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Units of New Hampshire History
Unit 11: Big Factories and New Industries
Find It!

Find It! Big Factories and New Industries

All the resources that appear in this unit are gathered here for you—the photographs, maps, objects, audiovisuals, documents, videos, biographies, and vocabulary words. Click on the image below to see a larger view of each resource with more information about each one. On some of the resources you can even zoom in and get a closer look. So go ahead, dive in, and explore. Before you know it, you’ll be thinking like a historian.

Find It! Scavenger Hunt

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Photographs & Prints in this Unit:

Photograph/Print

Textile Factory Workers

circa 1900–1934

Caption:

Immigrant men and women worked in textile mills throughout New Hampshire, especially in cities or large towns. Textile mill workers would be placed in charge of several large and noisy machines, and had to make sure that all the machines continued to work properly throughout the workday. This is a photograph of workers at Rochester Mills.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Shoe Factory Workers

circa 1897–1929

Caption:

Many immigrant women worked in factories all over New Hampshire, like at this shoe factory in Derry.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Logging Workmen and Horse Team

undated

Caption:

Logging was one of the most dangerous jobs taken on by immigrant men. It was very specialized work. Loggers had to go deep into the woods to cut down the trees. Then they used horses to help them bring the cut trees to the nearest train station. This logging team in Lincoln is on their way to the East Branch and Lincoln Railroad Company. Logging mainly took place in northern New Hampshire towns.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Inside a Paper Mill

circa 1927

Caption:

This photograph shows employees of a paper mill gathered around sheaves of finished paper. Some of the sheaves have been bundled and prepared for distribution. New Hampshire's forests provided the wood pulp to make this paper.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

View from Lewis Nute Farm

Frank H. Shapleigh

1880

Caption:

New Hampshire's geography supports many types of plant and animal life. This painting of a farm in Milton, NH, shows how diverse the landscape can be. Animals graze in the fields and the village of Farmington is shown in the distance.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Trolley Cars from Manchester

circa 1910

Caption:

Trolley lines allowed tourists to take day trips to enjoy their leisure time. This trolley ran between Manchester and Goffstown. Passengers rode the trolley to a base station and then transferred to the Uncanoonuc Incline Railway, which traveled to the top of the Uncanoonuc Mountains.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Goffstown Historical Society

Weaving Machines at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Weaving Machines at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

F. E. Nelson

circa 1872–1935

Caption:

This photo shows the weaving room in one of the Amoskeag mill buildings. In the weaving room, big machines called looms wove the threads of cotton into cloth. Workers called weavers ran the looms. They had to load all the spools of thread onto the loom, replace them when they were empty, and make sure the design was correct and the thread was tight enough. Weavers had to keep track of between 10 and 30 looms at a time or more, and it was loud and dangerous, because the looms moved so fast. This type of work required more training than many other jobs in the textile mills, so weavers often earned more money than other mill workers.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Children's Garden

circa 1912–1935

Caption:

This children's garden was run by the Amoskeag Textile Club for the children of workers at the Amoskeag Company. The Amoskeag Textile Club was founded by the Amoskeag Company in 1912. It sponsored all sorts of social, recreational, and educational activities for the mill workers, like this garden, a playground, a baseball team, and trips to the beach and concerts. The Textile Club also published a magazine and put on plays.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Playground at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Playground at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

circa 1911

Caption:

The Amoskeag Company built this playground for the children of the mill workers. Some workers rented apartments in buildings owned by the company. They didn't have yards to play in so they used this playground.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Locomotive

John H. Bufford

circa 1856

Caption:

The Amoskeag Company manufactured more than textiles over the years. They also made locomotives, fire engines, sewing machines, and rifles. The Amoskeag Company had a big machine shop where they made all of their own machines for producing textiles. When railroads started growing all over the country in the 1840s, Amoskeag Company decided to make locomotives too. A locomotive is an engine that moves by its own power. Locomotives are the train cars that pull all the rest of the cars. The first Amoskeag locomotive was finished on March 1, 1849. They made 234 steam-powered locomotives by 1858, when they decided to make fire engines instead.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Stark Mills

Van Slyck Company

circa 1880

Caption:

This engraving shows Stark Mills, one of the oldest companies in the Manchester millyard. The Amoskeag Company was the biggest textile mill in Manchester, but there were other, smaller mills along the Merrimack River too. Stark Mills manufactured heavy cotton cloth. It opened in 1839 and was bought by the Amoskeag Company in 1922.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Mill Workers on Strike

1922

Caption:

In the 1920s, the Amoskeag Company began to have economic problems. People's tastes were changing, and the textiles they made were no longer in fashion, so they were not selling as much fabric. In February 1922, the company reduced the workers' pay, but increased their hours. Even with the increase in hours—which most workers did not want—they were still earning less each week. The workers went on strike to try to convince the company to return to the old number of hours and the old rate of pay. A strike is when a large number of workers stop working in protest. Striking workers will usually march in front of their workplace, holding signs and chanting or singing. This photo shows over 4,000 striking workers marching in Manchester in April 1922. The strike lasted for nine months. Finally the company agreed to raise the workers' pay back to the previous rate, but they still had the longer working hours.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

One Day's Production of Amoskeag Cloth

undated

Caption:

By the early 1900s, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was the largest textile company in the world. It had over 30 buildings and 17,000 workers. This photo shows how much cloth it could produce in one day. The Amoskeag Company could make 50 miles of cloth per hour. Since the workday was 12 hours, that was 600 miles of cloth per hour!

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

Aerial View of Manchester

1967

Caption:

This photo shows the Manchester millyard in the late 1960s, more than 30 years after the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company closed down. There were still factories in the millyard, making things like textiles, shoes, knitted goods, and metal stamps, as well as warehouses and trucking companies. But there was less economic activity than before. See if you can find the Merrimack River, the old mill buildings, and the canal in the photo.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Photograph/Print

Woman at Loom

circa 1912

Caption:

This woman is working at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company as a drawing-in girl. Drawing-in was the last step of textile production before weaving. The threads had already been wound around a large roller called a beam. The drawing-in girl had to pull the ends of the threads through wires in a certain order. The order of the different threads helped make a pattern on the cloth. Then the beam and wires were placed on the loom and the fabric was woven.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Women Working at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Women Working at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

undated

Caption:

These women are sitting at the tables in the burling room at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. Burling is one of the later steps in textile production. It is done after the cloth is woven. The woven cloth is inspected for missing threads or other imperfections. Often wool cloth had tiny knots, called burls, in it. Workers in the burling room had to inspect the cloth and pick the burls out by hand.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Baseball Team

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Baseball Team

1913

Caption:

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company had its own baseball team! The team was sponsored by the Amoskeag Textile Club. This large club was founded by the Amoskeag Company in 1912. It sponsored all sorts of social, recreational, and educational activities for the mill workers, like a playground a children's garden, and trips to the beach and to concerts. The Textile Club also published a magazine and put on plays. All the players on the Amoskeag baseball team also worked at the mills.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Quilling Machine at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Quilling Machine at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

undated

Caption:

