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Learn It! Big Factories and New Industries

Big Factories and New Industries, 1820–1920

In the 19th century, New Hampshire was one of the first states in America to build factories. This period of time was known as the Industrial Revolution, when factories made it possible for people to make all sorts of products faster and cheaper than ever before. The people in the factories used machines to help them do their work. Even with the machines, working in a factory was hard and very different from the kind of work people had done before. The Industrial Revolution changed more than just the way people worked, though.

The Industrial Revolution had a big impact on almost everything in people’s lives in the 19th century, especially for those who moved closer to the factories to work in them. All of the people living around the factories made towns grow into cities, with restaurants, shops, theaters, apartment buildings, churches, clubs, and even amusement parks! The cities were linked to one another by transportation networks (like railroads) and communication networks (like telephones). With all these changes to the way people lived and worked in New Hampshire, the Granite State was a very different place in 1900 from what it had been 100 years earlier.

As you learn more about New Hampshire during the Industrial Revolution, think about the following questions:

How did industrialization change the way people worked in New Hampshire?
How did people change the way they lived because of industrialization in New Hampshire?
How did New Hampshire modernize because of the Industrial Revolution?

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NEW HAMPSHIRE EVENTS

U.S. & WORLD EVENTS

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1825-1850

1825

Erie Canal opens

A black and white photograph shows a wide, calm water canal curving through a developed town. On the right side, the water is bordered by sand and then buildings. On the left side, the water rises directly up to buildings. There is a boat tied up to one building.

1825

Erie Canal opens

It took a long time to get places back in the early 1800s, before there were trains, cars, or airplanes. The fastest way to travel was by water on a boat, but the problem was that many rivers and lakes did not link up with each other. To connect them, people built canals so the boats could travel by water farther...

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1825

The Granite State

A square black and white image that is arched on top and bordered in teal on the top and bottom. The image shows the side of a hill, and the top and bottom of the image are wooded. In the middle is a wide swath of light colored rock. There are some large boulders, some slabs, and some cliff-like drops.

1825

The Granite State

In June 1825, the state government held a big dinner on the State House lawn in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a Frenchman who became an American hero during the American Revolution 50 years earlier. He returned to America in 1825 and took a grand tour of all the states to celebrate America’s 50th birthday...

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1826

Willey slide tragedy

A drawing of a hillside shows a dark hill with four rock slides. Each rockslide looks like a river at the top of the hill, but resolves into individual rocks as it descends. The rightmost rockslide encircles a small house at the bottom of the hill. Along the bottom of the drawing, nine people are seen running in a line away from the house. Although they are small figures, based on their sizes and dress, they are a mix of men, women, and children. The four rockslides end all along their path. There are three lines of small writing below the drawing which describe the drawing.

1826

Willey slide tragedy

In the 1820s, not many people lived in the White Mountains. One family, the Willeys, built a homestead near Crawford Notch. The family included a mother, father, five children, and two hired hands. In August 1826, a huge storm moved through the area and set off a massive landslide in the little valley where the Willeys lived...

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1827

First railroad in America

A black and white photograph shows a steam locomotive running on a track. There are several more tracks next to it as well as steel beams overhead. Buildings are in the background. People can be seen getting into and out of the passenger cars attached to the steam locomotive.

1827

First railroad in America

Trains were invented in the early 1800s in England. Powered by steam engines, they offered a way to move people and goods long distances in a much shorter time than traveling by horse and wagons on roads or by boats on water...

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1827

First Concord coach built

1827

First Concord coach built

A Concord coach is a type of stagecoach that made travel easier and more comfortable for people in the 19th century. The Abbot-Downing Company of Concord became famous for making the best and most luxurious stagecoaches of the century...

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1831

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company founded

A long rectangular drawing shows a town from a distance. In the foreground, fields bordered by fencing and a few houses line a river. Then in the middle of the drawing, long industrial buildings dominate the town along the river. There are more than nine buildings lining the river across the drawing. Behind the industrial buildings, here and there, other aspects of the town peek through. The sky is shown in the top half of the drawing.

1831

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company founded

With all of the rivers in New Hampshire, the state soon became a center for textile mills, which needed water power from the rivers to work the machinery, like looms, to weave cloth and fabric. Manchester was particularly well-placed for textile mills, as the Merrimack River ran strong in that area, and its water generated a lot of power...

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1838

First railroad in New Hampshire

A historic map of southeastern New England is shown. Cape Cod and the Atlantic seashore are prominent. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island's borders are noted. Large rivers and ocean features are labeled. The word Boston is written in bold script and circled in the appropriate place. Extending out from Boston are seven lines like spokes of a wheel. Each line has many depots labeled along it. The lines extend as far north as Concord, NH, and Portland, ME; as far west as to travel off the map; and as far south as New Bedford, MA. The title of the map lies in the Atlantic Ocean, and reads

1838

First railroad in New Hampshire

The first railroad tracks were laid in New Hampshire in 1838. The tracks ran from Nashua south for 5 miles before crossing the Massachusetts border and continuing on to Boston. Within less than 10 years, the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad had built railroads throughout the southern part of the state...

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1844

First telegraph communication

In this black and white photograph, a man stands in a room with a window. He wears a uniform with a cap decorated with gold braid. He stands at a desk, cutting paper from a machine on the desk. The machine has rollers and, on the side, a black square at waist height tilted up. The square is roughly a foot on all sides, and has two circles of buttons, one inside another.

1844

First telegraph communication

In the 1840s, a man named Samuel Morse invented a new way for people to communicate with one another. It was called the telegraph, and it used wires to transmit signals between telegraph stations. The signals were a series of long and short sounds that represented different letters of the alphabet...

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1845

Senator Hale speaks out against slavery

An advertisement with black print on white background announces speech by John P. Hale, using capital letters and bold printing for emphasis on occasion. Details include

1845

Senator Hale speaks out against slavery

By the middle of the 19th century, more and more people in the North had decided that slavery was a bad thing, but not very many politicians had spoken against slavery. In 1845, John Parker Hale, who was a senator from New Hampshire, publicly declared that slavery was a terrible thing and should be stopped, even in the South where slavery was very popular...

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1845–1851

Irish potato famine

A black and white sketch drawing shows a woman in rags standing with long, messy hair. She has her arms around two small children, one on each side of her. The children are also dressed in rags. All three figures show hopelessness on their faces.

