Abstract
Lowell, Massachusetts, the first planned industrial city in New England, was a total departure from earlier forms of urban life in North America. This essay examines the ways in which the ideology of industrial capitalism and the policy of corporate paternalism are reflected in the built environment of 19th century Lowell. Using the Boott Cotton Mills Corporation as a case study, the ways in which corporate policies regulated and permeated the material lives of workers on the job and at home are considered. The analysis draws upon an interdisciplinary body of data but emphasizes the ways in which archaeological investigations can illuminate the contrast between the stated company policy of concern for workers’ welfare and the reality of workers’ living conditions.
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Beaudry, M.C. The Lowell Boott Mills complex and its housing: Material expressions of corporate ideology. Hist Arch 23, 19–32 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374094
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374094