Mill Talk: Levi’s®: The Youngest Oldest Brand in the World

presented by Tracey Panek, Historian & Director of Archives, Levi Strauss & Co.

FREE to the public, REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Join the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation for a captivating Mill Talk on the history of Levi Strauss & Co., the invention of the modern blue jean, or riveted denim pant, and how a historic American brand continues to stay relevant today. Tracey Panek, Historian and Director of Archives at Levi Strauss & Co., will explore how this American brand, founded by an immigrant during the California Gold Rush, revolutionized fashion and became a global icon.

This talk is especially fitting at the Charles River Museum, the site of Francis Cabot Lowell’s first cotton textile mill, where America’s industrial revolution transformed fabric production and laid the foundation for the mass manufacturing of textiles—including the denim used to create the first Levi’s® blue jeans. Discover how industrial ingenuity, and a patented innovation, shaped what we wear today and helped define American culture.

Speaker Bio: Tracey Panek is the Historian for Levi Strauss & Co. and Director of Archives at the company’s world headquarters in San Francisco. She manages the day-to-day workings of the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives as a key corporate asset, answering historical questions, assisting designers, brand managers, executives and other employees whose work requires historical materials in the Archives. She regularly hunts for unique vintage Levi’s® garments and unusual Levi’s® items to add to the Archives.

Tracey is a contributor to Unzipped, the company’s blog, writing about company history, vintage Levi’s® garments, and behind-the-scenes work in the Archives. She narrates the video series From the Levi’s® Archives on YouTube and From the Levi’s® Archives on TikTok. Tracey is the media spokesperson for Levi Strauss & Co. heritage.

Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.

Mill Talk: The Greater Boston School of Harpsichord Building

Mill Talk: “The Greater Boston School of Harpsichord Building”

Opening: “Rediscovering Waltham’s Harpsichord History” Special Exhibition

(6:00 PM Exhibit Opening, 7:00 PM Discussion)

presented by Mark Kroll, Professor Emeritus, Boston University

FREE to the Public, Registration Required

Join us for the kickoff of our very special exhibition, Rediscovering Waltham’s Harpsichord History, which will examine the story of Frank and Diane Hubbard, founders and operators of Hubbard Harpsichords manufacturers of instruments and kits for almost 50 years. Through their work, Greater Boston became a center of the revivial of the harpsichord as an instrument and Early Music as a genre. Mark Kroll has written the definitive book on chronicling this important period of music history and collected dozens of firsthand accounts of the principal players, workers, and artisans associated with the ‘Big Three’ harpsichord shops in Greater Boston – Hubbard in Waltham, William Dowd and Eric Herz, both in Cambridge.

Kroll will give a talk that sets the context in which the Hubbards’ shop at the Lyman Estate carriage house expanded to the old Cotton Picker Building of the Boston Manufacturing Factory site on Moody Street. Hubbard Harpsichords pioneered the use of DIY kits that became popular in the 1960s and 70s, many of which were built in this mill complex.

This Mill Talk marks the grand opening of Rediscovering Waltham’s Harpsichord History, a special exhibition on the artisanship, industry, and art of designing and building harpsichords, exemplified by those of the Hubbard shop. This three-month exhibition will include a full harpsichord, wood-bending frames, tools and materials of the trade, and imagery from the Hubbard shop that centers the workers who created instruments and kits for decades on site. Over the course of its installation, the program will include music, informational talks, panel discussions, and other special events to bring this almost-forgotten part of Waltham’s and Greater Boston’s music history back to the forefront.

March 22, 2025: Mark Kroll performs chamber music concert at the Charles River Museum (free, registration required) (supported in part by the Waltham Cultural Council)

Speaker Bio: Professor emeritus Mark Kroll, Boston University:
Mark Kroll’s distinguished career as a performer, scholar and educator spans a period of more than fifty years. He has appeared in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia as a recitalist and chamber musician, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity. He has also performed as concerto soloist with the world’s major orchestras and served as harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony from 1979-2008. Kroll’s extensive list of recordings includes the music of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Biber, Duphly, Balbastre, Royer, Schubert, and Hummel; a 10-disc set of the complete pièces de clavecin of François Couperin; critically acclaimed CDs of contemporary harpsichord music; and Dutilleux’s Les Citations with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

Equally active as a scholar, Kroll has published eight books— Bach, Handel and Scarlatti: Reception in Britain 1750-1850; The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord; Ignaz Moscheles and the Changing World of Musical Europe; Playing the Harpsichord Expressively; The Beethoven Violin Sonatas; Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Musician and His World (a second edition and a Slovakian translation were published this year in Bratislava); The Boston School of Harpsichord Building; and an annotated facsimile of part III of J. N. Hummel’s piano treatise—plus numerous chapters and articles, and scholarly editions for Bärenreiter, Ut Orpheus and A-R Editions. His book, Contemporary Harpsichord Music Since 1900, is in preparation.

