Two museums in a day – T & G Travels

Sunday 20th October

We visited two museums today, the first was Slater Mill in Pawtucket, only 8 minutes from where we are staying in Providence. This is the place credited as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America! Located on the Blackstone River, it was here that Samuel Slater, illegally using knowledge from working in textile mills in England, introduced textile manufacturing to America.

He secretly sailed to America with the hope of making a fortune in the New World in 1789. (He did achieved his aim). In 1793 Samuel partnered with Moses Brown, who had unsuccessfully been trying to build a cotton spinning mill and together were able to turn the mill into a success, sparking an industry boom. The river of course was providing power for the mill, the labour force was a family affair with children as young as 8 years, and working days were 12 hours ... How could he not make his fortune??

A very interesting visit with a guided tour and some working displays showing how the mechanisation was designed and utilised. Slater went on to build the first industrial village, where he had the mill, houses for the workers and managers, a church and of course a company store, where employees were obliged to purchase all their required supplies. It was called Slaterville.

There were two mills to visit plus a cottage of the original artisans carpenter that helped build a lot of the machinery utilised in the mills. One mill processed and spun the cotton and the other was a machine shop producing all the equipment requirements. An interesting video was showing at the nearby information centre elaborating further on the textile industry local and further afield.

The next museum was the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, a 60 minute drive from Providence. New Bedford was the hub of the whaling industry on the East Coast of America and there was a call for a museum to be established early 19th century, which it was in 1916. As such it has the largest collection of scrimshaw and logbooks from whaling ships in the world. It focuses on the history of the international whaling industry and in particular the Old Dartmouth or now New Bedford district. The centre piece display is a half scale model of a whaling vessel that operated from New Bedford, the model was constructed in the Bourne Building that was donated to the museum, along with the funds to construct the model.

Following the museum visit we did a drive around the town which displayed the wealth created by the industry in the town with large powerful buildings on cobblestone streets, and many mansions in the town. We also found some wall murals!