The Lowell Boott Mills Complex and Its Housing : Material Expressions of Corporate Ideology

The Lowell Boott Mills Complex and Its Housing : Material Expressions of Corporate Ideology

Article describing the influence of Lowell, Massachusetts' Boott Mills corporate architectures - physical, economic, occupational - on the lives of millworkers and the citizens of Lowell. Discrepancies between stated corporate commitments to the welfare of workers and the actual daily lives, living conditions, and boarding-house arrangements of mill laborers. Thoughts on "corporate paternalism." The 1835-built Boott Mills as case study in "the affective power of built environment--the total material expression of landscape and land use," including discussions of the formal economic logics behind certain divisions of labor, means of social control, and domestic provisions for workers. Brief operations, commercial, and employment history of the Boott Mills. Descriptions of millsite excavation and construction in the 19th century.

Beaudry, Mary C.

Full text (from the Society for Historical Architecture)

1989

en

Journal Article

19th century; Lowell, Massachusetts

0440-9213

1

19-32

Historical Archaeology

23