This is a quilling machine used in textile production at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. A quilling machine wound the yarn onto spools or bobbins.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Explosion

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Explosion

1891

Caption:

There was an explosion in one of the engine rooms at the Amoskeag Company in October 1891. Three workers were killed and several others were badly injured. The flywheel of a giant engine broke apart and the engine exploded. The flywheel was a huge wheel that spun to generate power to operate all of the machinery in four nearby mill buildings. The engine was as powerful as 2,000 horses. This was the worst industrial accident to happen at the Amoskeag Company, but there were lots of smaller accidents that caused injuries or even deaths. Factory work was very dangerous. Now American workers have some legal protections.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

Flooding in the Manchester Millyard

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

1936

Caption:

In March 1936, a combination of heavy spring rains and melting snow caused the Merrimack River to flood over its banks. It was the worst flooding along the Merrimack in recorded history. Eighteen feet of water flowed through downtown Hooksett, NH. The flooding damaged roads, bridges, and buildings in Manchester, including many parts of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. The millyard suffered $2.5 million in damage. The Amoskeag Company was already having a lot of economic trouble, and the flooding only made it worse. The company officially closed that summer.

Image Credit: Record Group 77, National Archives and Records Administration

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Fire Engine

1914

Caption:

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company manufactured more than textiles. They also made locomotives, fire engines, sewing machines, and rifles. The Amoskeag Company had a big machine shop where they made all of their own machines for producing textiles. In the late 1850s, they decided to try to make the best steam-powered fire engine in the United States. At first they made fire engines with one or two large pumps that sprayed the water out. These could be pulled by horses or men. Then in 1867 they invented a fire engine that used steam power to move and to pump the water out. This was one of the earliest motor vehicles. By 1876 Amoskeag had built 550 fire engines, which were known all over the world for their high quality. That part of the company didn't make a lot of money, though, so it was sold off to a separate company. This photo shows an Amoskeag fire engine fighting a big fire in Manchester, NH, in 1914, when the John B. Varick Store burned.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Works Progress Administration

circa 1939

Caption:

This shows just one section of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in the 1930s.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Housing

Edwin Locke

1937

Caption:

Between 1838 and 1916, the Amoskeag Company built housing for its workers in Manchester. Some of that housing included these brick buildings along the side streets that connected Elm Street to the millyard. The rent was about $1 per room per month, which was lower than rent in other parts of the city. The apartments were owned and maintained by the company. Only workers with large families and more than one family member working in the mills could live there. In 1910, about 15% to 20% of Amoskeag workers lived in these apartments.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Workers

circa 1899

Caption:

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was a huge textile company. In the 1910s, it was the largest textile company in the world! This photo shows just some of the workers in the millyard.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

Pittsfield Shoe Company Workers

E.C. Milton

1905

Caption:

This is a photo of workers in the cutting room at the Pittsfield Shoe Company in Pittsfield, NH. They were cutting the pieces of leather that made the shoes. The cut pieces of leather then would be sewn by workers in a different room, and attached to the soles of the shoes in yet another room.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Logging at Amoskeag Falls

Produced by the Endicott Company from an engraving by John Badger Bachelder

1856

Caption:

This picture shows a group of loggers working in the Merrimack River near Amoskeag Falls in Manchester, NH. Loggers would cut down the trees in the northern part of New Hampshire and then float them down the river to towns with sawmills or to ports where they would be shipped to other places. It was difficult and dangerous work to guide the barges of logs on the river, especially when there were rapids and falls, as in this picture.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Bales of Cotton

circa 1900–1907

Caption:

These horse-drawn wagons in Alabama were hauling bales of cotton to be shipped north. A bale is a bundle of an item, in this case cotton, that is tightly bound with wires or rope so that it can be transported. A bale weighs about 500 pounds. New England textile mills depended on the South for cotton, where it was usually planted and harvested by enslaved people. After slavery ended, a lot of cotton was still planted and picked by Black farmworkers, who were not treated well or paid very much.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Photograph/Print

Processing Lumber

circa 1927–1950

Caption:

Making paper is hard work. First the trees have to be cut and the logs transported by water or by railroad to the paper mill. Then the logs are fed through a wood chipper and made into wood chips. The chips are mixed with chemicals so they break down into a wood pulp. The pulp is fed into a machine that presses and dries it into big sheets.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Children Working in a Textile Mill

Lewis W. Hine

1909

Caption:

Children as young as five worked in textile mills. These kids worked in the spinning room in a mill in Georgia. They tended the spinning frame, a machine that spins the threads into yarn and winds the yarn around bobbins. The kids had to remove the full bobbins from the frame and replace them with empty bobbins. They climbed onto the spinning frame because they were not tall enough to reach the top.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Girl Working at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Girl Working at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Lewis W. Hine

1909

Caption:

Children as young as five worked in textile mills. This girl was about 11 or 12 and worked at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. She was probably a spinner, which meant that she had to make sure threads didn't break. If they did, spinners had to reach into the machines to retie the threads.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Girls Running Machines in a Textile Mill

Photograph/Print

Girls Running Machines in a Textile Mill

Lewis W. Hine

1908

Caption:

Children as young as five worked in textile mills. These girls ran warping machines at a textile mill in North Carolina. Woven fabric is made by weaving two sets of yarn or threads together. The long threads stretched out on the loom frame are called the warp. The threads that the shuttle pulls through the warp across the loom are called the weft. The warp threads have to be wound on a warping drum that is attached to the loom. Warping machines pull threads from different spools to make patterns and wind them on the warping drum. From the warping drum the threads are transferred onto a warp beam, which is then mounted on the loom.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Photograph/Print

Boy Sweeper in a Textile Mill

Lewis W. Hine

1908

Caption:

Children as young as five worked in textile mills. This boy was a sweeper in a textile mill in Indiana. The process of making textiles produced a lot of lint, which is all of the tiny loose threads that float in the air and eventually settle on the floor. Sweepers had to go around sweep up all the lint. The lint sometimes made them sick because breathing it in all day damaged their lungs.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Young Workers at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Young Workers at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Lewis W. Hine

1909

Caption:

Children as young as five worked in textile mills. These kids worked in the spinning room at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, NH. In the spinning room, machines twisted threads into yarn and wound the yarn around bobbins. The smallest boy on the left is named George Brown, and the boy next to him is named Eugene Lamy. The two girls are Melvina Proulx and Laura Oclair. We don't know the names of the other children in the photo. This photo was taken for the National Child Labor Committee, which wanted to end the practice of having kids work in the mills.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Photograph/Print

Women Marching in Concord

1915

Caption:

These women are marching in the Flag Day parade in Concord, NH. They are part of the Friendly Club. The Friendly Club was founded in 1912 in Concord. It provided housing for women and activities for children. In the 1970s it merged with the YMCA.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Dover in 1910

Sandra (last name unknown)

1910

Caption:

This drawing is of Pacific Mills in Dover, NH, which was known as the Cocheco Mills earlier. The first textile mill was built on this site on the Cocheco River in 1822. These buildings were built between the 1880s and early 1900s, when they were part of the Cocheco Mills. In 1909 Pacific Mills, a company based in Lawrence, MA, bought the Cocheco Mills. The Pacific Mills closed this location in 1937 but many of these buildings still stand in Dover.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Printing Company Employees

circa 1915

Caption:

This group photo shows the workers of the Rumford Printing Company outside their building. Rumford Printing Company or Rumford Press was a commercial printing company in Concord, NH. They printed books, pamphlets, and reports for the state government, organizations and churches, and individual authors.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Winter Carnival Poster

The Photoplating Company

1924

Caption:

Although New Hampshire has long, hard winters, Granite Staters find ways to enjoy the season! In 1910, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, held a winter carnival. It was so much fun that soon other colleges and even cities held their own winter carnivals. Manchester's winter carnival started in the 1920s. It lasted several days. The city parks had sledding hills, luges, and ski hills for ski jumping contests. There were also big parades and figure skating contests. The Manchester winter carnival ended in 1928 but started up again in the 1950s and became the second-largest winter carnival in the United States.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Electric Trolley Car

Harry D. Davis

circa 1910

Caption:

As cities grew, people needed ways to get from place to place within a city and also between different cities. Beginning in the 1880s, streetcars or trolleys powered by electricity began to replace horse-drawn trolleys. Electric trolleys could take people from their homes or jobs to parks, theaters, and restaurants. You could also travel from Manchester or Concord to the seacoast to go to the beach or to Canobie Lake Park. As automobiles became less expensive and more popular in the 1920s and 1930s, trolley lines closed down. This trolley car is from the Concord and Manchester Electric Railway, which was owned and operated by the Boston & Maine Railroad.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Telephone Operators

From Bell Telephone Quarterly, American Telegraph and Telephone Company

1936

Caption:

Today when we want to make a phone call, we just press the phone number of the person we want to talk to and they answer. Until the 1960s, though, you would make a call by picking up your phone and speaking to an operator. The operator worked at a switchboard and would connect calls by plugging the telephone cables into the correct jacks. Telephone operators were almost always young women, known as "hello girls," and they had a lot of training. Not only did they have to connect hundreds of phone calls throughout the day, they also had to provide information and answer all sorts of questions.

Image Credit: The Internet Archive

Photograph/Print

Hopkinton Village Road

1889

Caption:

A dirt road in Hopkinton, NH, in the 1880s.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Panoramic View of Manchester Millyard

Alphonso H. Sanborn

1903

Caption:

This panoramic photo shows the millyard along the Merrimack River in Manchester, NH, in the early 1900s.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Photograph/Print

Laconia Car Company

R. Wright

circa 1905–1945

Caption:

The Laconia Car Company made passenger cars for railroads, electric streetcars, trolleys, and subways. They made the cars out of both wood and steel. The company had its own large foundry, or metal shop, where it made all the metal parts for the cars. It was spread out over seven acres in downtown Laconia, and over 1,000 people worked there. The Laconia Car Company was in business from 1882 to 1928.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Laconia Public Library

Photograph/Print

New Hampshire's Clay Industries

Alice Cosgrove

circa 1950

Caption:

New Hampshire has many natural deposits of clay on the seacoast and in the river valleys. This clay was used to make items like dishes and pots, but mostly bricks. This is the cover illustration of a state report about the clay industries in New Hampshire in the 1950s.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Dover Factories

Thomas Edwards, Senefelder Lithographic Company

circa 1828–1830

Caption:

The town of Dover, NH, has used the water power of the Cocheco River for centuries. In the 1600s it powered a sawmill and in the 1800s it powered cotton mills. This picture shows textile factories along the Cocheco River in the early 1800s.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Loading Cotton Bales onto Trucks

Russell Lee

1939

Caption:

These workers in Texas are loading bales of cotton onto trucks to be sent to the compressor. The compressor would flatten the bales to about half their size, so it was cheaper to transport them to textile mills. New England textile mills got most of their cotton from the southern United States.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information

Photograph/Print

Stereoscope Factory

B.W. Kilburn

circa 1905

Caption:

This photograph shows workers in a stereoscope view factory. A stereoscope was a device for viewing photographs. It had a viewfinder on a handle, and at the end of the handle was a slot for a card. The card had two identical images on it. When people looked through the viewfinder at the card, the lens on the viewfinder combined the two images into one, and made it seem like it was 3-D. The people in this photograph worked in a factory in Littleton, NH, that made the cards.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Photograph/Print

Textile Mill Workers and Bobbins

undated

Caption:

These are textile mill workers in Dover, NH. They are standing in front of machines called spinning frames, which wound the cotton thread onto large bobbins.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Dover Public Library

Photograph/Print

New England Mill Girls

undated

Caption:

This photo shows textile mill workers in Dover, NH. Early in the textile industry, many of the workers were young women from nearby farms. They became known as "New England mill girls." Although working in a textile mill was hard and often dangerous, these girls had a chance to live away from home and earn their own money.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Dover Public Library

Photograph/Print

Spinning Room in a Textile Mill

undated

Caption:

These textile mill workers in Dover, NH, are in the spinning room. In this part of the process of making textiles, the threads are spun onto a large wooden bobbin. Later, the bobbin is loaded into a shuttle that weaves different threads together on a loom to make a piece of fabric. The spinner's job was to supervise the bobbins, up to 100 at a time, to make sure that the threads didn't break. They had to reach in and repair any broken threads, which was dangerous. Sometimes they got hurt or even lost a finger.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Dover Public Library

Photograph/Print

Textile Mill Workers

undated

Caption:

This photo of a large group of textile mill workers in Dover, NH, shows that many were young women from nearby farms. Eventually, though, the mills grew bigger and bigger and needed more and more workers. This drew many immigrants from Europe and Canada to come to New Hampshire and work in the textile mills.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Dover Public Library

Photograph/Print

Cocheco Mill Company Drivers

undated

Caption:

Two drivers for the Cocheco Mill Company in Dover, NH, loading their cart with cotton at the warehouse. They were bringing the cotton to the mill, where it had to be cleaned and carded, then rolled and spun into threads or yarn, and finally woven into cloth.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Dover Public Library

Photograph/Print

Sawyer Woolen Mills

Rollin Caughey, Strobridge Lithographing Company

1884

Caption:

The Sawyer Woolen Mills in Dover, NH, opened in the 1820s and was the largest wool textile factory in the country in the 1880s, until Amoskeag Mills got bigger. It is on the banks of the Bellamy River.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Varick's Store

Ellinwood Photo

circa 1882

Caption:

John B. Varick Company had the largest store in Manchester, NH. It opened in 1845 in just one building on Elm Street. By 1920 it had expanded to include several buildings on either side of the original one. It also had a second store in another part of Manchester and two warehouses. Varick's store was known for its hardware, but it also sold farming equipment and seeds, fishing gear, paint, sports equipment, jewelry, firearms, and even toys.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Workers at a New Hampshire Factory

circa 1910

Caption:

Many towns and cities in New Hampshire had factories or mills that provided jobs for local workers. The Kendall Hadley Window Sash and Blind Company was the largest employer in Goffstown for more than 100 years, offering jobs for 75 men, women, and children. The company sold window sashes (frames) and blinds that were popular throughout the northeast, as far south as New York City.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Goffstown Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Bird's-Eye View of Berlin Mills

1888

Caption:

Berlin Falls, in Berlin, NH, drops 17 feet into the Androscoggin River, producing a lot of power. Sawmills were built there starting in the 1850s to use this water power. Eventually it grew into a large lumber company, the Berlin Mills Company. At first the lumber was used for building houses, railroad tracks, and other structures. Later the Berlin Mills Company used wood chips to produce paper. As the company grew larger, so did the city of Berlin.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Stacked Lumber Waiting for Transport

circa 1894–1948

Caption:

Logging has always been an important industry for New Hampshire. This image shows rows and rows of lumber waiting to be transported from the lumber camps to the sawmill by the East Branch and Lincoln Railroad. This railroad line was built especially for logging, to bring the logs out of the mountain forests to the sawmills where they could be processed into lumber or wood chips. The East Branch and Lincoln Railroad covered 72 miles and was the largest logging railroad in New England.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Transatlantic Telegraph Cable

Henry W. Herrick in Harper's Weekly

1874

Caption:

In 1874, an underwater telegraph cable was laid in the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland to the United States for the first time. It was more than 3,000 miles long and it ended in Rye, NH. There were transatlantic (across the Atlantic) cables before this, but they ended in Canada. This meant that telegraph messages could go from Europe to Canada, but then they had to be carried to the United States by land. With the new cable to Rye, messages could go directly from Europe to the United States. The telegraph made it much faster to communicate with other countries. Before the telegraph, messages had to go by ship across the Atlantic, which took several weeks. By telegraph, it took just a few minutes.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Manchester Millyard in the 1960s

New England Textile Mill Survey

1967–1968

Caption:

This photo from the 1960s shows the Amoskeag Millyard in Manchester, NH, from above. The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company closed down in the 1930s. Some of the buildings were torn down, but new businesses moved into other buildings. Today the millyard is home to restaurants, apartments, a university, offices, and museums.

Image Credit: Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress

Photograph/Print

New Hampshire Farms: Your Opportunity

New Hampshire State Board of Agriculture

1920

Caption:

Many people left New Hampshire in the 1800s as they discovered cheaper, better farmland further west. The railroads also made it easier and cheaper to travel to the west. Many farms were abandoned during that time, so the state government used to publish a brochure encouraging people from big cities like New York and Boston to buy them as summer homes.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Mill Girls

circa 1855

Caption:

During the early part of the Industrial Revolution, many workers in New Hampshire's textile mills were young women and girls from nearby farm towns. They were called "mill girls." They usually worked for a few years until they got married. They often sent most of the money they earned home to their families and lived in boardinghouses run by the textile companies. These women all worked together in one part of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Varney School Students Wearing Amoskeag Gingham

Photograph/Print

Varney School Students Wearing Amoskeag Gingham

circa 1910

Caption:

This group of girls attended the Varney School in Manchester, NH, over 100 years ago. They are all wearing dresses made of gingham, a light cotton cloth made of yarn that has been dyed. The gingham was made at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, and the company donated the fabric to make the dresses.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Upriver

Alphonso H. Sanborn

1911

Caption:

This postcard shows the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company buildings around 1911. At this time the company was at its peak. It was about to become the largest textile manufacturing company in the entire world. It had around 30 buildings and 17,000 employees, and produced 50 miles worth of woven cloth each hour of the workday. That's about how far it is from Manchester to Boston!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Jefferson Mill (1 of 2)

Marian Cannon Schlesinger

1976

Caption:

The Jefferson Mill was built by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in 1886. The building still stands today along the Merrimack River in Manchester, NH. Many people recognize it because of its clock tower. Weavers in the Jefferson Mill mostly produced the famous Amoskeag cotton ticking. Ticking is a heavy fabric that was used as a covering for beds, pillows, and mattresses.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Jefferson Mill (2 of 2)

Marian Cannon Schlesinger

1973

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Manchester Mills and Mill Housing

Marian Cannon Schlesinger

1974

Caption:

This drawing shows some of the mill buildings that were part of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, NH. Behind the mill buildings are brick row houses. These buildings had apartments that were owned and maintained by the Amoskeag company. Only Amoskeag workers with large families and more than one family member working in the mills could live there. The rent was lower than rent in other parts of the city.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Lunchtime at Amoskeag Mills

circa 1912

Caption:

This picture shows workers leaving the Amoskeag mills for their half hour lunch break. A bell rang at the beginning of lunch and again at the end to tell the workers it was time to get back to work. Many workers brought their own lunch, but others left the factory to go to boardinghouses for their meal.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Mill Number 11

circa 1908

Caption:

By 1912, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was the largest textile manufacturing company in the world. It had 15,000 employees and 40 mills. It produced almost 500 miles of cloth per day. That's about the distance between Concord, NH, and Washington, DC!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Downriver

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Downriver

Alphonso H. Sanborn

circa 1911

Caption:

This postcard shows the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company buildings around 1911. At this time the company was at its peak, it was about to become the largest textile manufacturing company in the entire world. It had around 40 buildings and 15,000 employees, and produced 50 miles worth of woven cloth each hour of the workday. That's about how far it is from Manchester to Boston!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Locomotive Number 92

E. P. Abbot

1853

Caption:

Image Credit: Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library, via Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Bird's-Eye View of Manchester

Charles H. Vogt

1876

Caption:

This bird's-eye view of Manchester, NH, shows the mill buildings along the east side of the Merrimack River. Notice how the city is laid out in a neat grid pattern. This was planned out by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. Why do you think they did that?

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Falls

Gardner Brewer

1870

Caption:

The Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River in Manchester, NH, drop 50 feet. The Abenaki camped there every spring to fish in the falls. English settlers later fished there too. In 1809, a canal was built to help boats navigate around the steep falls. From the 1830s to the 1880s, the power of the falls ran the machines in Manchester's textile mills.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Amoskeag Self-Propelled Steam Fire Engine

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Self-Propelled Steam Fire Engine

Amoskeag Locomotive Works

circa 1867–1876

Caption:

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company manufactured more than textiles. They also made locomotives, fire engines, sewing machines, and rifles. The Amoskeag Company had a big machine shop where they made all of their own machines for producing textiles. In the late 1850s, they decided to try to make the best steam-powered fire engine in the United States. At first they made fire engines with one or two large pumps that sprayed the water out. These could be pulled by horses or men. Then in 1867 they invented a fire engine that used steam power to move and to pump the water out, called self-propellers. These were some of the earliest motor vehicles. They could travel 10 or 12 miles per hour.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Exterior of Amoskeag Engine Room After an Explosion