1845–1851

Irish potato famine

Millions of people who lived in Ireland in the 1800s depended on potatoes more than any other crop to survive. When a disease attacked the potato crop in Ireland in the 1840s and killed almost all of the potatoes, the people of Ireland began to starve...

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1848

Seneca Falls Convention

An old black and white photograph shows a woman's head in a bonnet. She is looking to the left and her dark hair comes out from the side of the bonnet next to her face.

1848

Seneca Falls Convention

Women did not always have the same rights as men like they do today. For a long time, they couldn’t even vote. In the middle of the 19th century, many women began to argue that they deserved the same rights as men, but only some men agreed with them...

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1849

California gold rush

A black and white drawing is divided into four equal rectangles. The left upper section shows two men next to a river lined with trees. One is standing and one is kneeling at the water. The kneeling man is putting a broad, flat pan into the water. The upper right section shows a hillside with a hole in it and two men. There is a bucket, shovel, and pickaxe on the ground next to the hole. The hole has wood around it and a piece of wood with rope tied to it suspended over the hole. One man is standing in the hole holding the rope and the other man is helping to lower the rope. The left lower section shows three men by a river's edge. One man sits on the ground with a pan and large bucket. One man stands with a pickaxe and shovel over his shoulder. One man walks towards a pile of rocks with two buckets in his hand. The right lower section shows two men at a rough campsite. There is a large piece of suspended, patched canvas for a tent. One man cooks something over a small fire while the other man stands at the fire smoking a pipe.

1849

California gold rush

When gold was discovered in California, hundreds of thousands of people traveled there from around the world, thinking they could find a vein of gold and get rich quick. In truth, few people found gold, but lots of people made their fortunes by selling supplies to the miners who came looking for treasure...

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1849

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery

A formal black and white photograph shows a woman in dark mid-1800s clothing. Her hair is pulled back and she is not smiling. She is standing in a room between a brocade chair and a small, cloth covered table. She rests her hands on the back of the chair next to her. A jacket and woman's bonnet is on the chair.

1849

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery

Before 1865, there were slaves in America. Originally from Africa, slaves were people who belonged to someone else. Slaves were forced to work wherever their owners needed them. They often didn’t even get to stay with their own families...

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1850-1875

1852

Franklin Pierce elected U.S. president

In a color painting, a man sits on a leather chair against a brown background. He is wearing a black suit in the mid-1800s style with high collar and no tie. His hands rest on the arms of the chair in a casual manner, and he looks directly at the viewer with a small smile. He has short curly brown hair and no facial hair.

1852

Franklin Pierce elected U.S. president

Franklin Pierce was a very important man in New Hampshire politics. He led the Democratic Party in the state and served New Hampshire as both a congressman and a senator. In November 1852, he was elected president of the United States, the only president to come from New Hampshire...

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1853

Amos Tuck founds the Republican Party

1853

Amos Tuck founds the Republican Party

In 1853, a man from New Hampshire named Amos Tuck got a bunch of his friends together in Exeter and decided to form a new political party called the Republicans. The Republican Party stood against slavery in America. They challenged the Democratic Party for state and national offices...

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1861–1865

Civil War

A drum is 13.5 inches high and 17 inches in diameter. The sides are nickel-plated brass engraved with seven broken wreaths. In the center of the wreaths is an eagle with outspread wings and shield; it has lettering above. The lettering reads

1861–1865

Civil War

By 1860, many Americans had become angry over slavery. In the South, slavery had become part of a cherished way of life in which African-American slaves were forced to work for their white masters. In the North, where slavery had been outlawed, people began to argue that slavery was wrong and that African-Americans should be free...

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1863

The Battle of Gettysburg

A large, rectangle, color painting of a battle has many details. The sky covers the top half of the painting, and has bright and dark grey parts, but generally is distinguished by the many columns of smoke rising from the battle. The battle covers a large, wide open landscape and the viewer can see far into the distance where the battle ranges. Various details visible include riderless horses, men dead on the ground, Civil War cannons being fired, groups of infantry soldiers fighting at close quarters, men on horseback charging, and battered flags flying.

1863

The Battle of Gettysburg

Thousands of soldiers from New Hampshire fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, when the North (the Union) fought against the South (the Confederacy). The biggest battle of the war was the Battle of Gettysburg, fought on July 1-3, 1863, which the Union won...

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1867

Alaska becomes a U.S. territory

A decorative map shows a close up of the Alaskan purchase connected to western Canada. Alaska is dark orange and shows elevation lines. Canada is dark yellow and bodies of water are various shades of blue. In the water, an Eskimo hunts in a kayak near a seal and walrus. On the map various important towns in Alaska are labeled. The Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aluetian Islands are labeled. The map is titled

1867

Alaska becomes a U.S. territory

Alaska did not become a U.S. territory until 1867. Before that, it was part of Russia. Russia had once had colonies all down the west coast through what is now Canada, Washington, Oregon, and even parts of California. Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million...

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1869

Cog Railway opens

A color postcard of a train with one passenger car has a caption reading

1869

Cog Railway opens

An inventor named Sylvester Marsh loved the views from the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast. But he thought there must be an easier way to get to the top than climbing up 6,000 feet. He developed a special kind of train, called a cog railway, that could climb such a steep terrain...

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1869

Transcontinental railroad

A black and white photograph shows two railroad engines facing each other. The left exhaust pipe is large and shaped like an inverted funnel, while the other exhaust pipe is straight. There are many men in the photograph, standing on the ground, on the engines, and all around. They generally wear hats and working clothes, and some carry shovels or pickaxes. Some are dressed as conductors on trains. Two men in suits stand in the center and shake hands while everyone watches them or faces the camera.

1869

Transcontinental railroad

Railroads were built all over America in the mid-1800s, but the most important railroad was the transcontinental railroad. It linked the eastern portion of the United States with the western portion. No longer did people have to make the dangerous and long trip across the continent on foot or by wagon, which could take months...

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1870

Marilla Ricker tries to vote

A black and white portrait of a woman shows her head, shoulders, and upper torso. She is dressed in formal 1800s clothing, with a dark dress and lace collar. Her hair is parted on the side and pulled back. She is facing away from the viewer towards the left, but turns her head to look over her shoulder, just off to the left side of center. She is not smiling. At the bottom of the portrait is written

1870

Marilla Ricker tries to vote

Women in New Hampshire—and throughout America—were not allowed to vote for many years. In 1870, a New Hampshire woman named Marilla Ricker tried to vote in her hometown of Dover. She was denied, but she kept turning in her votes in town elections for the rest of her life even if town officials refused to count them...

