Opening Reception: Industry, Wealth, & Labor

314 Forest Ave,Portland ME 04101

17 November, 2022

Description

All are invited to join the University of Southern Maine’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education for the opening reception of our latest exhibition, Industry, Wealth, and Labor: Mapping New England’s Textile Industry, on Thursday, November 17, from 4:30 PM - 7:30 PM, with a panel discussion from 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM. This event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided. Inspired by the map library’s recent acquisition of a collection of textile mill insurance plans and historic maps from the American Textile History Museum, this exhibition addresses the temporal, geographic, and demographic components of New England’s cotton textile industry from the early 19th century until the middle of the 20th century. While textile mills were common throughout New England, this display focuses on Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, where the large integrated textile industry originated, as well as the local Maine towns of Biddeford, Saco, and Lewiston as representatives of the industry as it matured and spread throughout the region. The exhibition features a sampling of these industrial plans, which are an under appreciated type of fire insurance plan, but it also includes more common contemporary maps, such as bird’s eye views, detailed city plans, urban real estate and fire insurance plans, and thematic maps, providing a broader context for understanding the development of this foundational industry which was integral to the region’s urbanization, industrialization, population growth and diversification, and labor unionization. The panel discussion will include Jane Ward and Clare Sheridan of the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts; David Bishop, a former employee of Pepperell Mills in Biddeford, Maine, and Board Member of the Biddeford Mills Museum; and Federal Cultural Resources Manager Peter Michaud. This discussion will be moderated by exhibit co-curator Ron Grim. This exhibition was curated by Roberta Ransley-Matteau, MA, Cataloguer for the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, and Ron Grim, PhD, Curator of Maps Emeritus at the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library. Industry, Wealth, and Labor will be on view at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education from November 17, 2022 through June 30, 2023.