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19th Century Industry
The American Industrial Revolution began in Rhode Island and the Lowell experiment changed America. Explore how we went from farm to factory and how Yankee ingenuity transformed America and led our nation towards Civil War.
American Antiquarian Society
The Industrial Revolution not only increased the speed and capacity of machinery and workers, it generated an enormous amount of print. Technological advances in printing led to an explosion of newspapers, books, lithographs, and advertising materials such as trade cards and catalogs. The day includes a lecture and discussion with a prominent historian, and groups can choose from these workshops that explore primary sources that convey how nineteenth-century Americans used and thought about all of the new tools at their fingertips.North and South: Diverging Economies and Cultures
The agrarian South and the industrialized North developed into two distinct yet interrelated economies in the years leading up to the Civil War. How they developed and grew into opposition to one another is explored in this workshop through the examination of four themes: the slave trade, cotton, industry and transportation. The primary source materials include a variety of advertisements, photographs, sheet music, newspaper accounts and manuscripts.Yankee Ingenuity: Problem Solving in the Nineteenth Century
A proliferation of inventions changed the ways that men and women worked in the nineteenth century. These inventions made it possible for Americans to acquire everyday goods from other parts of the world, to travel hundreds of miles in a matter of days or hours, and to transmit information from one place to another in mere minutes. In this workshop, participants will explore materials related to innovations such as railroads, steel plows, telegraphs, and sewing machines.The Deerfield Teacher's Center of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
Forging Innovation: Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Industry in the Connecticut River Valley
The Connecticut River Valley was at the epicenter of the American Industrial Revolution, and these local innovations in metalworking and uniform manufacture spread across the globe. Participants in the Forging Innovation program will learn how mills and factories transformed the rural landscape and will understand that the Springfield Armory helped to generate a variety of industries that drove the industrial revolution and changed the world. Forging Innovation is appropriate for grade 3-12 teachers. The three-hour program includes: "Changes on the Horizon," an interactive workshop in which participants explore artwork of the Memorial Hall Museum that reflects the impact of industrialization on the rural landscape of the upper Connecticut River Valley beginning in the early 19th century; "Up to Green River: The Making of a Knife," a primary-source-driven investigation into the making what became in the 19th century the most recognizable knife in America; and "Waterworks," a hands-on workshop in which participants learn about the role waterpower played in industrialization, and have the opportunity to create a working water wheel. The full-day program includes all of the offerings of the 3-hour program, but also includes a *walking tour of a 19th century industrial center, Turner's Falls; and "Speed it Up!" a production-line simulation activity that models classroom strategies for active, content-focused, collaborative learning. *PVMA is not responsible for arranging transportation for the 6 mile drive from PVMA to Turner's Falls. Group leaders should coordinate either with the bus company already contracted to transport the group, or with individual participants in cases where they have driven their own vehicles.Old Sturbridge Village
Comparing Farm to Factory Life
This program features a lecture by author and historian of the early republic Jack Larkin.
Groups can take either a focused or a self-guided tour of Old Sturbridge Village; engage in a hands-on activity, which may include a 45 minute craft or making a hearth-cooked meal; Wrap-up discussion.
Tsongas Industrial History Center and Lowell National Park
The Industrial Revolution was a defining era in American history. Lowell was one of the first industrial cities in the United States. Capital, waterpower, labor, and technology all came together to produce the great textile mills of Lowell.Bale to Bolt: Weave Room Workshop
Participants hand-weave cotton cloth, closely examine a real power loom, and make staffing decisions that affect the number of looms per weaver over three different time periods. Each period brings with it new inventions that have an impact on production and therefore on workers.
Workers on the Line: Assembly Line Activity
Participants work on an assembly line in a simulated print shop, enduring pay cuts, speed-ups, and stretch-outs as competition and economic forces cause corporations to try to maximize profits for shareholders.Power to Production: Water Power Workshop
Explore water power and how it was captured and put to work in the great industrial cities of the 19th century. First, experiment with falling water and discover how the potential energy of the height of the waterfall can be transformed into power. Then design and build mill-and-canal systems complete with water wheels and dams.
Participants start at the Visitor Center and watch the introductory show, "Lowell: The Industrial Revelation." A Tsongas Center staff person leads them to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum weave room and later (after a hands-on workshop) to the mill workers. boardinghouse to further their understanding of working conditions in Lowell's textile mills. Boardinghouse exhibits shed light on leisure-time opportunities, living conditions, and the changes.positive and negative.that accompanied the American Industrial Revolution.
Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport professional development programs provide teachers with behind-the scenes tours and thematic workshops that correlate the Museum's vast collections with classroom curriculum. Workshops show teachers how to utilize the Museum and its collections in their classrooms through active participation and interaction with a variety of experts, primary documents and exhibition objects.Black Hands, Blue Seas
The Black Hands, Blue Seas: The Maritime Heritage of African Americans institute is a professional development opportunity for teachers, school librarians and media specialists grades 7-12 at Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea. Through lectures, tours, field trips and hands-on workshops, educators will explore the dynamic connections between African-American history, literature, art & music and America's seas, rivers and lakes. The freedom struggle and the search for equality will serve as central themes. In the age of sail, work aboard America. whalers provided free black sailors with economic opportunities, and life at sea provided runaway enslaved men with a degree of refuge from masters. Rivers were highways of freedom for those moving along water routes of the Underground Railroad. Poet Langston Hughes felt that the African American relationship to water was as ancient as the Egyptian empires. Teaching staff will include history and literature professors, independent scholars, and Mystic Seaport staff.Rhode Island Historical Society
Work and Culture: Ethnic and Labor History of the Blackstone Valley
The Museum of Work & Culture exhibits the culture of the French-Canadian residents of the area, the broad story of the other ethnic communities of the Valley, and the role that work and organized labor played in the shaping of these Rhode Islanders. lives. The museum features hands-on experiences for visitors of all ages, as well as films, photographic and Catholic school archives.Historic New England
Explore work, family, and neighborhood life of working class and wealthy Bostonians in 1800 through primary documents and role-playing workshops. Tours of Harrison Grey Otis House and Beacon Hill.