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1872

Skiing comes to New Hampshire

A black and white photograph shows a valley and small hill nearly covered with pine trees in the winter. In the middle of the hill a wide, straight track runs smoothly down the hill, covered with snow. In the distance, a tall tower is built on top of the hill to extend the height of the hill. A narrower, steep track runs down the tower at an angle to meet the track on the hill. A small building sits at the foot of the hill where the track ends.

1872

Skiing comes to New Hampshire

Lots of people from Scandinavian countries moved to New Hampshire in the 1800s to work in the timber industry in the White Mountains. They brought with them many traditions from the countries they came from, including cross-country skiing...

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1875-1900

1879

Light bulb invented

A hand drawn cartoon shows three figures. A man on the right is behind a table and is using wires and various kinds of bulbs. He shines a beam of light to the left side of the cartoon. The two left figures are men-like with gas meters for heads. The light shines on them both. One has fallen on the ground and has an oil lamp in one hand and a sign that reads

1879

Light bulb invented

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he introduced a whole new way for people to see in the dark. Before then, people had to use candles, oil, or gas lamps, although neither of them provided very good light. The light bulb, however, was reliable and safe...

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1881

Camp Chocorua opens

A black and white drawing shows people in a woodland scene. There are large trees, showing only their trunks. There is a large cross made from birch tree branches in the center of the drawing. About ten boys are standing under the cross facing left; they have books and their mouths open. They are wearing uniforms with shorts and button down shirts with small ties. A man in a dark suit is standing next to a pulpit made of rock; he is standing solemnly. In the background to the left, seated boys can be seen.

1881

Camp Chocorua opens

In the summer of 1881, a New Hampshire man named Ernest Balch opened the first children’s summer camp in the United States. Located on Squam Lake, he called it Camp Chocorua. The camp was for boys who lived in big cities, like Boston and New York...

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1886

Statue of Liberty

A colorful painting shows a statue of a woman, clothed in robes. She is holding a book in her left hand at her waist. Her right hand is held aloft with a torch in it. She wears a crown of seven spikes. She stands on a square pedestal, which then sits on a slanted lawn supported by star-shaped brick walls. The surrounding scene shows how tall her form and base are, as the water in the background has three-masted ships which seem smaller than her head. There are clouds and blue sky in the background. Underneath the painting, words read

1886

Statue of Liberty

In honor of America’s 100th birthday in 1876, the French people donated a giant, copper statue of Lady Liberty. It took 10 years to design and build her, but when the French were finished, the Statue of Liberty stood over 300 feet high in New York Harbor...

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1899

First Old Home Week

A document has ornate printing. It is titled

1899

First Old Home Week

At the end of the 19th century, more people were moving out of New Hampshire than moving to it. People especially didn’t want to stay working on farms. Many of the state’s small towns saw a decline in their population...

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1900-1925

1903

Wright Brothers’ first flight

In a black and white photograph, a biplane is shown with two wings stacked on each other. A small engine is seen along with a small body of the plane behind the wings. The plane is on a beach and a man stands watching it, near a wooden bench.

1903

Wright Brothers’ first flight

The first airplane in the world was built by two brothers from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright Brothers made their first powered flight, which lasted for 59 seconds, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. Within just a few years of this flight, many others had built airplanes using a similar design, and flying eventually became a popular way to travel, offering people a way to go long distances in a short amount of time.

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1903

Forest fires burn the White Mountains

A black and white photograph of a wide landscape is seen. The landscape is hilly but not steep; there are trees and brush throughout. There are also several dirt paths across the hill. In a line across the photograph, a wildfire is raging. The smoke reaches far into the sky and is dark and voluminous. Flames are seen across the hill in a thick line.

1903

Forest fires burn the White Mountains

The White Mountains have long been known for their beautiful forests and abundant trees. In 1903, though, a series of forest fires swept through the mountains and burned over 12,000 acres and millions of trees. The loss of so much of the forest made many people in New Hampshire concerned for the forests’ survival...

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1909

Lewis Hine photographs child mill workers

In a black and white photograph, the outside of a brick building is shown. Wrought-iron gates with tall brick columns fence the building. People are exiting through the gate out to the dusty sidewalk. One women wears long dark skirts, a formal jacket, and a decorative hat. Behind her, four girls just leaving the gate wear shin length skirts, jackets, and hats or bows in their hair. One man wears a dark suit and a casual hat and is watching them all leave.

1909

Lewis Hine photographs child mill workers

Thousands of people worked in the factories and mills of New Hampshire, including many children. Kids could work in the factories starting at the age of 5, and often they worked instead of going to school. For many struggling families, the money that children earned helped them survive...

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1909

NAACP founded

A black and white photograph shows a man's head and shoulders. His hair is balding on top and he has a mustache curled at the edges. He wears a dark suit with a bow tie. His shoulders are slightly tilted away from the camera, but he looks directly at the viewer.

1909

NAACP founded

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed in 1909 to fight for the rights of African Americans. Its founder, a man named W.E.B. Dubois, argued that African Americans were not treated equally in America...

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1913

Moving assembly lines

In a black and white photograph, many people work in an assembly line. They are in some sort of factory, and on their line are circular metal pieces, about 18

1913

Moving assembly lines

Although factories had been in America since the early 1800s, inventor Henry Ford developed a better way to produce factory goods faster with a moving assembly line. Ford introduced this technique in his most popular invention, the Model T automobile...

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1914–1918

World War I

In a colorful poster, a drawing shows soldiers running through a field. They are wearing wide-brimmed hats, green uniforms with backpacks and belts equipped with gear. They hold rifles. At the top of the poster in red, it reads

1914–1918

World War I

World War I was such a big war with such terrible fighting that people thought it could never happen again. That’s why it is sometimes called “the war to end all wars.” Most of the fighting was in Europe between France, England, and Russia on one side, and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other...

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1917

Yankee Division formed

1917

Yankee Division formed

In April 1917, the United States joined World War I, fighting on the side of England and France. America had a small army at the time, so the government encouraged volunteers to join up. Thousands of young men from New Hampshire signed up for the army...

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1918

White Mountain National Forest opens

A large black and white square map is shown. It is dense with information, and includes markings for rivers, mountains, lakes, as well as town, county, and landmark notations. On the right is a black dotted border, with New Hampshire labeled to the left and Maine to the right. It is titled

1918

White Mountain National Forest opens

The White Mountains are among the most important of New Hampshire’s natural resources. One of the state’s biggest exports has been the timber found in the mountains. By the early 1900s, so many trees had been cut down that people began to worry that the White Mountains would no longer have such beautiful forests...