Photograph/Print

Exterior of Amoskeag Engine Room After an Explosion

1891

Caption:

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Inside Amoskeag Engine Room After an Explosion

Photograph/Print

Inside Amoskeag Engine Room After an Explosion

1891

Caption:

There was an explosion in one of the engine rooms at the Amoskeag company in October 1891. One of the pieces of a giant steam engine that was powering machines in four different building stopped working properly. The engine broke apart and exploded. This is some of the damaged machine parts after the explosion.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

Amoskeag Engine Room After an Explosion

1891

Caption:

There was an explosion in one of the engine rooms of the Amoskeag company in October 1891. This photo shows the damage to the building and the buildings around it, as well as the damaged equipment.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Machinery After an Explosion at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Photograph/Print

Machinery After an Explosion at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

1891

Caption:

These pieces of mill machinery were heavily damaged by an explosion in one of the engine rooms at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in 1891. Part of a giant steam engine malfunctioned and it broke apart, causing a big explosion. Three workers were killed and more were injured. Factory work could be very dangerous.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

New York the Wonder City

H. Finkelstein and Son

1918

Caption:

Before electric lights were invented, city streets were lit with lanterns and later gas lamps. Electric streetlights, which were introduced in the 1880s, were cheaper and easier to maintain. Around the same time, electric lights started to be used in some businesses and homes, especially in cities. It took a long time for electricity to become common, though. In 1925 only half of all households in the U.S. had electric power.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Photograph/Print

Corliss Steam Engine

From Nehemiah Hawkins, New Catechism of the Steam Engine

1904

Caption:

Steam engines were a really important part of the Industrial Revolution. Before steam engines were invented, factories had to rely on water power to run their machines. They had to be located on rivers. Steam engines power machines with steam from boiling water. Factories with steam engines could be located anywhere. The Corliss steam engine was invented in 1849 by George Corliss. It was very large, and more reliable, efficient, and affordable than earlier steam engines. It was used in many textile factories.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Radio Advertisement

Radio World magazine

1922

Caption:

The first radio broadcast in the United States was in 1920. Within the next few years, radio stations sprang up all over the country, broadcasting sports, news, and music programs. Soon almost every family in America had a radio, and would sit together in the evenings listening to radio programs. The type of radio in this advertisement was not strong enough to power loudspeakers, so people had to use earphones to listen to it.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Boys Working at Amoskeag Company

Lewis W. Hine

1909

Caption:

These boys were photographed on their way to work in the textile mills at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, NH. The name of the boy in the front was Fred Normandin. It was common for children to work in factories throughout the United States until the 1930s, when a federal child labor law was passed.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Photograph/Print

Lewis Nute Farm

Frank H. Shapleigh

1880

Caption:

This farm in Milton, NH, was owned by Lewis Nute. Nute was born in Milton but moved to Boston as a young man and worked in the shoe business. Eventually he owned his own shoe company and built factories in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to manufacture the shoes he sold. Later in life he retired to New Hampshire and bought this farm.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

View Near Manchester

John Badger Bachelder

circa 1854–1865

Caption:

The city of Manchester got bigger and bigger during the Industrial Revolution as more and more people moved there to work in the factories. By the middle of the 19th century, there were very few farms left in Manchester. Instead, food was grown on farms in surrounding towns, like the one in this painting, and brought to stores in the city.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Mill at New Ipswich

Hannah D. Leslie

circa 1825

Caption:

The mill at New Ipswich, NH, opened in 1804 and was the first cotton spinning mill in New Hampshire. It used machines to spin cotton into yarn. The machines were powered by water. The river ran through a waterwheel, which was attached to a machine. When the waterwheel turned, it powered the machine.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

New Hampshire Farm Scene

Barbara Henba

1993

Caption:

In the early 1800s, most people in New Hampshire lived in farming communities a lot like this one. What do you notice in the foreground of the painting? What do you notice in the background?

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Grazing Sheep

circa 1880–1985

Caption:

Have you ever noticed old stone walls in your town or along country roads in New Hampshire? Many of them were built in the early 19th century to keep sheep penned in. There was so much sheep farming in New Hampshire that farmers were said to have "sheep fever." Many trees were cut down to provide land for sheep to graze on. By 1840 there were more than 600,000 sheep in New Hampshire. That's more sheep than people!

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Dairy Farm Workers

circa 1940s

Caption:

After 1850, railroads could bring food from the rich farmland of the Midwest to New England. It was cheaper to do that than for New England farmers to grow food themselves. Many New Hampshire farmers moved to cities or to the Midwest or the west coast. Others shifted from growing grain to focus on other products, especially dairy. Dairy farming continues to be an important part of New Hampshire's economy today.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Farm Worker

1944–1988

Caption:

After 1850, railroads could bring food from the rich farmland of the Midwest to New England. It was cheaper to do that than for New England farmers to grow food themselves. Many New Hampshire farmers moved to cities or to the Midwest or the west coast. Others shifted from producing grain and meat to focus only on products that grow well in New Hampshire, like berries, apples, lettuce, and potatoes.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Harvesting Hay

1889–1988

Caption:

These New Hampshire farm workers are harvesting hay. They are using a machine pulled by horses. In the 20th century, farmers were able to pull the hay harvester with a tractor. The hay was used to feed farm animals like horses, cows, and sheep over the winter.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

New Hampshire Grange Fair and Festival

Strobridge Lithographing Company

1886

Caption:

Although fewer Granite Staters lived and worked on farms after the Industrial Revolution, agriculture is still a very important part of the state's economy and its history. New Hampshire's Grange was founded in 1873. The Grange is a national organization for farming communities. The Grange works with politicians of both parties to try and put policies and rules into place that are good for farmers. Local Grange chapters also work on community service projects and host social events, like agricultural fairs and festivals.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Nibroc Towels Advertisement

1921

Caption:

The Brown Paper Company, in Berlin, NH, was the largest paper company in the world in the early 20th century. One of their scientists invented Nibroc disposable paper towels. These paper towels replaced cloth towels that were used in bathrooms in schools, factories, and other public spaces. The cloth towels were used by many people each day so they spread diseases.

Image Credit: Brown Company Collection, Michael J. Spinelli, Jr. Center for University Archives and Special Collections, Herbert H. Lamson Library and Learning Commons, Plymouth State University

Photograph/Print

Elm Street By Night

circa early 1900s

Caption:

New Hampshire's cities grew quickly during the Industrial Revolution! Manchester became the largest city in the state, and it is still the largest today. Life was very different in cities than in farming towns. There were all sorts of places for entertainment and shopping. New technology, like electric lights and streetcars, meant that people could go out in cities at night.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Photograph/Print

The Bobbin Girl

Winslow Homer

circa 1860s–1880s

Caption:

"Bobbin girls" were young women who worked in textile mills. Their job was to wrap the thread around empty bobbins, which were wooden cylinders or cones. The full bobbins were then loaded onto shuttles. The shuttles were then put onto power looms and the thread was woven into cloth. Although the young woman in this drawing is working in a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, many "bobbin girls" worked in mills in New Hampshire.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Lowell National Historical Park, National Park Service

Photograph/Print

Power Loom Weaving

Thomas Allom

circa 1834

Caption:

The power loom was invented in 1785 and completely transformed the way that cloth was woven. Before, looms were powered by foot pedals. Power looms ran much faster and could produce much more cloth. The cotton mill in this illustration was in England, but many women and children did work just like this in textile mills in New Hampshire.

