The American Textile History Museum

Went to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Mass., yesterday. It’s a pretty good museum. Right now there’s a special exhibit called “Reflections: Fashion, Dolls, and the Art of Growing Up.”

It was pretty empty when we went, and there was only one guide-type person around, but it looks as if they have facilities to do a lot of stuff when it’s busier. You walk in and above you, in a glassed-in area wrapping around three walls, are hundreds of spinning wheels and swifts and reels. In the exhibit hall there's a small area with bleachers facing some old power looms, which I guess they use for lectures and demos. There’s also a separate room where they demonstrate power looms dating from about the 1890s on, and there’s an area for kids with little hand looms and things that they can try out. There’s also a cafe. And they have activities like workshops, lectures, and storytelling.

Besides the looms, the displays include antique clothing and textiles, and tableaus showing typical fiber-working tools. There’s also stuff about the life of the “mill girls”—the young women who worked in the mills.

I liked the museum, but thought they could have done a better, more thorough job explaining some of the stuff. They have a pretty good video that shows how the settlers in the 1700s used to make linen by hand. It would have been nice if they had videos showing weaving and spinning and wool processing too, because the displays and plaques for those things are kind of sketchy. Plus, it’s much better and easier to understand when you actually see the process instead of just having it explained to you.

The gift shop has a lot of books on textile arts, history (not just textiles but general history and history of the immigrants who worked in the textile mills), plus a few craft books and kits for kids. There are also hand-woven and -knitted hats and scarves and things; pillows and placemats and stuff made from fabric woven on the looms in the museum, which you can buy online; fabrics that reproduce some of those found in the museum collections; toy sheep; kids’ books; parts from old wooden looms; plus the usual notecards and calendars and stuff.

The Textile Conservation Center that restores garments for the museum is in the same building. They do work for private clients, so if you really want to you can have your grandmother’s wedding dress restored. (Well, actually, conserved. As they explain on the Conservation FAQ, there is a difference.)

They also have a library with books of interest to spinners and weavers.