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1918

Potato drive campaign

A black and white poster has a border and printing of various sizes. The border has four small corner pictures encouraging public support for food conservation efforts. The text reads in part

1918

Potato drive campaign

During World War I, Granite State farmers grew food for the soldiers serving in Europe. The U.S. government told the farmers what crops to plant and how much to plant to cover the needs of the army. But in the spring of 1918, New Hampshire farmers discovered that they had grown too many potatoes...

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1920

19th Amendment passes

A black and white photograph shows a broad city street filled with people and no cars, seen from above. People generally wear long skirts or coats and hats. The buildings are decorated with half-circle flags draped from windows. Words in cursive in the lower right hand corner read

1920

19th Amendment passes

Before 1920, women could not vote in national elections in the United States. Women had been fighting for the right to vote since the mid-1800s. They finally got the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment. An amendment is a change to the Constitution.

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1920

Radio becomes popular

A black and white photograph shows a man in a long coat and hat standing outside a store on a street. Next to him is a table with a large black box on it. On the box are two circles with markings. He is holding something connected with a wire to the black box up to his ear, and touching one of the circles with the other hand. He is looking down at the box..

1920

Radio becomes popular

In November 1920, radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, went on the air to announce the results of the presidential election. Over the next several weeks, it began broadcasting all sorts of programs, including sports, news, and music...

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The Factory System
New Hampshire's Main Industries
Factory Workers
City Life
New Hampshire Farms

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The Factory System

What is a factory, and where does it get the power to make machines work?

The Industrial Revolution was a period in American history that saw an enormous amount of change in the way Americans lived.

Although the Industrial Revolution was at its height from 1840 to 1920, it all started earlier than that—around 1800—with a shift in the way people made the things they used in their lives.

Where did Americans get their clothes from in 1800? What about shoes? Or books? Or the dishes they used to cook and eat their food? Before the Industrial Revolution, all of those items would have been made by hand by people who lived in your own community. But once the Industrial Revolution happened, those items were made in factories with the help of machines. The items were probably produced someplace far away from where you lived and transported to a store close to your neighborhood so you could buy them.

And from that one change in the way people produced the things we use, a lot of other changes followed.

Unit Vocabulary List

How Were Things Made Before Industrialization?

Water Power

The story of the Industrial Revolution starts with power and the development of machines to do the work people used to do themselves.

For centuries, people had been using water to create power, a process called hydropower. The simplest form of hydropower was to have the water of a river run through a waterwheel and turn it. The wheel was attached to a machine, so when the water turned the wheel, the wheel gave power to the machine.

Although people had been using waterwheels for a long time, they mostly used them for two purposes: to grind corn or wheat (which were called gristmills) and to cut wood (which were called sawmills).

Around 1800, though, inventors came up with new ways to use waterwheels that generated more power. With more power available, people started finding new ways—and invented new machines—to make the things they needed.

With all of New Hampshire’s rivers, the state was perfect for factories because the water in the rivers provided enough power for the machines to work.

New Hampshire also had the other resources needed to start successful businesses. A business needs four inputs, called factors of production, which are: labor, land, capital, and entrepreneurship. New Hampshire had all of them in the early 1800s. That’s why New Hampshire developed factories earlier than many other states.

By the time other states started building factories, New Hampshire already had hundreds of them.

Factors of Production

The First Mills

One of the first products people started making with these new machines was cloth, which is also called textiles. Textiles were used for all sorts of things like clothing and bedding. But it took a long time to create fabric from cotton or wool.

Mason Explains: Textile Production

New Hampshire's Most Important Industry!

What is a textile? And why were textiles so important to New Hampshire in the 1800s? During the Industrial Revolution, people built large mills full of new machines that made all kinds of different textiles. Join Mason as he shows you how textiles were made!

With new machines to make textiles, people started to build factories, which were buildings that held all the machinery and provided power to make the machines work. Factory workers operated the machines to make sure everything ran smoothly.

The machines couldn’t do everything, though, so factory workers also did by hand any parts of production that couldn’t be done by machine. Creating goods in factories was much cheaper and faster than creating them by hand.

People in the early 1800s were quick to build more factories and produce more goods because it made them money.

Steam Power

As the Industrial Revolution developed, the factories got bigger and bigger, and they needed more and more power. Water power alone was not going to be enough to keep all the machines working.

Another invention called the steam engine started to replace waterwheels by the middle of the 19th century. Steam engines were still hydropower but used water in a different way. Instead of the water from a river turning a waterwheel, steam engines worked when giant tanks of water were heated until they got so hot that the water turned to steam. Then the pressure from the steam in the tanks would push the pistons of the steam engine so that it moved, which created power to make the machines run.

Steam engines provided a steady source of power to the factories that allowed them to use more machines and make more goods even faster than they had before. The steam engine was a very important invention that inspired other inventions, like the railroad, steamships, and eventually cars. All of them operated on steam engines when they were first invented.

Let's Review!

What are the big ideas in this section?

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution lasted from 1840 to 1920. It was a shift in the way people made things. Items started to be made by machines in factories instead of by hand at home.

Hydropower

New Hampshire developed factories because it had access to a source of power: water. With all the rivers in the state, factories could use water to power machines. This kind of power is called hydropower.

The First Factories

Textiles, or cloth, were one of the first products made by machines and people in factories. Making textiles and other goods in factories was much faster and cheaper than making them by hand.

Steam Engines

By the middle of the 19th century, steam engines started to replace waterwheels in factories. Steam engines provided a constant source of power to machines so factories could make more goods faster. Steam engines were also used in railroads, steamships, and even the first cars.

Find It! Industrial Revolution Word Search

Draw Your Own Comic: Cottage Industry

Find Your Way Maze: Replacing a Bobbin

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New Hampshire's Main Industries

What were the most important industries in New Hampshire during the Industrial Revolution?

All sorts of things were made in New Hampshire during the Industrial Revolution: furniture, mattresses, boxes, glass, guns, engines, hats, cigars, sleds, and more!

Some New Hampshire products became famous all over the world, like the Concord coach, which was a kind of stagecoach. Granite was another famous New Hampshire industry, as the granite quarries in the state produced granite for many important buildings all over country, including the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

But the state was really well known for three industries in particular: textiles, shoes, and lumber.

