Aaron King
12/20/13
FYSH, Prof.
Zabalbeascoa
Boott Cotton Mill
Response
In
downtown Lowell lies a token of one of Lowell’s most prolific tokens of the
city’s rich history: the Boott Cotton Mills. Established in the mid-1800s, it
is symbolic of the industrial past of the city, and stands today as a symbol of
the city’s attitude towards its past and history. The Boott Cotton Museum visit
was a very enlightening experience. It taught not only about the history of
Lowell but in essence the visit also taught a great deal about the present of Lowell. From the boom of the
Industrial Revolution, to the decline and ultimate downfall of mills in
general, the timeline of the mills residing on the banks of the Merrimack is
truly one abounding with knowledge.
The
tour started with a video history of the mills. The history began in the early
1800s with the Industrial Revolution, when Francis Cabot Lowell memorized and
brought back designs for the mill system to America. From there, it was all too
successful for mill cities, until the decline of the cotton industry began
during the early 1900s. This decline was brought about by factors such as World
War I, the Great Depression, labor conditions, etc. The door then advanced into
and through the mill, where we were able to see the machines, working
conditions, and living conditions of the people who worked there. Finally, we
were able to reenact a day in the life of a mill girl by working on an assembly
line. The tour was very informative and is certainly worth the time, as you
learn not just about the physical history of Lowell but also about the modern-day
mindset towards its own history and its effect on the present.
The
organization of the mill is essentially a window to the past, as the setup is
exactly the same as it was two hundred years ago. The location is the same, and
it shows the ingenuity of the founders hundreds of years ago to use their
resources to the best of their abilities and to receive the maximum output. The
role of the mill was integral to the city in the past, putting it on the
national stage of industry, and today the mill still serves an important role.
It is a monument to the city’s history, primarily. Remembering the times when
Lowell was a destination for thousands of workers flocking to earn a living
wage is important; remembering success in the past can lead to success in the
future. Next, the tour helped to teach the priorities of Lowell, and that is to preserve the past. Lowell is a
very sentimental community, realizing that the past is an integral part to the
future. They care about their past and use it to their advantage in the
present. Finally, what this tour helped me learn about is simply about the
Industrial Revolution, and in some ways (unfortunately), the mindset of not
just Lowell, but about the country in general. During the revolution, it was all
about the bottom line. In other words, factory owners wanted to produce as much
as possible for as little as possible, resulting in subsequent wage cuts, poor
working conditions, and marginalizing of workers’ rights. Unfortunately, this
ideology is still true in the modern economy, and so the Boott Cotton Museum
showed that although success can repeat itself, failure and fault may as well.
Despite
this, the tour did surprise me in that it demonstrated Lowell’s loyalty to its
history. I was not expecting Lowell to remember it so much, despite the
magnitude of it. I had already taken the tour, but I was too young to see the
influence that it had over the whole city. It is for this reason that the tour
surprised me, as it demonstrated the mindset of Lowell towards its history and
what it means to them for the present and future. I think the tour was highly
informative and enriching, and I am glad to have had the opportunity to take it
again with more acknowledgement to what impact the history of the city had on
its present.
