Entrance to the Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit

When the textile mills in Lowell first opened in 1823, most of the factory floor jobs that did not involve heavy lifting were done by young, unmarried women who wanted to make their own money—and by young, we’re talking early teens in many instances. Known as Mill Girls, these women were sought after because men were less dependable—after getting paid, many of them would get drunk and miss work the next day. In order for parents to agree to let their daughters move to Lowell for a job, the mill owners had to guarantee their physical and moral safety, and they did so by building churches, schools, and women-only boarding houses with chaperones. There were approximately 70 corporate-owned boarding houses.

The Mill Girl system worked for a while, but starting in the 1840s, conditions in the mills had become so bad that workers went on strike and tried to form labor unions. Most women quit, and owners simply got rid of the remaining trouble-makers, replacing them with the Irish and other immigrants, both men and women, who were flooding the city at the time.

The Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park explores the life of the Mill Girls and the later immigrants, covering two floors of an 1837 “restored” boarding house located across from the entrance to Boott Cotton Mills at 40 French Street. I put quotes around restored because by the time the National Park Service got the building in the 1990s, it had be remodeled so many times that if you saw the before and after photos you wouldn’t even know it was the same building. You might as well say it was rebuilt to resemble the original. And who knows what modifications were done to the interior. Suffice to say, what you see today is merely a museum exhibit in a building with a connection to a former boarding house.

Restored 1837 boarding house

The Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit is open year-round, though hours may be truncated in the winter season. From Memorial Day weekend through Thanksgiving it is generally open daily from 11 AM to 5 PM. The National Park Service does not publish a schedule for the entire year, but you can get one for the current season on the official Operating Hours and Seasons web page for Lowell National Historical Park.

When you first enter the exhibit you are greeted by a park Ranger who will give you the layout of the museum and answer any questions. From there you walk into the kitchen and then the dining room. There is no furniture in the building that was actually used in the boarding house, but what you see are antiques and reproductions of the type of furniture that would have been used, so you have an idea of how the room might have been decorated in 1837.

Boarding house dining room

There is also a room decorated as the Keeper’s bedroom. The Keeper was the lady hired to oversee the boarding house, which included purchasing furniture, planning meals, and keeping the house clean. Her room rent was deducted from her wages—as was the Mill Girls’—and she was paid based on the number of boarders she had. While Mill Girls needed a place to stay, they weren’t assigned rooms. Keepers with a good reputation were able to attract tenants more easily.

Keeper’s Room

The second floor houses traditional museum exhibits. There are very few actual artifacts from the time, so the majority of the display is information panels, old photographs, and excerpts from letters written by Mill Girls or quotes from them that were published in magazines and newspaper articles. The quotes and letters are the most interesting aspects of the exhibit.

Mill Girls exhibit area

Letters from Mill Girl Susan Brown

There is one room decorated as a Mill Girl bedroom. Again, this is not original furniture, but furniture similar to what would have been used at the time.

Boarding house room

The final section of the museum focuses on the immigrants. After the Civil War, nearly 75 percent of the mill workers were immigrants, largely Irish. In later years, Canadians, Russian and Polish Jews, Greeks, Syrians, and Portuguese made up a hefty percentage of the workers, but there were people from all over the world living and working in Lowell.

Immigrants section of the exhibit

In this section are plenty of old photographs, examples of clothing worn by different cultures, and a video presentation featuring interviews with modern immigrants who live in Lowell.

Clothing exhibit

SCHEDULING YOUR TIME

The Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit is much smaller than the Boott Cotton Mills Museum. Most people will stop in just to see the furnished rooms and perhaps browse through the photographs and information panels, spending no more than a half hour. I read through all the information and saw all the exhibits and it took me an hour, so I don’t see anyone spending much more time than that.

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