A dedicated educator, Kroll is Professor emeritus at Boston University, where he served for twenty-five years as Professor of Harpsichord and Chair of the Department of Historical Performance. He teaches and lectures worldwide and has been visiting professor and guest lecturer at Northeastern University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and Princeton Universities, and others throughout the United States.

Links:
Mark Kroll: Personal Website
The Boston School of Harpsichord Building (2019) Edwin Mellen Press

March 22, 2025: Mark Kroll performs chamber music concert at the Charles River Museum (free, registration required) (supported in part by the Waltham Cultural Council)

Mill Talk: “Waltham on the Charles: Canoeing Capital of the World in the Early 1900s”

presented by Benson Gray

FREE to the public, Registration required

With a presentation display of three canoes in our collection – two HB Arnolds and one Robertson Racing Canoe

At the turn of the last century, Waltham was a hub of canoeing and canoe manufacturing at the intersection of athletics, recreation, and craftmanship. A new industrial working class developed in Waltham and surrounding areas as companies like Boston Manufacturing and Waltham Watch employed thousands of line workers. Along with industrialization, leisure activities gained popularity as these same workers looked to the river to relax, socialize, and have fun on the weekends. The weekend itself is a consequence of industrialization and the factory work week.

In Waltham, builders like HB Arnold, Waltham Canoe, and others were at work crafting, renting, and selling their canoes. Large boathouses, dancehalls, and canoe launches popped up all along the stretch of the Charles from Moody Street back up to Newton Upper Falls. Come, hear about the innovative canoe builders on the Charles and the new leisure working class they served.

On view as part of Benson’s talk will be three wonderful examples of period canoes – two that were crafted by the HB Arnold Company of Waltham, and a Robertson racing canoe built in Auburndale. Two of our canoes were recently and expertly restored by members of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, Norumbega Branch.

Speaker Bio: Benson Gray grew up in Old Town, Maine, and has always loved canoes, so it was exciting to discover that many others shared an appreciation for these wonderful boats. His work with computers, combined with an interest in the history of canoes, has led to some fascinating collaborations. In the 1990s, he initiated a project to scan the Old Town Canoe Company catalogs, which later evolved into a much larger effort encompassing a variety of canoe manufacturers, with significant help from Dan Miller and others. His largest wooden canoe history project involved scanning most of the Old Town, Carleton, and Kennebec build records. These projects have made the history of canoes more accessible to everyone, but the true essence of an organization like the Charles River Museum lies in connecting people who share an interest in wooden canoes. 

Links:  Wooden Canoe Heritage Association

Maine Boats: "An Heirloom Canoe An Old Town family boat finds its way home" 

Mill Talk: “Kittie Knox, Cyclist”

and unveiling: “Kittie Knox in the Charles River Museum”

6:00 PM Unveiling, 7:00 PM Mill Talk

presented by Lorenz Finison

FREE TO THE PUBLIC Registration Required

Kittie Knox was a young biracial cyclist in the 1890s who fought against race-based limitations in America’s post-Reconstruction reaction against Black advancement. During her cycling career (1893 – 1899), she became a well-known century (100-mile) rider, protested the League of American Wheelmen’s color bar in 1895, and refused to conform to conventions about fast riding and wearing a long skirt while cycling. For decades after her untimely death, Knox’s groundbreaking story was virtually unknown outside of the world of cycling. Scholar and writer Larry Finison has worked to bring her remarkable life back to a wider audience and will speak about Kittie Knox in the context of the late 19th century cycling craze.

The Charles River Museum has long had a display of turn of the century bicycles to represent the Waltham Manufacturing Company of Charles Metz. Metz innovated and built bicycles, motorcycles, and cars, all under the Orient brand name. Alongside Major Taylor, Kittie Knox will have a prominent representation in our gallery as a pioneering figure in the early days of cycling history and having appeared here in Waltham at the Waltham Cycling Track in its heyday.

