Boott Cotton Museum, Lowell, MA

Our 13^thHistorical Perspectives on Occupational Safety and Health tour started today.  We have 28 participants on the tour.  Our first stop was at the Boott Cotton Mill Museum in Lowell, MA.  This is an excellent museum that shows the magnitude of the cotton mills, the work that was conducted to weave the cotton, and the impact it had on workers.  Our guide showed us how the looms work, and how to make different patterns in the fabric.  We then went to the Mill Girls House, where the workers lived ate.  The mill girls were young women who worked in the mills.  At the height of the mills, over 8,00 women were employed.

We are now in Portland, Maine, where we will visit the US Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol to learn about fishing and the activities around the waterfront