Boott Cotton Mills Museum

Lowell was known for its key role in the Industrial Revolution. It became a mill city, and people began to flock to it. As more and more people came, more factories opened up and it became a booming city. The Boott Cotton Mills Museum displays the crowded, loud, and demanding job that the mill girls experienced. Its a great adventure if your bored, or want to learn about some of the city's history. I can't forget to mention how beautiful the architecture is, and combined with the spectacular colors of autumn make it a remarkable site to see.
 
So on a lovely Sunday afternoon, two friends and I decided to go visit the mills. We'd all been there when we were younger on field trips with our elementary school classes or with our families. However, going, now that we are older, has proven a different, yet fun experience to say the least. I remembered the basic layout of the mills, but now I have a greater appreciation for the beauty that surrounds the mills. It amazes me how much time can change your perspective on things. The scenery outside the mill is quite beautiful.
For students of UMASS Lowell the admission is $3. Its quite affordable for such a great learning experience. When you first walk into the museum you see a punch-in clock, which you can actually punch in with a time card. Then you see a long row of looms that are going and making such a loud noise. After you "punch-in",  you walk through the long row of looms to a staircase at the other end. Walking through the long row of looms is an experience, in and of itself. The looms are massive machines that are incredibly loud, very close to each other, and produce a lot of heat. Just walking through this row, you get a feel for the terrible working conditions that the poor mill girls had to experience. Working one machine looked as if it were hard enough, but the mill girls were forced to three machines at one time, and in the cramped conditions with the heat the machine were producing, its no wonder why the workers went on strike. The real question is why not sooner? Those mill girls were put through an absurd amount of stress working there, but the introduction to city life and thrill of working in the new factories with the new machines blinded many of the workers for quite some time. However, its enlightening to see the toil that the mill girls faced for fourteen hours, six days a week. They were factors in establishing America as a strong country through the Industrial Revolution.

               

After you walk through the bottom floor exhibit, you go up the stairs at the end of the hall and proceed to go through the upper floor of the museum. This exhibit has more information and walks you through the changes and developments of Lowell throughout the years, especially during the Industrial Revolution. You can watch a short film about the struggles the mill girls and factory workers faced, and the development of unions in helping to aid the fight for better rights for workers. Its a great little historical film, but there's much more to the museum. It exposes you to the basic processes involved in processing and making textiles. For example, you can try and make thread from small cotton puffs, or experiment with a small loom (pictured below) to see how the loom works. These little activities, while they were small and fun, provide insight to the way that the textiles were made. While the mill girls and other factory workers toiled through the long, hard days, this museum pays a great tribute to their hard work and injustices by informing us about their struggles.  Just taking an hour or two to go through this museum is a great way to spend your day, and enlighten yourself about the way that factories and mills functioned to push America through the Industrial Revolution that has helped place America into a post-industrial society today.

If you didn't get enough from the museum, then once you walk outside you can visit the Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit. It displays the living conditions that the mill girls and immigrants, who worked for the mill, lived in. Its quite interesting to see that not only was their working spaces cramped but so were their living spaces. Its amazing how many girls and workers were able to fit into the housing space provided by the mill, which the girls had to pay for even though they were being paid barely enough to survive.This exhibit is a nice way to close out your visit to the Boott Cotton Mills. Overall, our trip to the museum was a fun and informative trip that I would recommend to anyone interesting in learning about the Industrial Revolution or some history about Lowell.