Day 63 - Lowell - Two Far 2022 - Reunion Bound (the long way around)

June 11, 2022

Day 63 - Lowell

We spent most of today exploring Lowell and its museums. Lowell was founded in the 1820's as a site for textile factories. Named for Francis Cabot Lowell, the town drew thousands of workers to the huge mills built here. The "Lowell Method" was to bring in raw cotton and ship out finished fabrics, with the entire operation taking place under one roof.

The textile business thrived here for over a century until costs drove the mills to the southern US. The closing of the mills seriously depressed Lowell's economy. In recent years, things have improved and the old mill area downtown has been rehabbed into housing, shops and other businesses. Part of the area is now designated as a national park.

We visited the Boott Cotton Mill Museum and were able to see some of the looms operating. The mill originally was powered by water from the Merrimack River and later by steam.

That's our hotel on the left. The original Pawtucket Canal was built in 1796 to bypass Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimack River. At the time, the canal's purpose was to facilitate transportation on the river, especially to get logs from New Hampshire to coastal ship building centers. Later, the canal was converted to a power canal to provide waterpower to the mills.

A Boott Mill building. Lowell was founded in the 1820's as a planned manufacturing center for textiles. Nearly 6 miles of canals were dug in Lowell to provide waterpower for the mills. Lowell has the largest waterpower canal system in the U.S.

More apartments - the exterior appearance is very much the same as pictures in the museum from the late 1800's.

One of looms operated by Boott Cotton Mill.

The looms were belt driven and packed into large rooms very close together. Along with brown lung, workers also suffered from hearing loss.

The best thing we saw today was at the New England Quilt Museum. We might not even have stopped there, but it opened an hour earlier than the others.

This is museum visitor Anne Marie (name that TV show!) and docent Joan. Joan was very knowledgeable about the quilts and gave us lots of interesting information.

The museum has rotating exhibits and we were very fortunate to see one of the coolest fiber arts exhibits we've ever seen.

The fiber artist/quilter is Dominique Ehrmann from Quebec. She makes 3D quilts which tell a story.

The next piece is amazing. It is called "Time to Break Free" and referred to as an "interactive fiber sculpture".

This piece is too much to see all at once. I have some pictures of smaller sections of it below. The entire "sculpture" is 14 feet long and 7 feet tall.

A brief story about "Time to Break Free"

In the beginning, the quilt is feed into the machine which will liberate all the characters on the squares.

Then, this machine begins to transform the characters. Some of the gears actually turn. Joan told us that the artist's husband used his skills as a bicycle builder to help construct parts of this section.

In the final section, the characters have been transformed and broken free of the quilt.

We also went into a trolley museum, which was OK, but just pictures and stories. There was no "rolling stock". Apparently, Lowell does have a restored trolly line which runs in the summer. Summer here starts June 19, so we are just a little to early.

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Alain AbbateLove the breaking free quilt.
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2 years ago

Jeanna & Kerry SmithTo Alain AbbateWe found it just amazing. I think we spent at least half an hour with it. It just draws you in.
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2 years ago