Last week, while driving back from Maine, I realized I was passing right through Lowell, Massachusetts, so I stopped by to visit the Boott Cotton Mills Museum.

It’s a pretty awe-inspiring structure, which looms over the town. You approach it by walking across a canal, and then you’re in the enormous courtyard.

The mill workers’ stories have been memorialized in the images of Lewis Hine, and in fictional retellings such as Lyddie by Katherine Paterson and Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop. I include this part of history in my upcoming nonfiction book, Why’d They Wear That?

And yet, no amount of reading about how loud the machines were quite prepares you for how loud the machines are. Here’s just a snippet; and this was with just about 20% of the machines in operation. Nearly every account and oral history of mill workers references the noise. Have a listen (I hope this link works):IMG_3583

image by Lewis Hine LOC