Notes+Wednesday+July+20

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Resource: [|www.archives.gov] Lewis Hine

Resource: Film - [|www.hardtruthlevityandhope.com] Mary Paul comparison to Sturbridge Imagine Mary Paul (first day) – enthusiastic, she became someone different, by earning money is a better place, she’s busy, too busy to write letters that she wants to, pressures in the farm life too, an incremental change, but at the time it felt big.


 * Gray Fitzsimmons, //Managing Markets, Managing Workers: The Volatility of Textile Manufacturing//**

Resource: Apps: T.S. Eliott, “The Wasteland”

Homer was attracted to contrast and change. Women on the right are new to the mill (huddled together). They were working in a mill beyond the building on the left.

How were the returning women to the village viewed?
 * 1) Time period is important. Predominantly women in the workforce. Women were not studied after they return. Many did stay in the city.
 * 2) Many did not send the money back to the families on the farm.

Were there any letters from girls that returned to the village? Not that he knows of.

Boston Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1813 Initially capitalized at $100,000; by 1818 amount was $400,000 Initially twelve stockholders: Included Francis Cabot Lowell, his brother-in-law Nathan Appleton

Initial capital from investors: F.C. Lowell - $50,000 of stock in BMC, Price per share $1,000 Capital Improvements: from manufacturing earnings or short-term loans from banks or other financial institutions Pay Out regular Dividends to stockholders
 * Financial Strategy:**

Resource: Lance E. Davis “the New England Textile Mills and the Capital Dividend”

Kirk Boot (1990 – 1837) Nathan Appleton (1779 – 1861) Whig, lived in Boston Most profits from Lowell mills was spent somewhere else, not Lowell

Licensing patents began at Waltham

Why did they intentionally recruit young women? Skilled, less men, came from patriarchal society, understood that women would work a few years which would not allow for organizing the labor force, paying women less, and less fear of women organizing into organized labor.

Strikes at Lowell: 1834 - 1836 1839 1842 – changing technology in looms, fewer women working more looms 1850 Strikes in the antebellum time were fairly rare.

English mills used family labor for the workforce (child labor)

Major costs in cotton textile manufacturing: Purchase raw cotton Labor Capital improvements (buildings, looms,…) Energy (waterpower, heating (coal), lighting And more

Harpers Weekly Online (//cce//)

Lowell managers thought that the Civil War would be short, so they sold their cotton to Falls River. Benjamin Butler – declared slaves war contraband, purchased the Middlesex Mills and becomes a mill owner.

Selling agent for Merrimack Manufacturing Company: B.C. Ward & Co (first several years) J.W. Paige & Co Jude Wadleigh

The quality of cloth in England was below the cloth from Lowell


 * Dr. Robert Forrant, UMass Lowell, History: //Labor Responses//**

Continual news of accidents No health and safety structure of any kind People were seen as extension of technology

Cumulative illnesses: Pneumonia Bronchitis

Young women who came to Lowell died by 40 typically

1920 – a branch of occupational health started

The process of industrialization (technology) carries on into the 1900’s.

The stripping away of the rhythm of the day, loss of ability to make decisions, measured by quantity, not quality.

__1860 - The collapse of the Pemberton Mill__

90 – 98 killed 300 injured 10 days after collapse a coroner’s inquest

Workers that built the building knew that it was poor construction. Posts too short and shimmed the top. Skimp on walls (should be 28”) but were 20”. Original owners sold it and the new owners overloaded. After the inquest, no one was faulted.

1972 – OSHA The women workers use Revolution rhetoric “Aren’t we daughters of free mill.

Resource: “Who Built America” compared to “Inventing America”

Some women who left the mill would start a shop. Some women would send money home for brothers to go to university.

Resource: China Blue

Botcher – botches things up

Pre Civil War Demands different by workers than after


 * Dr. Chad Montrie, UMass Lowell, History, //Using Primary Sources//**

Make an interpretation of the past.

Ask students, “What do you see in the image?” Evaluate in their own terms – rise of the counter-culture – changeover time d Get beyond ‘the only evidence is written evidence’ From the pictures we don’t know anything about causation.

Primary sources – remnants and relics of the past Who saved what and why Means of knowing historical facts Basis for interpretation and narrative Use primary sources to make up a story Using the sources as compelling information Applying a theory to primary sources that someone has previous discovered Raw materials for “secondary” sources Primary sources inform the secondary sources

1. Public Documents All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent ….. Ben Franklin //Federalists Papers//
 * Examples of Primary Sources**

2. Diaries and Journal (probably meant to be private Tryphena Ely White – Camilus, NY 1805 example

3. Images The power of images comes out when you have comparisons

4. Other Examples Cultural/material artifacts Tools Old phone Maps Newspapers Personal letter & correspondence Advertisements ‘Ephemera’ a to-do list What else? Music Radio broadcasts (library of congress website) Oral histories television shows census city records

Questions about the source
 * 1) What is it?
 * 2) Who created it? Why?
 * 3) When was it created? (can we date it?)
 * 4) Was it meant to be public or private?

Questions about Process
 * 1) How did we get this?
 * 2) Who saved it? Why?
 * 3) Has it been altered? (change of date…)
 * 4) How have others interpreted it?

Using the Source What facts does this tell me about the past? What does it tell me about cause(s) for change and continuity over time? What are the main problems with using this as evidence? What can I know or not know?