NH Industry in the 19th Century

All About Granite

Timeline: First Concord Coach built

What Does a Factory Need?

Timeline: First Textile Mill in New Hampshire

Textiles

The textile industry was by far the biggest industry in New Hampshire during the Industrial Revolution. There were textile factories all over the state, and some of the most important ones were in Dover, Rochester, Nashua, and Manchester.

Textile factories tended to be very big, with lots of noisy machinery that changed cotton or wool into cloth that could then be turned into clothing.

Although there were many textile factories around the state, one in Manchester became the largest textile factory, not just in New Hampshire but in the entire world! Manchester’s textile factories were owned by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

When the Amoskeag Company first started its textile business in Manchester in the 1820s, the town was still pretty small, and most of the people who lived there were farmers. The town center was not along the river, where it is today, but further east where two major roads met. The Amoskeag Company built its mills along the Merrimack River because the mills needed the power of the river to make the machines work.

Timeline: Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Founded

How Manchester Got Its Name

Mason's Fun Fact

By the late 1830s, the Amoskeag Company had built so many factories along the river that most of the people in Manchester lived in that part of town. The company built apartments and houses for the workers so they would be close to the factories, and thousands of immigrants started coming to Manchester to work in the mills.

With so many people living along the Merrimack River in Manchester, the company decided to design the streets of the new city to make it more organized. They hired a young man named Ezekiel Straw, who was just 18 years old at the time, to figure out where all the streets would go. Straw also designed a dam on the river that would allow the company to control the water—and the power it generated—better. Straw also laid out canals that would bring water to more of the factories and help power the machines.

By 1850, Manchester had become a real city, home to thousands of people. It was laid out with streets on a grid pattern that contained mill buildings, housing, stores, churches, and office buildings. Almost everyone who lived in Manchester worked for the Amoskeag Company in one way or another.

There were very few farmers living in Manchester by that point. Instead, food was brought in from farms located in the surrounding towns. The factory workers bought their food at stores instead of growing it themselves.

Mason Asks: What Were the Amoskeag Mills?

Amoskeag Flywheel Disaster

By the 1910s, when the Amoskeag Company had grown to be the largest textile factory in the world, about 17,000 people worked there. More people worked at the Amoskeag Company than at any other company in the state. The Amoskeag Company owned 40 mill buildings in Manchester, and it produced 500 miles of cloth per day. The company made enough cloth in a year to circle the moon 23 times!

New Hampshire’s fabrics were sold all over the world. For example, Nashua’s textile mills produced fabric that was sent by train to the west coast of the United States and was then put on ships that went to China where workers turned the fabric into clothing and then sold it.

Cloth Around the World

Amoskeag Wins a Prize!

Mason's Fun Fact

Shoes

Another big industry in New Hampshire was shoe making.

Mason Explains: The Story of a Shoe

How Do You Make a Shoe?

The Industrial Revolution changed the way a lot of everyday objects were made and sold. One of those was something we all use every single day: shoes! Let’s learn how shoes used to be made and how machines changed the entire process.

Most of New Hampshire’s shoe factories were in the southern part of the state, and New Hampshire’s shoe industry started later than its textile industry.

Nashua got its first shoe factory in 1874, Newport opened its first shoe factory in 1887, and Manchester got its first shoe factory in 1892. All three places became major producers of shoes that were sold all over the country.

Lumber

Logging New Hampshire’s trees had always been a big industry, even when New Hampshire was still a colony under Great Britain.

In the second half of the 19th century, logging became the main industry in the northern part of the state, in the White Mountains and the Great North Woods regions.

There was a huge demand for lumber all over America during the Industrial Revolution because there was so much building going on. Cities were growing, and companies were constructing mills and building housing. New Hampshire’s thick forests provided a lot of that lumber.

NH Forests Come and Go

Mason's Fun Fact

In 1852, the Berlin Mills Company started its lumber business in Berlin, New Hampshire, just north of the White Mountains.

There was an enormous waterfall on the Androscoggin River that ran through Berlin, which was just a small town at this time. The Berlin Mills Company opened a sawmill there, using the waterfalls to power the machinery. There were also plenty of trees all around to provide the lumber.

But the Berlin Company didn’t just produce lumber for all the construction going on. It also produced paper using a new process that allowed paper to be made from wood pulp rather than cloth. The old way to make paper, using cloth, took a long time and cost a lot of money. The new way to make paper, using wood pulp, was much faster and cheaper to produce.

With so many forests in that part of the state, there was also a lot of wood pulp available to make paper. Soon Berlin had several paper factories along the banks of the river, making it one of the largest paper manufacturing centers in the world.

Paper Towels Invented

Mason's Fun Fact

Forest Density Map

Railroads

How did the Industrial Revolution encourage the development of the railroads?

The railroads were one of the new technologies that grew out of the Industrial Revolution. Some of the same technology that powered the factories, like the steam engine, also made railroads possible. The factories and the railroads grew at the same time because they needed each other to make money. The factories needed the railroads to bring them raw materials and to transport finished products. But the railroads also needed the factories because the factories kept them in business. As factories grew around New Hampshire, the railroads followed them and grew as well.

Mason Explains: Railroads in New Hampshire

Trains All Over the State!

New Hampshire’s industry and population grew a lot in the 1800s! One of the most important things that helped New Hampshire grow was the invention of the railroad. Let’s see how the new railroads in the Granite State moved around products and people.

Let's Review!

What are the big ideas in this section?

Three Main Industries

Although many items were made in New Hampshire during the Industrial Revolution, the three biggest industries in the state were textiles, shoes, and lumber. Factories making these goods were built all over New Hampshire, which also encouraged the spread of the railroads. The railroads brought factories raw materials, then shipped the finished goods around the state and the world.

Textiles

The textile industry was the largest industry in the state. In fact, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester became the biggest textile company in the world! Many towns and cities in New Hampshire had textile factories. More people worked in textiles than any other industry.

Shoes

New Hampshire’s shoe factories were mostly in the southern part of the state. This industry developed toward the end of the 19th century, but it became one of New Hampshire's biggest industries. Granite State companies shipped shoes all over the country.

Lumber

Logging in New Hampshire has been a big industry for a long time, especially in the northern part of the state where there are so many trees and thick forests. Lumber was used for all sorts of things in the 19th century. The Berlin Mills Company in Berlin produced timber and also made paper out of wood pulp in its factories.

