Inventing America: Lowell and the Industrial Revolution

FAIN: BH-50269-08

University of Massachusetts, Lowell (Lowell, MA 01854-3629)
Beryl Rosenthal (Project Director: March 2008 to November 2009)
Sheila Kirschbaum (Project Director: November 2009 to June 2011)

The Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership of UMass Lowell's Graduate School of Education and Lowell National Historical Park, proposes to engage teachers in examining the textile industry as a case study of early 19th-century industrialization. We will use the unique resources of the Park and other cultural/historical sites to address changes in work, economics, society, and the environment between 1820 and 1860. On-line follow-up classes will examine the meaning of slavery in northern textile cities and the globalization of textiles today. Lowell, the first planned industrial city in the U.S., formed the template for later industrial cities and provides an ideal setting for historical training for teachers. Teachers experience history where it happened and learn how to teach with historic sites in their communities. The Workshop combines lectures and discussion, field investigations, primary and secondary materials, and historical fiction for students.