Browse Collections (13 total)

These photographs highlight the environmental impacts that industrialization had on Lowell. From the air pollution emitted by the mills’ smokestacks…

Life in an industrial city brought opportunities and hardships and did not always live up to the rosy picture painted by the mill owners who recruited…

These photographs show the machinery developed for use in Lowell’s mills. Along with the generators and turbines that converted potential energy to…

This collection contains late 19th- through early 20th-century pictures of mill workers, at work and rest, and the machines they used. Modern…

This collection contains numerous visual representations of Lowell, such as postcards, photographs, and newspaper engravings. The items, dating from…

This collection provides examples of how 19th-century writers and artists responded to changes brought about by the rise of industrialization.…

In the 19th century, the Merrimack River provided the energy that stimulated the rapid growth of the textile industry in Lowell and the surrounding…

These maps of Lowell provide a fascinating look at the city’s evolution since its early 19th-century founding. The maps are a window into how an…

This collection of modern photographs showcases some of the city’s canals and their respective gatehouses and locks, including Francis Gate, Lower…

From the 1820s-1850s, Lowell’s mill girls primarily lived in company-owned boardinghouses. This collection features images of the restored Boott…