Speaker Bio: Lorenz “Larry” Finison

Larry Finison is a social psychologist by training and public health practitioner by profession and then turned to the social history of bicycling. He is the author of Boston's Cycling Craze, 1880-1900, Boston's 20th Century Bicycling Renaissance, and Bicycling Inclusion and Equity (2023). His most recent work is Kittie Knox: Exclusion and Inclusion in Boston’s Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism. He is also a friend to the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Bicycling History Collections Archives and a member of the New England Cycling Coalition for Diversity. Larry has done significant research in bringing the story of Kittie Knox’s life to a modern audience.

Mill Talk: “Denim Culture: Past Present & Future”
and Screening: “Riveted: The History of Jeans” from PBS’s American Experience

(6:00 PM Screening, 7:00 PM Discussion)

presented by: Professor Emma McClendon, St. John’s University

Join us for a fascinating discussion on the past, present, and future of a ubiquitous fabric – denim. The Charles River Museum is at the site of Francis Cabot Lowell’s first cotton textile mill, and it was cotton manufacturing that powered the Industrial Revolution. Now, jeans are the iconic American fashion staple that almost all of us own. Fashion history professor, curator, and author Emma McClendon will join us as we screen the acclaimed PBS documentary, “Riveted: The History of Jeans.” The production features McClendon and other experts tracing the history and culture of jeans, and their place in American’s self-image.

Then, Emma McClendon will engage in an interactive discussion about where she sees the future of jeans as a fashion item, utilitarian garment, and manufactured product. She has a special interest in the sustainability of denim production, and the ways in which jeans have become not just clothing, but a way of expressing individuality and identity. This is sure to be a thought-provoking conversation around an article of clothing that, at any given moment, literally half of the planet’s population is wearing.

Speaker Bio: Emma McClendon, St. John’s University

Emma McClendon is Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies at St. John’s University in New York and author of Denim: Fashion’s Frontier (2016). While Associate Curator at The Museum at FIT from 2011-2020, she curated numerous critically acclaimed fashion history exhibitions including “Power Mode: The Force of Fashion” (2019), “The Body: Fashion and Physique” (2017) and “Denim: Fashion’s Frontier” (2015). She holds an MA Hons. in Art History from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and an MA in the History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

She is currently completing her PhD at the Bard Graduate Center for decorative arts, design history, and material culture in New York City. Her research focuses on the power dynamics inherent in clothing with a particular interest in body politics, labor, technology, and standardized sizing. Recent publications include Power Mode: The Force of Fashion (Skira, 2019) and the forthcoming (Re)Dressing American Fashion: Wear as Witness (Yale, March 2025).

Links:

Denim: Fashion's Frontier (2016) Yale University Press
(Re)Dressing American Fashion: Wear as Witness | Yale University Press
Online Exhibition: Denim: Fashion's Frontier
Emma McClendon, St. John’s University – Jeans: Universal and Unsustainable
The Washington Post: Denim is getting weird again

Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.

Mill Talk: Tariffs and Trade, Then and Now

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT
FREE to the public
REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Presented by:
Professor Bryan Snyder,
Bentley University
Professor Lawrence Peskin,
Morgan State University

In 1816, Francis Cabot Lowell was in Washington DC lobbying Congress to pass the first protectionist tariff in American history. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, the burgeoning cotton textile industry he had fought so hard to build was imperiled by the cheap dumping of British imports. By building a coalition between Northern industrialists and Southern plantation owners, Lowell was successful in arguing that tariffs would ensure that American domestic manufacturing should be protected, and that the federal government’s trade policy had a duty to so.

Now, tariffs are back in the political conversation, and the efforts around the Tariff of 1816 and its consequences are as relevant as ever. Join us as we engage in a dynamic conversation connecting the past, present, and future of tariffs and trade policy and their effects. Economist Bryan Snyder and historian Larry Peskin will draw lessons from American history to inform our understanding of economic policy today.

Speaker Bio: Lawrence Peskin, Morgan State University

Lawrence Peskin is a professor of History at Morgan State University in Baltimore. He specializes in antebellum political economy and has written extensively on pro-manufacturing protectionism, most recently on American business and diplomacy in the Mediterranean. His books include Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of American Industry (Johns Hopkins University Press; Matthew Carey, The New Olive Branch (Anthem Press, editor); Three Consuls: Capitalism, Empire and the Rise and Fall of America's Mediterranean Community, 1776-1840."