Image Credit: ©The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Photograph/Print

Cotton Carding Machines

Thomas Allom

circa 1834

Caption:

These women and children workers are running the carding machines in a cotton mill. The raw cotton is fed into the machine and rolled around the cylinders. This cleans and smooths the fibers. These workers are in a cotton mill in England, but there were many women and children mill workers in New Hampshire's textile industry.

Image Credit: ©The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Photograph/Print

Abbot-Downing Company Union Workers

John P. Paige

1908

Caption:

This group of union workers from the Abbot-Downing Company in Concord, NH, are getting ready to march in the Labor Day parade in 1908. The Abbot-Downing Company manufactured horse-drawn carriages, and the workers were part of the Carriage and Wood Workers union. Labor Day is a holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It celebrates the hard work and important contributions of American workers.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

March to Support Striking Workers

1912

Caption:

This photo shows people marching in New York City to support textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, who were on strike. The Lawrence workers were fighting for better wages, safer working conditions, and to have a voice in their workplace. Most of the workers were women and immigrants. It is called the "Bread and Roses" strike because the workers were asking for higher pay—so they could buy bread to feed their families—and to be treated fairly and with dignity. The strike lasted for three months until the mill owners agreed to pay the workers more. This led to textile workers all over New England, including in New Hampshire, receiving better pay. The "Bread and Roses" strike is one of the most important strikes in the history of the textile industry.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph/Print

Stevens Mill

A.G. Stevens

1865

Caption:

This drawing of the Stevens Mill shows the system of wheels, pulleys, and belts that powered the machines inside the mill. The Stevens Mill produced textiles beginning in 1813 and was located in North Andover, MA.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Kheel Center, Cornell University

Photograph/Print

Trash on the Street Outside Tenement

Lewis W. Hine

1912

Caption:

This photograph shows the entrance to a tenement building in New York City. A tenement building was a building in a city that was five or six stories high and had many apartments inside it. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was common for factory workers to live in tenements. They were often very crowded and had poor air circulation. Many rooms in the apartments didn't even have windows. Often the owners of the buildings didn't take good care of them and they were unsafe. Notice the trash on the street in front of this building.

Image Credit: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Photograph/Print

Patrol Wagon

Harper's magazine

1887

Caption:

During the Industrial Revolution, cities grew larger and larger. As the population grew, there was more crime. Cities had to create large, professional police forces. Instead of a volunteer or part-time police officer in a small town, cities had full-time police departments who received special training. This picture shows a patrol wagon of police officers in New York City.

Image Credit: Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections

Factories During the Industrial Revolution

Photograph/Print

Factories During the Industrial Revolution

From Griffiths' Guide to the Iron Trade of Great Britain

1873

Caption:

This picture of factories during the Industrial Revolution shows how burning coal polluted the air. During the 1800s, factories started to use coal to fuel their furnaces. Hot furnaces were needed to produce items like iron, soap, glass, and pottery. Coal was also needed for steam engines. Steam engines use hot steam from boiling water to power machines or turn a wheel. To create the steam, most steam engines heated the water by burning coal. Steam engines were used in all sorts of factories, as well as trains, mines, and steamboats.

Image Credit: Digitized by Robarts Library, University of Toronto, for flickr's The Commons

Photograph/Print

Pile of Trees from Logging

circa 1894–1948

Caption:

Logging has always been an important industry for New Hampshire. This picture shows piles of trees that had been cut down in the White Mountains. They will be transported to sawmills and processed into lumber to build things or wood chips to be made into paper.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Photograph/Print

Poster No. 5—Boots and Shoes

Gibson and Company

circa 1878

Caption:

This illustration is an advertisement for a shoe store. Notice that the store says "one price cash." This means that the store has set the same price for every customer, and they will only accept cash as payment. This was a new way for people to get the goods they needed. Before industrialization, people would usually barter with their neighbors for goods. For example, someone might trade some eggs and butter from their farm for some shoes made by a neighbor. Now that people were working in factories and getting paid in cash, they could buy goods in stores with money.

Image Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Photograph/Print

Boot and Shoe Card

Gibson and Company

Caption:

This cartoon shows how important railroads were to industrialization. Trains brought raw materials to factories, and shipped the finished products out to markets. The train in this cartoon is bringing all sorts of shoes and boots to a town. The artist imagined that the train actually looked like a boot!

Image Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Maps & Charts in this Unit:

Maps & Charts

Forest Cover in 1894

New Hampshire Forestry Commission

1894

Caption:

This map was created by the New Hampshire Forestry Commission in 1894 to show how much of the state was covered by forest and where those forests were located. The map uses green to show locations of forests throughout the state.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Maps & Charts

New Hampshire Town Boundaries

2019

Caption:

This map shows the borders of all of the towns in New Hampshire, and its ten counties.

Image Credit: NH GRANIT database, Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Maps & Charts

New Hampshire Major Lakes and Rivers

2019

Caption:

This map shows all of the major lakes and rivers in New Hampshire.

Image Credit: NH GRANIT Database, Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Maps & Charts

Railroad Map of New Hampshire 1890

Rand Avery Supply Company

1890

Caption:

Railroads first came to New Hampshire in 1838, and by the end of the 1800s, railroad routes criss-crossed all over the state. This map shows railroad lines in 1890, marked in red.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Maps & Charts

Manchester Millyard

Sanborn Map Company

1885

Caption:

This map of Manchester shows the Merrimack River running through the city. Along the river are the many buildings of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Maps & Charts

Population in New Hampshire Towns

data from 1840–1920

Caption:

This graph uses census data to show how the population in some New Hampshire towns changed during the era of industrialization. A census is a count of how many people live in a particular place. The Constitution requires that a census is done every ten years in the United States. It also collections information about what kinds of jobs people have, where they were born, how old they are, and what race they identify as.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Maps & Charts

United States Time Zone Map

Caption:

In 1883, the major American railroad companies divided the United States into time zones. Before that, towns and cities would set their own time by making sure the official town clock was set to noon when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroad routes grew and it became possible to travel from one side of the country to the other on a train, it was very complicated to keep a schedule. Time zones made it a lot easier, because every place inside a time zone used the same time.

Image Credit: worldmapwithcountries.net

Maps & Charts

New Hampshire Cities 1920

Caption:

This map shows cities in New Hampshire that had more than 10,000 residents in 1920. The population data is from the 1920 United States census. Compare this to the map of New Hampshire cities in 2010. What do you notice?

