then a finger or even a hand could be lost. Although dangerous, the work had to be completed because the cloth was a main export in Lowell’s history. To simply state it, the mills were a main source of money within the city with their products ranging from cloth for blankets to everyday hand towels and dish towels. As of today, unfortunately, the mills are no longer in business and have been transformed into what is now known as the Boott Mills Museum (the museum we visited in fact). The factory has been changed into a museum for a reason which brings up the question, why?

I believe that the museum has been created because the cotton industry was popular in the city of

Lowell and has contributed to how the city runs and how it is perceived today. Immigrants from all over would come to Lowell for a chance at work especially at the mills. I feel as if this acceptance of different genders, races, ethnicities, etc. has been carried on through Lowell’s history. If you look at Lowell today, there is a wide variety of cultures, races and ethnicities whose roots sprouted from the workers at the mills. One could say that the mills are a main influence for how Lowell is populated today.

To conclude my experience about the Boott Cotton Museum, there was not much that jumped out and surprised me. The one aspect about my visit that surprised me and left me asking questions was the technology that existed within the looms. I was shocked to see how complicated a simple cloth machine could be. Not only were they complicated, they were very dangerous. The pin shot back and forth at speeds up to forty miles per hour so with one slip, the worker could be injured leaving them out of a job and physically unable to work. I praise the workers within the mills because if it were not for their dedication to twelve hour work days and overcoming the fear of injury, Lowell would not be the city that is today.