Recommended Readings

The best general histories of Lowell are Cotton Was King: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts, ed. Arthur L. Eno, Jr., 1976, and The Continuing Revolution, ed. Robert Weible, 1991. For an overview of the Merrimack Valley region, see The Valley and Its People: An Illustrated History of the Lower Merrimack, by Paul Hudon, 1982. For an environmental history approach to Lowell, see Theodore Steinberg’s Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England, 1991. A good account of the New England textile industry is The Run of the Mill, by Steve Dunwell, 1978.

Lowell’s labor history is explored in two volumes compiled by Mary H. Blewett: Surviving Hard Times: The Working People of Lowell, 1982, and Life in the Textile Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1910-1960, 1990.

For a closer look at the "mill girl" era, see Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860, 1993, and Farm to Factory: Women’s Letters, 1830-1860, 1993, by Thomas Dublin, and Harriet Robinson’s Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls, 1898, reprinted 1976.

On the evolution of Lowell as an industrial city, see Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made, by Robert Dalzell, 1987, and Nathan Appleton: Merchant and Entrepreneur, 1779-1861, by Frances W. Gregory, 1975. For a critical history of an original Lowell textile company see The Course of Industrial Decline: The Boott Cotton Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1835-1955, by Laurence F. Gross, 1993.

For information on immigrant Lowell, see The Paddy Camps: The Irish of Lowell, 1821-61, by Brian Mitchell, 1988, and Immigrant Odyssey: A French-Canadian Habitat in New England by Felix Albert, translated by Arthur L. Eno, Jr., ed. Frances Early, 1991.

Related Industrial Sites: Manchester, N.H., is the site of Amoskeag Mills, once the largest cotton factory in the world. Exhibits and historical tours are available at the Manchester Historic Association museum. In Lawrence, Mass., there are programs and exhibits at Lawrence Heritage State Park and Immigrant City Archives. The Charles River Museum of Industry at Waltham, housed in the old Boston Manufacturing Co. mill complex, features exhibits on major industries along the Charles.

By 1880 Fall River, Mass., was the nation’s preeminent textile center. Fall River Heritage State Park interprets the city’s industrial and maritime past.

The Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, R.I., is a National Historic Landmark. The first successful textile factory in the U.S., Slater Mill began producing yarn with water-powered carding and spinning frames in 1790. Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor links Rhode Island sites with Massachusetts mills on the Blackstone River and Canal.

Source: Lowell National Historical Park Handbook

Also See: Bibliography

Prologue
Seeds of Industry
Lowell's Southern Connection
The Industrial Revolution in England
Early American Manufacturing
Transportation Canals
Making Textiles
The Waltham-Lowell System
Lowell Machine Shop
Lowell's Canal System
Waterpower in Lowell
Mill Power Drives
Power Looms
"Mill Girls"
Boarding Houses
Immigrants
Working Conditions
Products of the Mills
Lowell's Other Industries
Decline and Recovery
Rebirth of Lowell
Jack Kerouac
Reading List