• Boott Cotton Mills Museum with Trolley

    Lowell

    National Historical Park Massachusetts

Galusha Family Letters: Scope and Content

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

Accession number: LOWE 686
Catalog number: LOWE 6111
Quantity: 1.5 linear feet (189 items)
Storage:

2 legal archival document boxes (originals) and 1 legal archival document box (copies)
Location:

Lowell National Historical Park
67 Kirk Street
Lowell, Massachusetts 01852 –1029
Phone 978-970-5000.
Description:

The Galusha Family Collection (1820 –1900) consists of letters, poems, several types of cards, two copies of photographs, a political convention badge, two hand-made valentines, a hand-made booklet, fabric samples, a deed, a promissory note, a hand-drawn caricature of Artemis Ward, and several empty envelopes. It documents the lives of community individuals from a single town - Berkshire, Vermont - who were related by kinship or friendship. The collection covers their experiences in rural New England from the early years of industrialization through westward migration and the Civil War. Two of the correspondents, Amy and Arvilla Galusha, worked in the mills at Lowell. Some of the letters from non-Berkshire residents are the result of the many friendships that Amy had with other mill workers.

This collection of family items was donated to the Lowell National Historical Park by J. Lynwood Smith of South Hero, Vermont. According to the terms of the accession, the originals of the Civil War items were returned to the donor with transcriptions and copies of the rest of the collection. These Civil War items are Galusha 181 - CW-1 through Galusha 189 - CW-9.
Addendum: Subsequent to the creation of this Finding Aid additional material was provided by the donor. It consists of five letters, Galusha 196 - to Galusha 200 and six Civil War letters - Galusha 190 - CW-10 to to Galusha 195 - CW-15, and Polly Galusha's signed Polyglot Bible.


 
Galusha Family Letters (Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Spreadsheet)
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  • Galusha Family Letters - Sources and Appendices Galusha Family Letters - Sources and Appendices

    U.S. census records for Vermont, 1820 - 1870, were searched for the names of all the individuals men Read More

  • Galusha Family Letters - Introduction Galusha Family Letters - Introduction

    This document, Finding Aid for the Galusha Family Collection (1820 - 1900) Read More

Did You Know?

Industrial Canyon, Lowell, MA

Protests came to Lowell in the mid-1830s. Mill management...twice reduced the take-home pay of women workers. Faced with growing inventories and falling prices, owners believed the only way to sustain profits was to cut labor costs. The mill workers were not willing to accept this logic.