The Lowell Mill Girls were the heart and soul of Lowell’s textile mills. In 1814, Boston Manufacturing Company began opening textile mills on the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts. Recognizing a need for dedicated workers, founder Francis Cabot Lowell began actively recruiting young New England farm girls to work for the company in the mills. The Lowell Mill Girls, as they came to be known, made up about three quarters of the workforce at the textile mills, a number unheard of for women employees at the time.
The Lowell Mill Girls ranged in age from about ten years old up to middle age, although most of the girls were in their early twenties. Once they agreed to work for the Boston Manufacturing Company, they were required to follow the rules set by the company. The Handbook to Lowell explained to the girls that they were to attend religious services each week without failure and hold themselves up to generally accepted moral standards. The threat of termination was held over the heads of the women who failed to comply with the handbook. Francis Cabot Lowell offered the women a generally high wage, and that enticed them
to accept the yearlong contract to work for the company. Many of the women extended their contracts, and they worked for Lowell for an average of four years. Another incentive for the women to come and work for the mills was the fact that they were paid in cash on a daily basis, much of which went to brothers or husbands to further their educations. Each of the Lowell Mill Girls was offered space in one of the hundreds of boarding houses run by the Boston Manufacturing Company. The houses, which held up to 25 women at one time, enforced a 10om curfew and forbade male visitors. The girls were mentored by older female mill workers, and they were advised how to dress, how to conduct themselves in public, and how to speak properly. The girls in the boarding houses were also given opportunities to attend lectures, concerts, and other events.
The Lowell Mill Girls generally worked 70 or more hours each week in hot and difficult workplace conditions. When the economy took a downturn and the mills decided to reduce wages by 15%, the girls went on strike. With only a fraction of the employees in support of the walk out, the strike ended just days after it started, with most of the girls going back to the mills with the salary decrease. Two years later, when the mills proposed an increase in rent for the girls living in the boarding houses, more than 1,500 of them walked out with support from the community of Lowell. After several weeks, it was determined
that the company was in violation of the written contract it had with the Lowell Mill Girls, and the rent hike was abandoned.
The Lowell Offering, a publication created by and for the Mill Girls featured articles about the girls and the things they did, as well as offering a place for them to publish their poetry and songs. It was a way for them to talk about their lives both seriously and with humor. Historians continue to reference the Lowell Offering to get a glimpse of what life was like for the Lowell Mill Girls.
The Lowell Mill Girls organized again in 1845 to try and get a ten hour workday reform enacted. Their strength and power again proved formidable, and with thousands of signatures on petitions and the appearance of the girls at public hearings, the Lowell corporations eventually reduced the workday from fourteen to eleven hours.
Organized, vocal, and definitely unfeminine for the times, the Lowell Mill Girls went a long way in reforming working conditions for women all over New England. Their actions and reactions paved the way for rights and dignity for female workers all over the United States. The Lowell Mill Girls played a major role in the history of Lowell.
Fun Facts About Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell was America’s first planned industrial city.
Lowell was named by the National Crime Prevention Council as one of six safer cities in the country for its drastic reduction of crime.
The Lowell Spinners, minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, have sold out a Minor League record 228 straight games, and there is currently a long waiting list for season tickets.
Lowell’s population of Southeast Asian residents is the largest on the East Coast, and second largest in the US.
Moxie soda was created in Lowell in 1876 and was the first mass produced soft drink in the US.
There are 5.6 miles of canals at Lowell National Historical Park. The canals channeled the Merrimack River’s 32 foot drop to Lowell’s mills providing power for the mills.
By 1850 the Lowell’s textile mills annually produced enough cloth to encircle the earth twice!
The highest recorded was 103°F in 1948.
The lowest recorded temperature was -17°F in 1994.
The first CVS Pharmacy was opened in Lowell in 1963.
Lowell is the fourth largest city in Massachusetts
Downtown Lowell is part of a National Park, established in 1979, and is the first urban National Park in the United States.
The Merrimack Repertory Theatre, located in downtown Lowell, is one of the few self-sustaining repertory theater groups in the Northeast United States.
Lowell hosts the only fair trade festival in the world – the New England Culture Fest.
The Lowell Mill Girls made up ¾ of the workforce in the Lowell textile mills, the highest number of female employees anywhere at the time.
Lowell held the 2006 World Curling Championships for men on April 1st at the Tsongas Arena.
Lowell resident Charles Herbert Allen was the first Governor of Puerto Rico. When Allen retired in 1902, the island government was out of debt and had more than a million dollars in its treasury.
Wang Laboratories Computer Company was founded in Lowell.
Telephone numbers were invented in Lowell.
The Francis Turbine, a highly efficient water powered turbine, was invented in Lowell.
The motto of the city of Lowell is “Art is the handmaid of human good.”
Some of Lowell’s nicknames include Mill City and Spindle City.
UMass Lowell was named one of the best colleges in the United States in 2008 by US News and World Report.
The home and birthplace of James McNeill Whistler, painter of the world famous Whistler’s Mother, is the permanent home of the Lowell Art Association.
The clock tower on the Lowell City Hall is said to have been built so high so that the mill workers would know the correct time, and not be cheated out of proper wages by incorrect mill time clocks.
A Lowell institution, Elliot’s Hot Dogs, was named for the preacher who was the first settler in the area. The restaurant has a tiled counter, where the name “Elliot” is misspelled “Elliott”.
The Lowell Cemetery is the 4th oldest garden cemetery in the United States, dating back to the 1840’s.
The Acre is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and considered the American Gateway for immigrants from Ireland, Cambodia, Greece, Canada, and many other countries.
The Ymittos Candle Company in Lowell produced all of the candles used in the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
The Lowell Folk Festival is the largest free folk festival in the United States.
Famous Lowell Citizens, Residents & Former Residents:
Charles Herbert Allen, Governor of Puerto Rico
Michael Chiklis, Actor
George Bassett Clark, Astronomer
Bette Davis, Actress
Olympia Dukakis, Actress
Mary Hallaren, Director Women’s Army Corps
Jack Kerouac, Writer
Ted Leonsis, Founder AOL
Walker Lewis, African American Abolitionist and Early Mormon Elder
Richard M. Linnehan, NASA Astronaut and Veterinarian
Ed McMahon, Entertainer
Marty Meehan, Congressman, Chancellor of UMass/Lowell
William Henry O’Connell, Cardinal, Archdiocese of Boston
Paul Tsongas, Congressman, United States Senator, and Democratic
Presidential Candidate
Niki Tsongas, Congresswoman
An Wang, inventor and businessman
Micky Ward, boxer
Videos for a Heightened Appreciation of Lowell’s Complex Fabric
Abandoned Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts
Abandoned Highway RT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYV5eh6laMo 95 Newburyport, MA