During my 4th of July extended weekend, I made it my goal to visit as many historic sites as possible. Well, I have four patches that offer evidence of my accomplishment, and this patch from Lowell National Historical Park is one of them. On July 5th, I woke up early after spending the 4th riding bikes in downtown Boston and watching fireworks in Salem. I was pretty tired but refused to let my lack of energy quash my plans to go exploring. I had previously been told by Dr. Dow that I should visit Lowell, a city about 40 minutes north of Boston that is known for its significance to the American Industrial Revolution. By 10am, I had packed my bags for my day trip, and I headed out. I'll just go ahead and say that this was one of the best decisions I have made since I moved to New England. Lowell National Historical Park is the most impressive National Park Service park I have EVER visited.
When I arrived to Lowell I navigated myself to the headquarters of the Lowell National Historical Park. I walked inside the doors only to find an administrative office staffed by two very helpful National Park Service employees. They gave me a couple of brochures, one that included a map of the National Historical Park. I was surprised and somewhat overwhelmed to find out that the National Park pretty much spans the entire city of Lowell! They pointed out several different museums, exhibits, landmarks and activity centers throughout downtown Lowell's cobblestone streets and water canals, all of which are part of the park system -- and all of which are interspersed among the city's businesses and restaurants. Most of the buildings in Lowell are 19th century red brick textile factory buildings that have been repurposed for use by businesses, the National Park Service, and private residences.
After I left the park's headquarters, I made my way to the Park Visitor Center, where I found this awesome patch you see below. I signed up for the next canal tour that was about to depart. We were guided outside the Visitor Center where we were met by a Park Ranger and a trolley. The trolley took us about half a mile to a boat waiting for us in a canal, and we learned that the canals throughout Lowell were built during the Industrial Revolution to power the city's textile mills. The canal tour took about two hours, and throughout the trip our Park Ranger told us the history of the city, answered our questions, and provided several experiential learning activities to further help us learn about the history by which we were surrounded in Lowell. At one point during the tour, we entered a set of locks in the canal. The next thing we knew, our boat had elevated six feet higher!
I had lunch at an Irish pub after the tour, and then I walked across town to the Boot Cotton Mills Museum, which features interactive exhibits, a 25-minute documentary, and a working weave room with textile power looms. Of all of the exhibits and activities I experienced that day, none moved me more than walking through that weave room. Before I entered the weave room, I read about the young women who worked in the factory during the Industrial Revolution. Many of them left their family farms in New England to experience life in the city and to make their own money in the textile mills. Once they were hired, they worked 12-14 hour shifts in the factories, 6 days a week. They lived in boarding houses and lived and worked by a bell that rang in the courtyard outside of the factories. It rang at dawn; it rang at breakfast; it rang when breakfast was over; it rang at the beginning of the shift; it rang for lunch; it rang when lunch ended; it rang when the shift ended; and it rang at their 10pm curfue. Every day. Six days a week. And if they didn't attend church on Sunday, they were banned from working in the mills.
While I was reading the exhibit panels about the mill girls at the beginning of the museum, I could look through a glass wall that served as the barrier between the quiet of the exhibit and the somewhat obnoxiously loud sound of the power looms on the other side. When I finished reading the panels and was ready to enter the weave room, I made my way to the glass door and prepared myself for what I was about to experience.
Or so I thought. I walked inside and could not believe the level of noise made by those hundreds of machines. It was unbearable. All of the power looms were turned on and were producing fabric, and the room must have been more than 150 feet long. I imagined the hundreds of young women between the ages of 15 and 30 working in that room for 14 hours a day during the late 1800s. Dark. Hot. Dusty. Cotton and debri floating throughout the room. Roaring. Thundering. Ear-piercing. The loudest noise I have ever experienced. Unbearable.
I made myself walk slowly through that room, reading all of the panels along the walkway. One panel quoted a mill girl's diary:
"I discovered, too, that I could so accustom myself to the noise that it became like a silence to me. And I defied the machinery to make me its slave. Its incessant discords could not drown the music of my thoughts if I would let them fly high enough."
My eyes were filled with tears when I left the room.
I finished the museum and walked across the yard to the Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit, which was inside a preserved mill girls boarding house. By the time I finished the exhibit, it was nearly time to head home. There were many sites that I had not had the time to see in Lowell, including the American Textile History Museum, the River Transformed Exhibit and the grave of Jack Kerouac. One of the brochures that had been given to me at the start of my day listed the line-up for the Lowell Summer Music Series. I got home and noticed that Josh Ritter will be playing at the Lowell National Historical Park when my parents and sister and brother are in Boston. I bought six tickets that evening, and I cannot wait to go back to Lowell to share its history with them in August!
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