Sunday, December 4, 2011
Having spent nine weeks in Lowell, I have only managed to get to the American Textile History Museum once. So this afternoon it was a beautiful day and I decided to go on over. When I arrived, I asked the staff person if they happened to have a Jacquard Loom. To my surprise she said yes, and that it had been out a few days before during a donor event. She took me up to the third floor and showed me the loom. It was great because it was in miniature form so you could really see what was happening. I really appreciated seeing it because I understand the basic concept of the loom, but just have a little difficulty understanding how it really works. Now I was able to see how the mechanism works. It makes sense to me now. Not total and complete sense, but more than it did before. It's a little complicated and the details need to sink in. I wish UNL had one of these that I could tinker with.
Although I spent a little while in the museum in October, it was nice to come back again. They have great exhibits about fibers and their production from gathering the flax, cotton, wool, or silk, and taking it all the way to woven cloth. They also have quite a bit of cotton processing and weaving/looming equipment. I saw a short electronic label about immigrants that was quite interesting. It said said "all hands and all nations" participated in the textile industry that gave birth to the industrial revolution. $12 would buy a trip to the New World which took between 12 and 16 days. The passengers brought their own food and $25. By 1900, immigrants from 52 different nations resided here in Lowell. Wow! I just think the whole story is so interesting. And child labor? The children had to work for the family to survive. To these immigrants who came from countries where only the elite were educated, sending children to school seemed unimportant. They lied about their age and sent them to the mills and factories instead.
In addition to the permanent textile exhibits, the museum had a Kite Exhibit. These were not ordinary kites you might fly with your children in the park on Sunday afternoon. Nooooo....they are huge kites that people suspended themselves from to make themselves fly! The kites featured took me from those designed my Michelangeo to the Wright Brothers making their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Very fascinating stuff! I enjoyed this exhibit very much and wish I had time to read every single label, especially now that I have a new appreciation of labels!
And, although I should have continued my work on labels today I took the day off. I only did some organization of my research materials. Tomorrow Maureen is going in to the museum, so I will meet her over there and maybe go through the Quilter's Newsletters I need to look at.
Having spent nine weeks in Lowell, I have only managed to get to the American Textile History Museum once. So this afternoon it was a beautiful day and I decided to go on over. When I arrived, I asked the staff person if they happened to have a Jacquard Loom. To my surprise she said yes, and that it had been out a few days before during a donor event. She took me up to the third floor and showed me the loom. It was great because it was in miniature form so you could really see what was happening. I really appreciated seeing it because I understand the basic concept of the loom, but just have a little difficulty understanding how it really works. Now I was able to see how the mechanism works. It makes sense to me now. Not total and complete sense, but more than it did before. It's a little complicated and the details need to sink in. I wish UNL had one of these that I could tinker with.
Although I spent a little while in the museum in October, it was nice to come back again. They have great exhibits about fibers and their production from gathering the flax, cotton, wool, or silk, and taking it all the way to woven cloth. They also have quite a bit of cotton processing and weaving/looming equipment. I saw a short electronic label about immigrants that was quite interesting. It said said "all hands and all nations" participated in the textile industry that gave birth to the industrial revolution. $12 would buy a trip to the New World which took between 12 and 16 days. The passengers brought their own food and $25. By 1900, immigrants from 52 different nations resided here in Lowell. Wow! I just think the whole story is so interesting. And child labor? The children had to work for the family to survive. To these immigrants who came from countries where only the elite were educated, sending children to school seemed unimportant. They lied about their age and sent them to the mills and factories instead.
In addition to the permanent textile exhibits, the museum had a Kite Exhibit. These were not ordinary kites you might fly with your children in the park on Sunday afternoon. Nooooo....they are huge kites that people suspended themselves from to make themselves fly! The kites featured took me from those designed my Michelangeo to the Wright Brothers making their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Very fascinating stuff! I enjoyed this exhibit very much and wish I had time to read every single label, especially now that I have a new appreciation of labels!
And, although I should have continued my work on labels today I took the day off. I only did some organization of my research materials. Tomorrow Maureen is going in to the museum, so I will meet her over there and maybe go through the Quilter's Newsletters I need to look at.
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