Design an Amoskeag Textile

Brainstorm!
Designing a City

Map It! NH Industries and Rivers

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Factory Workers

Who worked in the factories, and what was it like?

All of these factories in New Hampshire needed thousands of people to work in them. As the factories got bigger and bigger, more and more people got jobs in them. But the types of people who worked in New Hampshire’s factories changed over the course of the 19th century.

All factories hired men to care for the machines and perform some of the labor, whether it was making shoes or cutting down trees.

Living By Bells

Women also worked in factories in large numbers, especially in the textile industry. Even when textiles were produced by hand before the Industrial Revolution, most of the work was done by women working in their homes. When textile work moved to factories, women moved to the factories as well, even though it meant no longer working from their homes.

Factory owners also liked to hire women because they believed that women’s small hands could do the delicate work with threads to make textiles.

Farmers to Factory Workers

Nearly everyone who started working in New Hampshire factories in the 19th century originally came from a farm. Whether they were immigrants looking for work or young workers supporting their family, they had to take jobs that were available, which was factory work. But working in a factory was very different from working on a farm.

Mason Explains: Factory Work

What Was It Like to Work in a Factory?

When people built big factories in New Hampshire cities, they needed lots of people to come and work there. In some ways, working in a factory was a good job. But it was also hard and dangerous work! What was it like working in a New Hampshire factory in the 1800s?

New England Mill Girls

By the 1830s, many of the workers in the state’s factories were young women who came from New Hampshire’s farms.

Working in the mills provided these women with more opportunities to earn money and help support their families. At the time, women did not do the same kind of tasks on a farm that their brothers did, most of which required a lot of physical strength, so many people thought women could be more productive and earn more money if they worked in factories. These workers, who were young, unmarried women usually in their teens, became known as New England mill girls.

Bobbins and Shuttlecocks

Description of Factory Life

At first, factories gave jobs to women who lived nearby. But the factories soon got so big and needed so many workers that they had to hire women who lived farther away, which meant these girls had to leave their families and live near the factories.

At this time, few parents would allow their daughters to live on their own without supervision. So the companies that owned the factories often provided housing for the girls and agreed to look out for them when they moved near the factory.

The girls lived in boardinghouses run by the company, and there was a matron (an older woman), who would take care of them. They ate their meals together in the boardinghouse and had to live by strict rules that said where they could go when they weren’t working and what time they had to be back at the boardinghouse every night. The girls were sometimes allowed to go to approved activities, like church, a concert, or a lecture.

The company often sent the money the girls earned, which was just a few dollars a week, home to their parents. Once the girls got older, they usually got married and stopped working in the factories so they could take care of their husbands and children.

Immigrants

Even with the New England mill girls, the factories needed more workers. So, starting in the 1840s, immigrants from other countries began to arrive in New Hampshire to work in the mills. They came from Canada and Europe and brought with them their ethnic heritage from their native lands.

Thousands of Irish, French-Canadians, Italians, Germans, Russians, Greeks, and Scandinavians journeyed to the Granite State, got jobs in one of New Hampshire’s industries, and made America their home. Many of the people who live in New Hampshire now are descended from these immigrants. By 1860, the immigrants had replaced the New England mill girls as factory workers.

Children in the Factories

Although most of the workers in the factories were men and women, the mills also employed children, especially in the textile industry.

Most of these children were from immigrant families that had recently arrived in the United States. The money the kids earned helped their families survive in their new country.

Young Workers at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

A Factory Kid's Life

Kids as young as five years old could work in a factory, and they had very important jobs. Because children were smaller than adults, they could climb up into the machines if something broke. It may seem strange that kids the same age as you would work all day in factories instead of going to school. But in the past, people had different ideas about what childhood should be like.

Mason Explains: What Is Childhood?

What Was It Like To Be a Kid Long Ago?

Being a kid wasn’t always easy! Kids used to work just as hard as adults to earn money and support their families. Then, people started to think it was better for kids to have a childhood before they went off to work. Let’s learn why!

Girls often had jobs as spinners. They had to walk up and down the factory floor and make sure the threads didn’t break on the machinery. If a thread broke, then the spinner had to reach inside the machine and retie the thread. They also had to sweep up all the lint that fell on the floor. Lint is made up of tiny loose threads that float in the air and eventually settle on the floor when textiles are created.

Boys were usually doffers, which meant they had to change the thread bobbins on the machines when the bobbins got full.

All of these jobs were dangerous. It was common for kids to lose a finger or a hand in the machinery and sometimes even die in an industrial accident when the machines broke down. Many kids got sick from breathing in the lint, which clogged up their lungs.

Girls Running Machines in a Textile Mill

Like their parents, kids worked six days a week, usually for 10 or 12 hours a day. They were so busy in the factories that they didn’t go to school, so they often didn’t learn how to read or write.

Kids earned less money than their parents, and the company usually paid their parents directly so the kids never collected their own wages.

The government of New Hampshire passed a few laws, starting in 1846, to protect kids who worked in the factories, but most of the laws didn’t work very well.

It was not until 1910 that the state passed a child labor law that stopped kids from working in the factories. Instead, they had to go to school.

Timeline: Lewis Hines Photographs Child Mill Workers

Dover Women Go on Strike!

Mason's Fun Fact

Labor Strikes

Sometimes factory workers got upset about the conditions they had to work in. They did not get paid very much for working such long hours. Their work was not very interesting, and it could be dangerous. If the factory owners asked them to do more work, often for less money, workers would protest by going on strike.

A strike is when the workers refuse to come to work and do their jobs. Instead, workers would picket in front of factories or hold big rallies or meetings where they would speak out against the way the factory owners treated them. If just a few workers went on strike, the factory owners would fire them. But if many workers went on strike at the same time, it would bring factory work to a stop. The factory owners would be forced to try to find a compromise with the workers.

Strikes didn't always work out this way, though. Sometimes factory owners just let the factories stop production until the workers came back. Since workers didn't get paid when they were on strike, they couldn't afford to be on strike for very long. Other times, the factory owners would fire all the workers who were on strike and hire new workers to replace them.

Labor Unions

Toward the end of the 19th century, some workers joined together to form labor unions, which were kind of like clubs for factory workers. These clubs were often organized for workers at a particular factory, like the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. Or they could be organized for a particular type of worker, like shoemakers or mechanics.

