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Catalog Data

Physical Description:
paper (overall material)
printer's ink (overall material)
Measurements:
overall: 9 1/2 in x 5 3/4 in; 24.13 cm x 14.605 cm
Object Name:
broadside
Place made:
United States: New England
Date made:
1840s
1835 - 1855
Description:
This broadside contains the lyrics to “The Factory Girl’s Song,” a folk song whose origins date back at least to the 1830s. The song’s nineteen 4-line stanzas describe the daily work of the mill girls in different jobs: spinning, weaving, and dressing the finished cloth. At the end the singer tells of returning home to marry, giving up the rigors of tending the machinery and working for harsh overseers. The song may have originated in Lowell, Massachusetts, but some scholars suggest that the reference to wages earned in “shillings” instead of dollars may mean it had connections to Canadian immigrants to the Lowell textile mills. Several iterations of the song are known, including “The Lowell Factory Girl”, “The Factory Girl’s Come-All-Ye” from Lewiston, Maine, and generalized versions titled “Factory Girl.”
Location:
Currently not on view
Subject:
Girls  Search this
labor issues  Search this
Music  Search this
Textile Processing and Production  Search this
ID Number:
2013.0125.01
Accession number:
2013.0125
Catalog number:
2013.0125.01
See more items in:
Home and Community Life: Textiles
Cultures & Communities
Work
American Enterprise
Industry & Manufacturing
Data Source:
National Museum of American History
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b4-4641-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmah_1445159