Fourth Grade visits Boott Cotton Mills and Tsongas Industrial History Center
Posted on 11/06/2014
On a rainy and windy Thursday, the 4th graders, with their teachers and parent chaperones, visited the Boott Cotton Mills at the Tsongas Industrial History Museum in Lowell. Through a variety of hands on activities, we experienced the sights and sounds of life in Lowell from the 1650’s to the 1850’s in several engaging ways. We visited a mill girls’ boardinghouse, tried out the one- size-fits- all clothing of the time, tested out inventions to clean cotton, and toured a cotton mill. One of our tour guides was none other than Joellen Scannell, former principal here at the Peabody School and current docent at the Tsongas Center.
Following are a couple of letters from students regarding this remarkable field trip.
Dear Joellen,
I really liked the field trip because there was a lot that I learned.
What I learned is that there were more gears on the looms than I expected. I thought it would be a few wooden hand spun gears.
I really liked when we got a tour of the old boarding house. It was good information when we learned that they had to go out of the whole boarding house just to go to the bathroom.
It would be really hard for all the people in the city now to work in a mill from 1827. Also, they are probably used to having food piled up in their fridges with full electricity.
What I’m still wondering is… if slavery was never outlawed, there would be over 5,000,000 slaves working for the Americans.
Thank you for being our guide for a day.
Sincerely,
Your student for a day, Ishraaq