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Maps & Charts

New Hampshire Cities 2010

Caption:

This map shows cities in New Hampshire that had more than 10,000 residents in 2010. The population data is from the 2010 United States census. Compare this to the map of New Hampshire cities in 1920. What do you notice?

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Objects in this Unit:

Object

Award-Winning Amoskeag Cloth

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

circa 1870

Caption:

This is a sample of the Amoskeag Company's cotton ticking. Ticking is a heavy fabric that was used as a covering for beds, pillows, and mattresses. The Amoskeag Company won awards for its ticking fabric in international competitions in France and England in the 1850s. Amoskeag was known all over the world for its excellent cloth.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Amoskeag Gingham Samples

Jarvis, Loomis, & Boucher

1936

Caption:

In the late 1860s, the Amoskeag Company began making a type of cloth called gingham. Gingham is a light cotton cloth made of yarn that has been dyed. Often it has checks, stripes, or a plaid pattern. It was complicated to dye the yarn and set up the looms to make the patterns, so the weavers who made gingham were highly skilled. There were not many people with these abilities in the United States, so the mill managers went to England and Scotland to look for skilled weavers. These weavers then immigrated to Manchester to work in the mills.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Amoskeag Fabric Sample Book

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

1882–1883

Caption:

The Amoskeag Company made textiles, or cloth, but it did not make clothing. Once the raw material of the wool or cotton was made into the product of cloth, it was sent to clothing factories in places like New York City where it was sewn into dresses, pants, and shirts. Amoskeag salesmen traveled to the clothing factories to try convince them to use the Amoskeag fabric for their clothes. They brought a sample book that showed all the different colors and patterns available. This is a page from one of those sample books.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Shuttle and Bobbin

W.O. Stricker

circa 1870

Caption:

This shuttle and bobbin were used on a power loom in a textile mill. The bobbin is the narrow cylinder inside the shuttle with the thread wrapped around it. The loom was like a large frame with threads stretched across it. The shuttle moved across the loom, over and under the threads. While it moved, the thread on the bobbin inside the shuttle unspooled, weaving into the threads on the loom. The woven threads made fabric.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Object

George Washington's Vest

circa 1780–1800

Caption:

This vest was worn by George Washington. A vest is a piece of clothing that men wear over a dress shirt and under a suit coat or jacket. This vest was made of fabric that was woven by hand. It is mostly wool. The buttonholes were cut by hand and the whole vest was sewn by hand. The buttons are made of brass, and would have been expensive.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

George Washington's Vest (inside)

circa 1780–1800

Caption:

This is the inside of a vest worn by George Washington. A vest is a piece of clothing that men wear over a dress shirt and under a suit coat or jacket. This vest was made entirely by hand from fabric woven by hand. The lining, or inside, was made of linen and cotton.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Recording Clock

International Time Recording Company

circa 1900–1910

Caption:

This time recording clock was used by workers at the Boston and Maine Railroad in Concord, NH. Workers had time cards to mark the hours they worked evert day. Each worker put their card in the slot on the recording clock when they arrived, and the clock stamped the time on it. When they left for the day, they put their card in the slot to stamp the time they left. This was known as "punching in" and "punching out." At the end of the pay period, the time cards would be used to count up how much they should be paid. If they didn't have a full workday on their timecard, they got in trouble.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Rotary Telephone

Western Electric Company

circa 1950–1960

Caption:

This rotary telephone was used in someone's house in Pittsfield, NH, in the 1950s. On a rotary phone, you put your finger in the hole of the number you want, then move the dial around to the silver notch. You continue doing that for each number until the phone call connects to the other person.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Mobile Telephones

1983–2004

Caption:

Cell phones did not always look like they do today, and they will probably look a lot different in the future! This image shows different types of mobile phones (cell phones) between 1983 and 2004. What do you notice about their size, shape, and other features? How do you think they worked?

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Object

Push Button Telephone

Image of a Western Electric telephone by Jonathan Mauer, CC BY-SA 4.0

1980

Caption:

This push button telephone is from the 1980s. To call someone, you had to push each number of their phone number in order until the call connected.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Object

Wall Telephone

S.H. Couch Company

1906

Caption:

This telephone was used at the New Hampshire Historical Society in the early 1900s. It was mounted on the wall and used for inter-office calls. To call someone in another office, you would pick up the earpiece off the hook. Then press the button next to the name of the person you wanted to call. When that person answered, you would speak into the microphone.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Desk Telephone

Western Electric Company

circa 1910–1930

Caption:

This telephone was used in a pharmacy in Farmington, NH, in the early 20th century. It was a desk telephone. To make a call, you would pick up the handset and be able to speak to an operator. You would tell the operator who you wanted to talk to, and the operator would connect you to the other person. You didn't have to dial any numbers because the operator did all the work.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Public Telephone Booth

Wikimedia user N9LXI under CCA-3.0

2012

Caption:

This public telephone booth in Minnesota was still functioning when this picture was taken in 2012, but it probably didn't get much use by then. Before cell phones, if you were not at home or at work and needed to make a phone call, you would use a public telephone booth. First you had to put a coin in the phone, like a dime or a quarter. Then you could dial the person you wanted to call. You could also speak to an operator if you needed to. The first outdoor phone booth in the United States was installed in 1905. Glass booths like this one became popular in the 1950s. In 1999, there were about 2 million phone booths in the United States, but by 2018, only 5% of those were left.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Object

Shoe Machine

Nichols and Cogswell

undated

Caption:

This machine for making shoes was invented by two men who worked in shoe factories in Manchester, NH, Leander Cogswell and Elmer Nichols. It sorts pieces of leather by thickness, size, and other qualities.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Object

Women's Shoe Sole

Klev-Bro Shoe Manufacturing Company

circa 1938–1988

Caption:

This women's shoe sole was from a shoe manufacturing company that was based in Derry, NH, from the 1930s to the 1980s. Shoemaking was a big industry in New Hampshire in the 20th century.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Hand-Woven Cloth

circa 1800–1860

Caption:

These pieces of cloth were woven by hand in the early 1800s. They were made of cotton and wool yarn that was probably machine-made. They were worn in Charlestown, NH.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Lightbulbs

1908

Caption:

Before the electric light bulb was invented, people had to use candles or oil lamps to see in the dark. Then from the early 1800s to the early 1900s, lights powered by gas were used for streetlights and train stations. Several scientists and inventors were working on a cheaper, safer way to get light with electricity. Finally in 1879 Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and by the early 1900s more and more people were using electric lights. This made a huge difference in the way that people lived, how they could travel, how factories were run, and all kinds of other changes.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Amoskeag Rifle

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

1864

Caption:

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company made more than textiles over the years. They had a big machine shop where they made all of their own machines for producing textiles, so they were able to make other machines too. During the Civil War, they made rifles for the U.S. Army. There were 300 workers making 125 rifles each day. Altogether Amoskeag made over 27,000 rifles for the U.S. Army from 1861 to 1865.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Object

Nibroc Towels and Case

1921

Caption:

The Brown Paper Company, in Berlin, NH, was the largest paper company in the world in the early 20th century. One of their scientists invented Nibroc disposable paper towels. The Nibroc towels were strong so they did not fall apart when they got wet. They were also cheap and easy to produce, ship, and store. They folded neatly into a metal case that was hung on the wall.