Unions represented factory workers and negotiated with factory owners for better working conditions, higher pay, and shorter hours. If factory owners didn't work with the unions, then the unions could call a strike. But since strikes didn't always turn out the way unions wanted, unions did not call strikes too often.

Not all workers belonged to a union, and not all factories had unionized workers. If a factory treated workers well, then the workers usually didn't form a union in the first place. The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, for example, didn't have unionized workers until the 20th century.

Let's Review!

What are the big ideas in this section?

Factory Workers

Thousands of people worked in New Hampshire’s factories. Men were hired for all jobs, and women worked outside the home at first in the textile factories. For all workers, there was a big change from farm work to factory work.

New England Mill Girls

Many young women from farms came to work in the factories by the 1830s. They supported their families, worked long hours, and lived in boarding houses. They were sometimes allowed to do activities in the evenings and weekends.

Immigrants in the Factories

By the 1840s, immigrants from Canada and Europe were coming to work in New Hampshire’s growing industries. By 1860, they were a main part of the factory workers. Many people in New Hampshire today are descended from these immigrants.

Children in the Factories

Children as young as five also worked in factories. Many were recent immigrants, and all worked to support their families. Girls and boys did dangerous jobs for long hours and did not go to school.

Math with Mason: Factory Wages

Word Scramble: Industrial Revolution

What Was It Like to Work in a Factory?

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City Life

With all these workers living near the factories, the area around the mills grew to be cities. And life in the cities was very different from life in New Hampshire’s small towns, where most of the people still worked as farmers.

Mason Explains: From Farm to City

Cows to Streetcars!

In the 1800s, lots of people in New Hampshire moved to cities to work in the new mills and factories. But life in the city was very different from life on a farm! What were some of the biggest differences between the two places to live?

New Hampshire’s cities grew fast! Cities like Berlin, Manchester, and Concord more than doubled their size between 1840 and 1860.

Manchester grew faster than any other city in the state. By 1860, it was the largest city in New Hampshire, and it has stayed the largest ever since.

How Much Did NH Cities Grow?

New Hampshire's Cities

There were also lots more cities in New Hampshire by the middle of the 19th century, thanks to industrialization and all the new factories. By 1920, there were 10 cities in New Hampshire that each had more than 10,000 people living in them.

Most of these cities were built along rivers, where the factories had been built, because they needed hydropower to make the factories work.

Industrialization changed just about everything in people's lives. New Hampshire began to look more like it does today, with cities, factories, roads, public transportation, stores, theaters, restaurants, and other businesses.

The use of electricity powered public transportation like trolleys, as well as lights that encouraged people to go out in the evening more because shops, restaurants, and theaters were more likely to stay open at night if there was light.

With so many people living in New Hampshire in the 19th century and so much activity going on, the pace of life got faster.

A Cable Across the Atlantic Ocean

Mason's Fun Fact

The Evolution of the Telephone

Communication

People could communicate with one another much more quickly than they did in the 18th century because of new inventions like the telegraph, the telephone, and radio.

A telegraph is a device that sends signals across wires. The signals were short (called dots) or long (called dashes). A wireless operator would tap on a knob to create the dots and dashes. Another wireless operator at a different location would listen for the dots and dashes and then write them down. Each combination of dots and dashes translated into a letter of the alphabet. When the dots and dashes were translated into letters, they made words. The telegraph was the first invention that allowed people to communicate quickly over long distances.

Transportation

People could also move from one place to another more quickly than in the 18th century because of new inventions that developed through the use of hydropower, particularly steam power. Railroads and steamships allowed people and goods to move over long distances in fairly short periods of time.

Eventually cars, which were invented around 1900, allowed people to move both quickly and independently. With a car, you can travel where you want, when you want, instead of relying on the scheduled service of mass transportation.

Timeline: First Railroad in New Hampshire

Consumerism

Industrialization also produced more goods than ever. Because those goods were made by machines in factories, rather than by hand, they were also cheaper. People started buying more stuff instead of making things themselves.

To buy things, people needed to visit stores, so almost every town in New Hampshire had a general store, full of things to buy, including food, clothing, toys, and tools.

Stores needed to be able to buy the goods they sold from factories and move the goods from the factories to their store, so the roads in New Hampshire became better to make it easier to transport the goods.

Leisure Time

Working in a factory or having a job in a store, restaurant, or business in the city also changed when people worked. Employees had set hours for when they worked, and when they weren't at work, they had time to do other things, including fun things!

Mason Explains: The Invention of "Free Time"

Leisure Time

You probably have some activities and hobbies you like to do in your free time—when you're done with your schoolwork, of course! Did you know that people didn't always have time for fun, especially if they weren't rich? Let's join Mason as he explores how and when people began to have time to do things besides work!

Standardized Time

With so many people and goods moving around, it became important that everyone operated on the same basic standards of time.

If trains were going to travel through many towns and follow a schedule, it was important that all the towns were coordinated on the same time. It wasn't enough to look up at the sun and estimate that it was around noon. The people who used the trains needed to know exactly what time it was, down to the minute, so they knew when the train was expected to come through their station. That meant that everyone's watches had to be coordinated to exactly the same time. In 1888, the United States agreed that clocks all over the country would be set according to Greenwich Mean Time, which is a standard of time determined in Greenwich, England.

But Greenwich, England, is a long way from America, and the sun rises and sets at different times in America than it does in England. In fact, the United States is so big that the sun rises and sets at different times across the North American continent. To account for this change in latitude and help railroads create schedules for their trains, the United States also divided the country into four time zones to account for the change in latitude.

These changes allowed for the standardization of time in America.

Greenwich Mean Time

Understanding Time Zones

Understanding Currency

National Currency

The United States also started moving toward a system that standardized money. Before industrialization, there lots of different types of currency that was used in America. Each state had their own currency and sometimes banks made their own currency as well. This currency was accepted as money when used locally, but if people traveled out of state or far away from the bank, many businesses would not accept it.

The U.S. government adopted a single form of currency in the 1860s that would be accepted across the country. With everyone using the same form of money, people could buy and sell goods more easily and had an easier time traveling as well.

All of these changes made people feel more connected to the rest of the country and the rest of the world. They could communicate with other people who lived far away by using the telegraph, the telephone, and then radio. Travel was also much easier and faster than it had been before industrialization, mainly because of railroads which crisscrossed the nation. People could travel from the east coast to the west coast of the United States on a train in just a few days, which was much faster than crossing the continent on foot or horseback.

The world, in a sense, became smaller with these changes, and people felt more connected to one another.

