New exhibit explores lives of factory girls
By Gillian Graham
Staff Writer
They may have spent hours standing in front of machines churning out textiles, but mill girls in Saco and Biddeford sure knew how to have a good time.
After spending hours standing in dark rooms with cotton dust swirling around their heads, factory girls would return to their boardinghouses to change into their best dresses. After a light supper, they took to the streets to peer into shop windows and visit with friends.
Those are among the details of the lives of factory girls curators hope people will learn while visiting the new exhibit “Making Her Way: Mill Girls of Saco and Biddeford” at the Saco Museum. The exhibit, which opened last week, is designed to evoke the interior of a factory girl boardinghouse bedroom from the 1840s.
The bedroom is a preview to a larger exhibit on Saco River Valley history slated to open in May 2010. The project was funded by a Preserve America Grant from the National Park Service and by the Maine Humanities Council.
Camille Smalley, program and education manager at Saco Museum, designed the bedroom based largely on descriptions from the Lowell Offering, a factory girl journal, and newspaper advertisements. Bedrooms usually had two beds pushed together with two girls sleeping in each bed. The rooms were “choked” full of trunks, she said.
The Saco Museum bedroom has two beds with simple frames pushed together, topped with lumpy mattresses covered with simple sheets and blankets. Hair combs, ribbons and books adorn the top of a chest of drawers, a stack of trunks sits nearby and letters are scattered across the top of a small desk.
“When trying to curate the exhibit, I was thinking of things mill girls would have purchased in the city, what they would have brought with them,” Smalley said.
The girls who came to work in the factories were often the daughters of farmers. Smalley said many found themselves without much to do on the farm as families shifted away from making textiles to buying goods at stores.
Smalley said factory agents would recruit girls, mostly between the ages of 12 and 20. Younger girls often traveled and boarded with older sisters. Mill girls also spread word about the wages that could be earned in the factory.
“They often traveled pretty good distances to work in the factory,” she said.
When they arrived in Biddeford and Saco to work in the mills, girls were exposed to new experiences, Smalley said. As they adjusted to life in the city, they thumbed through fashion magazines and altered their clothing to mimic the styles worn by women in higher social classes, she said.
“Once they were in the city they were bombarded by images in store fronts of the latest fashions,” Smalley said, noting they often sent stylish patterns back to the family farm.
Smalley said most factory girls had three or four dresses, a couple for work and one “Sunday best” dress. Work dresses were made of a coarser material and had removable collars and cuffs for washing. Girls also wore their Sunday best dresses out after work.
A typical day for mill girls began at 5 a.m., when tolling bells called them to work. They went back to the boarding house for breakfast at 7:30 a.m., dinner at noon and supper at 7 p.m. – each trip marked with bells tolling throughout the cities. After a supper of broth and bread, they changed clothing and headed out on the town.
“They walked up and down Main Street, they met with their friends to window shop,” Smalley said.
The girls also entertained gentlemen callers, attended lectures, wrote poetry and borrowed books from lending libraries. Smalley said she is amazed the girls had energy to socialize after spending 12 hours working in the mill.
“I was surprised they went out at night, that they met up with their friends and by all the things they bought,” Smalley said. “It’s so much like girls today. Not a lot has changed.”
Smalley said mills girls seemed to enjoy the independence of living away from their families and earning their own money. Over time, many cut back the amount of money they sent home to their families so they could save to buy things for themselves. Mill girls earned around $2 a week and $1.50 for board was deducted from their pay.
“These girls were able to go out in the city, perform work on their own and were able to make their own decisions,” she said.
Professor Elizabeth DeWolfe of the University of New England said it was the mill girls’ ability to make their own decisions that sometimes led to trouble. During a lecture on the opening night of the exhibit, she discussed the dangers girls faced when they were alone in the city.
DeWolfe said the work girls performed in the mills was dangerous. Machinery was fast moving, trapping hair and dresses with “gruesome results,” she said. Lint swirling in the air was highly flammable and flash fires were not infrequent. Outside the factory walls were busy city streets and disease that endangered the girls.
“The biggest challenge of these mill girls was their newfound independence,” DeWolfe said.
Mill girls “could get in all kinds of trouble” during the hours between their last meal and boardinghouse curfews, DeWolfe said. Broadsheets printed with sensational fiction warned of girls who became pregnant, were murdered or were otherwise corrupted while away from their families.
DeWolfe said sensational fiction popular at the time was loosely based on actual events. The stories included warning of dangers for girls, who were expected to be dutiful, obedient, pious and virtuous.
Statistically, girls who worked in mills married later, had fewer children, tended not to return to the family farm and often married men they met in the city. They were also more likely to attain higher education and start their own businesses than girls who didn’t live in the city, DeWolfe said.
The boardinghouse bedroom is can be viewed during regular museum hours. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; noon to 8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $4 for adults; $3 for seniors; $2 for students and children ages 7 to 18; and free Fridays after 4 p.m.
Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.
Staff Writer
They may have spent hours standing in front of machines churning out textiles, but mill girls in Saco and Biddeford sure knew how to have a good time.
After spending hours standing in dark rooms with cotton dust swirling around their heads, factory girls would return to their boardinghouses to change into their best dresses. After a light supper, they took to the streets to peer into shop windows and visit with friends.
Those are among the details of the lives of factory girls curators hope people will learn while visiting the new exhibit “Making Her Way: Mill Girls of Saco and Biddeford” at the Saco Museum. The exhibit, which opened last week, is designed to evoke the interior of a factory girl boardinghouse bedroom from the 1840s.
The bedroom is a preview to a larger exhibit on Saco River Valley history slated to open in May 2010. The project was funded by a Preserve America Grant from the National Park Service and by the Maine Humanities Council.
Camille Smalley, program and education manager at Saco Museum, designed the bedroom based largely on descriptions from the Lowell Offering, a factory girl journal, and newspaper advertisements. Bedrooms usually had two beds pushed together with two girls sleeping in each bed. The rooms were “choked” full of trunks, she said.
The Saco Museum bedroom has two beds with simple frames pushed together, topped with lumpy mattresses covered with simple sheets and blankets. Hair combs, ribbons and books adorn the top of a chest of drawers, a stack of trunks sits nearby and letters are scattered across the top of a small desk.
“When trying to curate the exhibit, I was thinking of things mill girls would have purchased in the city, what they would have brought with them,” Smalley said.
The girls who came to work in the factories were often the daughters of farmers. Smalley said many found themselves without much to do on the farm as families shifted away from making textiles to buying goods at stores.
Smalley said factory agents would recruit girls, mostly between the ages of 12 and 20. Younger girls often traveled and boarded with older sisters. Mill girls also spread word about the wages that could be earned in the factory.
“They often traveled pretty good distances to work in the factory,” she said.
When they arrived in Biddeford and Saco to work in the mills, girls were exposed to new experiences, Smalley said. As they adjusted to life in the city, they thumbed through fashion magazines and altered their clothing to mimic the styles worn by women in higher social classes, she said.
“Once they were in the city they were bombarded by images in store fronts of the latest fashions,” Smalley said, noting they often sent stylish patterns back to the family farm.
Smalley said most factory girls had three or four dresses, a couple for work and one “Sunday best” dress. Work dresses were made of a coarser material and had removable collars and cuffs for washing. Girls also wore their Sunday best dresses out after work.
A typical day for mill girls began at 5 a.m., when tolling bells called them to work. They went back to the boarding house for breakfast at 7:30 a.m., dinner at noon and supper at 7 p.m. – each trip marked with bells tolling throughout the cities. After a supper of broth and bread, they changed clothing and headed out on the town.
“They walked up and down Main Street, they met with their friends to window shop,” Smalley said.
The girls also entertained gentlemen callers, attended lectures, wrote poetry and borrowed books from lending libraries. Smalley said she is amazed the girls had energy to socialize after spending 12 hours working in the mill.
“I was surprised they went out at night, that they met up with their friends and by all the things they bought,” Smalley said. “It’s so much like girls today. Not a lot has changed.”
Smalley said mills girls seemed to enjoy the independence of living away from their families and earning their own money. Over time, many cut back the amount of money they sent home to their families so they could save to buy things for themselves. Mill girls earned around $2 a week and $1.50 for board was deducted from their pay.
“These girls were able to go out in the city, perform work on their own and were able to make their own decisions,” she said.
Professor Elizabeth DeWolfe of the University of New England said it was the mill girls’ ability to make their own decisions that sometimes led to trouble. During a lecture on the opening night of the exhibit, she discussed the dangers girls faced when they were alone in the city.
DeWolfe said the work girls performed in the mills was dangerous. Machinery was fast moving, trapping hair and dresses with “gruesome results,” she said. Lint swirling in the air was highly flammable and flash fires were not infrequent. Outside the factory walls were busy city streets and disease that endangered the girls.
“The biggest challenge of these mill girls was their newfound independence,” DeWolfe said.
Mill girls “could get in all kinds of trouble” during the hours between their last meal and boardinghouse curfews, DeWolfe said. Broadsheets printed with sensational fiction warned of girls who became pregnant, were murdered or were otherwise corrupted while away from their families.
DeWolfe said sensational fiction popular at the time was loosely based on actual events. The stories included warning of dangers for girls, who were expected to be dutiful, obedient, pious and virtuous.
Statistically, girls who worked in mills married later, had fewer children, tended not to return to the family farm and often married men they met in the city. They were also more likely to attain higher education and start their own businesses than girls who didn’t live in the city, DeWolfe said.
The boardinghouse bedroom is can be viewed during regular museum hours. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; noon to 8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $4 for adults; $3 for seniors; $2 for students and children ages 7 to 18; and free Fridays after 4 p.m.
Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.
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