Image Credit: Brown Company Collection, Michael J. Spinelli, Jr. Center for University Archives and Special Collections, Herbert H. Lamson Library and Learning Commons, Plymouth State University

Object

Nibroc Towels

1958

Caption:

Image Credit: Brown Company Collection, Michael J. Spinelli, Jr. Center for University Archives and Special Collections, Herbert H. Lamson Library and Learning Commons, Plymouth State University

Documents in this Unit:

Document

Stark Mills Employee Rules

Phinehas Adams

circa 1870

Caption:

These are rules for people who worked in the Stark Mills. This was one of the oldest companies in the Manchester millyard. Everyone who worked there had to follow all of these rules. The rules were signed by Phinehas Adams, the agent of the mill. The agent was the local person in charge of running the mill and supervising its day-to-day operations. The actual owners were usually wealthy businessmen in Boston or other cities. Eventually Stark Mills was bought by the Amoskeag Company.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

Boardinghouse Rules

Manchester Mills

undated

Caption:

The Amoskeag Company was the biggest textile mill in Manchester, but there were other, smaller mills along the Merrimack River too, like Manchester Mills. Like the Amoskeag Company, Manchester Mills built boardinghouses, which were like apartments but you rented a room instead of an entire apartment. You slept in the room and kept your belongings there, but usually had to share a bathroom. The boarders all ate together in the dining room. The company paid someone, usually a woman, to live there and clean the house and cook for the boarders. The boardinghouses had a lot of rules.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Timetable

Document

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Timetable

1855

Caption:

Big factories were run on bells. Bells rang to signal the beginning of the workday, the end of the workday, and everything in between. This was something new for factory workers to get used to. People who grew up on farms in the countryside got up with the sun and used the the seasons to mark their daily routines. This bell schedule was for the "new mills" in the millyard, which were built by the Amoskeag Company in the 1840s.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Manchester (NH) Historic Association

Document

Shoe Advertisement

circa 1875–1890

Caption:

This flier advertised Adolph Meyer shoes. The Adolph Meyer Company was a shoe manufacturer in Boston. Jerry Gove, whose name is on the bottom of the ad, had a store in Wilmot, NH, where he sold Adolph Meyer shoes and boots, among other things.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

United Colonies Currency

Hall and Sellers, Philadelphia

1776

Caption:

Currency is another word for money. When the 13 American colonies declared independence from Britain, the Continental Congress decided to print its own money. Each state also printed its own money, so the paper bills were all worth different amounts.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

Merrimack River Bank Currency

1862

Caption:

Currency is another word for money. From the time 1792 until the Civil War, the American government only issued currency in coins. But private banks were allowed to print and circulate their own paper currency, or bills. Eventually 7,000 different kinds of printed paper currency were circulating!

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

Hillsborough Bank Currency

Jacob Perkins, engraver

1808

Caption:

Currency is another word for money. From 1792 until the Civil War, the American government only issued currency in coins. But private banks were allowed to print and circulate their own paper currency, or bills. Eventually 7,000 different kinds of printed paper currency were circulating!

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

Piscataqua Exchange Bank Currency

Toppan, Carpenter Company

circa 1844–1863

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

Federal Reserve Currency

U.S. Government

2009

Caption:

Currency is another word for money. In 1862 the United States government started printing paper money. Before that the only official U.S. government currency was coins. In 1913 the Federal Reserve was created. This is a system of national banks that prints currency and tries to keep the economy running smoothly. Federal Reserve bills are the only paper currency used in the United States today.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Document

Westinghouse Electric Advertisement

"Christmas Cheer Every Day of the Year,” Life Magazine

1914

Caption:

Scientists and inventors were experimenting with electricity back in the 1700s. Electric motors were invented in the 1830s. Finally in 1879 Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb and people began to see how electricity could be used in everyday life. The Westinghouse Electric Company was one of the first electric companies to run electric wires to people's homes. They also made all kinds of appliances that were powered by electricity.

Image Credit: Courtesy New-York Historical Society Library

Document

Shoe Factory Advertisement

1885

Caption:

This flier advertised the Francis W. Breed Shoe Company. The company had factories in Lynn, Massachusetts, and Rochester, NH.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Document

Mills for Sale

James L. Chamberlin

circa 1860

Caption:

This advertisement shows property for sale along the Souhegan River in Mason, NH. One piece of property had a cotton mill powered by the river, a second piece of property had a sawmill that was also powered by the river, and the third lot was farmland with a brickyard.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

White Mountain Refrigerator Advertisement

Document

White Mountain Refrigerator Advertisement

Maine Manufacturing Company

1945

Caption:

Can you imagine a kitchen without a refrigerator? In the early 1860s, Americans started to have iceboxes in their homes. These were wooden cabinets with a compartment for large ice blocks, which helped keep food cold. Electric refrigerators were introduced in the 1910s, but at first they were very expensive. They started to become more affordable and more popular in the 1930s. The Maine Manufacturing Company started producing iceboxes in the early 1900s and later made and sold electric refrigerators.

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Document

Boardinghouse Rules for Mill Girls

Samuel Lawrence

1846

Caption:

The "mill girls" who worked in New England textile mills in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution were usually required to live in boardinghouses that were run by the textile companies. The boardinghouses had a lot of strict rules. This was the first time the girls and young women were living away from their families. These rules are from a boardinghouse run by the Middlesex Company in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Image Credit: Tsongas Industrial History Center, University of Massachusetts at Lowell

Videos in this Unit:

Video

Mason Explains: The Invention of "Free Time"

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Explains: From Farm to City

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Explains: What Is Childhood?

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Explains: The Story of a Shoe

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Explains: Factory Work

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Explains: Railroads in New Hampshire

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Explains: Textile Production

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Mason Asks: What Were the Amoskeag Mills?

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Video

Virtual Field Trip: Working Mills and Mill Work

2023

Caption:

Image Credit: New Hampshire Historical Society

Biographies in this Unit:

Biography

Ezekiel Straw

1819–1882

Caption:

Ezekiel Straw worked for the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company for nearly 50 years, and during that time he had a huge influence on the company, the city of Manchester, and the state of New Hampshire. He helped design the city of Manchester, with its wide main street, called Elm Street, and other streets in straight lines on a grid. He made sure there were public parks and land for schools, churches, and city government buildings. As the head of the Amoskeag company, Ezekiel traveled to Scotland and invited the best weavers to immigrate to Manchester and work for him. He also had the idea to make products other than textiles, like rifles and steam engines. In addition to running the Amoskeag company, Ezekiel helped found the waterworks, gas light company, and public library in Manchester. He also served as a state legislator and was elected governor of New Hampshire twice!

Image Credit: From an engraving published in John B. Clarke, Manchester, A Brief Record of its Past; A Picture of its Present, 1875

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