Timeline: First Telegraph Communication

Timeline: Transcontinental Railroad

Let's Review!

What are the big ideas in this section?

Growth of Cities

New Hampshire’s cities grew quickly during the Industrial Revolution. Some even doubled in size from 1840 to 1860. So many people living and working close together was very different than life in New Hampshire's small towns.

Communication and Transportation

The pace of life got faster during this time as people’s lives changed in the cities. People used telephones and radios to communicate quickly. People and goods were able to move more rapidly using steam engines in railroads and steamships.

Consumerism and Leisure Time

The Industrial Revolution changed how people got the items they needed and how they spent their time. Workers could buy items in a store and then have time to do something fun.

Standardized Time and Currency

As the country and world got more connected, the government organized systems to make it easier for people to interact. Time zones started across the United States so trains could run on schedules. A national currency was created so that people all over could buy and sell goods more easily.

Crossword Puzzle: Industrial Revolution

Recording History:
Life in the Big City

Industrial Revolution: A to Z Chart

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New Hampshire Farms

What happened to New Hampshire’s farms during this period?

Although lots of people moved to the cities to get jobs in the factories during the 19th century, some people stayed in the country and farmed their land. But even farming changed during the Industrial Revolution.

Population of New Hampshire

Farming had always been hard in New Hampshire. The growing season is short, the soil does not support many types of plants, and there are lots of rocks in the fields that make it hard to care for the crops.

Before 1850, Granite Staters just had to make do with what food they could grow. But after 1850, when railroads began to spread to the middle of the country where it was easier to farm, food could be transported to New England for less than it cost to grow here. The most popular crops to come from the Midwest were wheat, barley, and corn. Meat also began coming from the Midwest, which sent beef, pork, and chicken to New England markets.

The New Hampshire Grange

Farmers in New Hampshire had to find new crops to grow. They ended up shifting their farms to dairy products, like milk, cheese, and butter.

They also grew lots of fruits and vegetables, which did well in New Hampshire’s soil—things like apples, berries, lettuce, and potatoes. New Hampshire farmers started providing big northeastern cities like Boston with these types of products that allowed them to earn enough money to get by.

Sons of New Hampshire

Mason's Fun Fact

What Types of Jobs Did People Have?

Not all farmers stayed in the Granite State, though. In fact, in the second half of the 19th century, lots of New Hampshire farmers left and either moved to the cities or migrated to the Midwest or the west coast of the United States.

The number of people living in small New Hampshire towns plummeted. In a couple of places, so few people lived there that they stopped being considered towns.

By 1900, most people in New Hampshire lived in a city, not a town. That was a big change from 100 years earlier, when almost everyone in the state lived in a small farming community.

But by 1900, New Hampshire had several cities and hundreds of factories surrounded by many small farming towns that were struggling to keep people living there.

Farms for Sale

Mason's Fun Fact

Farms to Summer Homes

Let's Review!

What are the big ideas in this section?

New Hampshire Farmers

Many people during the Industrial Revolution left farms to go to the city and work in factories. Farming had always been difficult in New Hampshire, and in some ways it got harder for the farmers who stayed behind.

New Competition

Railroads connected the country, so farmers from all over could send their goods to New England to sell them. New Hampshire farms had to compete with crops like wheat and corn coming from the Midwest, where it was easier and cheaper to grow things. Granite State farmers had to find new products to sell because they could not make a living anymore.

New Crops

In order to make money farming, farmers in New Hampshire changed what they produced. They started dairy farms and made milk, cheese, and butter because all of these items had to be produced locally. They also used New Hampshire’s climate and soil to grow new vegetables and fruit crops, like apple trees and potatoes.

Population Changes

The population in New Hampshire changed from mostly living in small rural towns at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to mostly living in urban cities by 1900. Many farmers moved to New Hampshire's cities to work in the factories or they left the state for other parts of America. The population in small New Hampshire towns dropped a lot.

Venn Diagram: Farm Work vs. Factory Work

Unit 11 Activities Answer Key

Unit 11 Student Reading

A printable version of the student reading for this unit, without pictures or graphics.

See student reading

Secret Found... Color Mason The Moose!

SECRET FOUND!

Play the Matching Game with Mason The Moose :)

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GAME SETTINGS

Learn It! Big Factories and New Industries

Big Factories and New Industries, 1820–1920

NEW HAMPSHIRE EVENTS

U.S. & WORLD EVENTS

The Factory System

Unit Vocabulary List

How Were Things Made Before Industrialization?

Water Power

Water Power

Factors of Production

The First Mills

Mason Explains: Textile Production

New Hampshire's Most Important Industry!

Steam Power

Steam Power

Let's Review!

The Industrial Revolution

Hydropower

The First Factories

Steam Engines

Find It! Industrial Revolution Word Search

Draw Your Own Comic: Cottage Industry

Find Your Way Maze: Replacing a Bobbin

New Hampshire's Main Industries

NH Industry in the 19th Century

All About Granite

Timeline: First Concord Coach built

What Does a Factory Need?

Timeline: First Textile Mill in New Hampshire

Textiles

Timeline: Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Founded

How Manchester Got Its Name

Mason Asks: What Were the Amoskeag Mills?

Amoskeag Flywheel Disaster

Cloth Around the World

Amoskeag Wins a Prize!

Shoes

Mason Explains: The Story of a Shoe

How Do You Make a Shoe?

Lumber

NH Forests Come and Go

Paper Towels Invented

Forest Density Map

Railroads

Mason Explains: Railroads in New Hampshire

Trains All Over the State!

Let's Review!

Three Main Industries

Textiles

Shoes

Lumber

Design an Amoskeag Textile

Brainstorm!Designing a City

Map It! NH Industries and Rivers

Factory Workers

Living By Bells

Farmers to Factory Workers

Mason Explains: Factory Work

What Was It Like to Work in a Factory?

New England Mill Girls

Bobbins and Shuttlecocks

Description of Factory Life

Immigrants

Children in the Factories

A Factory Kid's Life

Mason Explains: What Is Childhood?

What Was It Like To Be a Kid Long Ago?

Timeline: Lewis Hines Photographs Child Mill Workers

Dover Women Go on Strike!

Labor Strikes

Labor Unions

Let's Review!

Factory Workers

New England Mill Girls

Immigrants in the Factories

Secret Found...
Color Mason The Moose!

Brainstorm!
Designing a City

Recording History:
Life in the Big City