#slatermill

[studio55makerspace]

Prior to the year 2002, I only remember a couple visits to the city of Pawtucket. But in 2002 I left the East Bay behind and ended up two blocks East from the Blackstone River. Just South of Slater Mill. That was the first year I attended parts of the Pawtucket Arts Festival. Not knowing that this community and this river valley area would be a major part of my life for 17 years. The first time I volunteered was in 2005, as a part of the Chinese church, for the Dragon boat festival. This past Sunday morning as the 2018 SAM Fest was launched, I was remembering back. Time keeps moving forward even for us time travelers. The Pawtucket Arts festival has reached 20 years of age. Along the way, many memories were created. By 2008 I had been encouraged to greater involvment, to participate more in other events related to the arts. By 2009 I was active in the Main Street community. People like Mary Lee Partington became creative cohorts related to the festival. On various levels I helped, assisted in, directed, or volunteered in about 10 of the regular festival events or partner events over the years. There are Lots of memories, with many faces, and friendship connections created. But it is now a decade plus later and it is time to pass on the torch to a future generation of leaders, artists, musicians, community leaders, and art supporters. So even as my dear friend John Baxter, I to look forward to my final year as a member of the PAF board and my roll as Johns right hand person, and Co-Chair. The 2018 Fest has started, we have several great weeks ahead, many events to share with you and attend along side of you all. I look forward to seeing many of you at each of those events. Thank you for your support of this amazing annual creative community event. Your Pawtucket Arts Festival. And as you celebrate with us, do not ever forget to Work Hard, Play Hard and Make Art! #slatermill #paf #artfestival #festivals #art #music #musicfestival #makeart #filmfestival #pawtucket #rhodeisland #samfest #pawtucketartsfest #paf2018 #20th #create #make #play #workhardplayhardmakeart #fallfestival #downtownrising #rocktucket #dragonboats (at Slater Mill Historic Site) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm_pu3LAO_j/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=bcic6bu47p9p

[queenofqeeks]

Hell yes, history! @oldslatermill #thedailydani #roadtrip #rhodeisland #slatermill #textiles #history (at Slater Mill Historic Site)

[pontdepierre]

Slater Mill, Pawtucket, RI (1793)

[billpichette]

Slater Mill and the Blackstone River-Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution

[billpichette]

Slater Mill-original machinery (1830's); Wilkinson Mill-late 19th century version of David Wilkinson's screw lathe

[billpichette]

Slater (1793) and Wilkinson (1810) Mills

[billpichette]

You Say You Want a Revolution...

7/30/2014 - I come from a mill family. My father’s parents (Mémé and Pépé) worked in Rhode Island mills as children. So I’m not sure why-or maybe that’s why-I never visited the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and “The Rhode Island System”, in which families lived in mill towns and worked in the mills together. As an adult regularly coming back to visit family and “the old country” around Christmas, my only defense is that the Slater Mill Museum is only open March-October.

Samuel Slater not only worked in an English textile mill, but was a superintendent. Still, he wanted more. In a time when he could have been convicted of the crime of leaving England-they wanted to maintain their monopoly- he brought his expertise to a new state with money looking for expertise. He recreated the basic machinery for separating (carding) and spinning cotton into thread. He and his financiers built a mill in Pawtucket in 1793. With Slater’s knowledge and the power of the Blackstone River, the American Industrial Revolution began. Not satisfied with mere production, Slater envisioned a system where workers would live, work, and shop together- wives and children included-in a company owned village. Slater mill used his machinery to turn 500 pound cotton bales delivered practically to its door into cotton thread which was then sold to households and other mills to spin into fabric. My discovery of the day, this “Rhode Island System”, and child labor, were used until The Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938, which by the way, excludes manual agricultural work. The mill town system was used to company advantage in manufacturing and mining industries. Mill houses still exist in Rhode Island and other states. One end of my paper route as a kid was a row of mill houses, small dwellings cheaply made which sat across Manton Avenue from Atlantic Mills, which produced wool muslin, cotton, and khaki in its heyday.

The Slater Mill site was home to other mills. While Slater and his brother owned three mills at the site, one neighbor, the Wilkinson Mill, made machinery, hardware, and repair parts for Slater. David Wilkinson constructed a beautiful three story fieldstone building next to the “old mill” in 1810. Slater and Wilkinson shared a ditch to draw water from the Blackstone, powering water wheels under their factories. Wilkinson was a brilliant engineer and machinist. His screw lathe (1798) and threading lathe (1806) allowed mass manufacture of tools, weapons, and screws, which it is hard to imagine were once made individually, by hand, for each project. He created a grinder to make thread spindles for Slater Mill. He built and sailed a small steamboat down the Providence River in 1793. Although brilliant, his lathes didn’t sell, his ideas for steam powered machinery and boats were eclipsed (stolen?) by Robert Fulton, and his bad luck continued when he went broke in a textile depression and financial crisis.

Today I discovered a new appreciation for Rhode Island inventors, innovators, and generations of laborers, including my own family, that made this state the manufacturing powerhouse it once was. I wonder if any of them would appreciate a state that is tied for the highest unemployment rate and leads not in innovation, but government mismanagement, and where people keep inventing ways to take taxpayers’ money.

[matthewfecteau]

View this post on Instagram

A Grande Fete by the River. #pawtucket #music #rhodeisland #ri #slatermill (at Slater Mill Historic Site)