Links:

Three Consuls:Capitalism, Empire, and the Rise and Fall of America's Mediterranean Community, 1776–1840 | Cambridge University Press

Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry | Johns Hopkins University Press

Dr. Lawrence Peskin | Morgan State Univeristy Faculty

Speaker Bio: Bryan Snyder, Bentley University

Professor Snyder is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Bentley University. His teaching interests cover a wide scope of economics, economic history and political economy. His current writing and research activities focus on the editing and production of the classroom readers Real World Micro (31st edition), Real World Macro (41st edition) and Economic of the Environment (4th edition) for Dollars & Sense magazine. He has also taught Business Ethics at University of Massachusetts-Lowell and has adapted the curriculum to high school, undergraduate and graduate curriculums. Professor Snyder delights in incorporating “normative” issues into his curriculum and challenges his students to address moral and ethical issues in the study of economics.

Links:

Bryan Snyder | Bentley University Faculty

Mill Talk: “'We black folks had to wear lowells': Negro Cloth, Enslaved People, and the Legacy of Lowell Manufacturing"

Join Dr. Jonathan Michael Square on February 6 at Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation for an in-depth exploration of the history of negro cloth and its pivotal role in the American fashion industry, with a focus on its production in Lowell, Massachusetts. The talk will also examine how enslaved individuals utilized textiles as a form of self-fashioning in the face of the deprivation of their self-hood.

Dr. Jonathan Michael Square is the Assistant Professor of Black Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design. He earned a PhD from New York University, an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. from Cornell University. Previously, he taught in the Committee on Degree in History and Literature at Harvard University and was a fellow in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Most recently, he curated the exhibition Past Is Present: Black Artists Respond to the Complicated Histories of Slavery at the Herron School of Art and Design, which closed in January 2023. He is currently preparing for his upcoming show titled Almost Unknown: Afric-American Picture Gallery at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. A proponent of the use of social media as a form of radical pedagogy, Dr. Square also leads the digital humanities project Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/fashioningtheself/

Tatter: ‘We Black Folks Had To Wear Lowells’: an interview with Dr. Jonathan Michael Square (May 11, 2024)

Mill Talk: In Pursuit of a Safer Industrial Workplace – Pemberton to the Present

In conversation:
Professor Robert Forrant, UMASS Lowell
Gabriel Porter, Safety and Health Specialist/Process Safety Management Coordinator OSHA Boston Regional Office

What can a 19th-century mill disaster teach us about workplace safety today?

Join Professor Robert Forrant (UMass Lowell) and Gabriel Porter (Safety and Health Specialist/Process Safety Management Coordinator OSHA Boston Regional Office) for a compelling discussion moderated by Charles River Museum’s Director of Education, Stephen Guerriero. Forrant will delve into the catastrophic Pemberton Mill collapse of 1860—an industrial tragedy that claimed 98 lives, revealed systemic failures, and left questions of accountability unresolved. Porter will explore how OSHA builds on lessons from such events to safeguard workers in today’s industries. Together, they’ll connect history to modern-day practices, offering insights into the ongoing fight for safer workplaces.

Robert Forrant is Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His most recent book, Where Are the Workers: Interpreting Labor and Working-Class History at Museums and Historic Sites, was published in 2022. In early 2024 he published “‘No Avenging Gibet’: The 1860 Pemberton Mill Collapse” in The New England Quarterly. The article forms the basis for his talk.

Links:

Robert Forrant: UMASS Lowell
Where Are the Workers? Labor’s Stories at Museums and Historic Sites (University of Illinois Press)
"'No Avenging Gibbet': The 1860 Pemberton Mill Collapse" The New England Quarterly

Gabriel Porter is a New Hampshire based Safety and Health Specialist/Process Safety Management Coordinator with the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Boston Regional Office. A graduate of Northeastern University, he has close to 20 years' experience working in the field of workplace safety and compliance. Porter helps to communicate the role and history of OSHA as a regulatory agency tasked by Congress to ensure worker health and safety are maintained across a broad spectrum of industries and sites.

Links:

Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA at 50: 50 Years of Workplace Safety and Healt

Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.

Mill Talk: Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

presented by author Stephen Puleo

FREE and open to the public
REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed on Boston’s waterfront, disgorging its contents in a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that traveled at 35 miles per hour. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of 21 people and caused widespread destruction.

Puleo’s bestselling book, Dark Tide (2003) tells the gripping story of the molasses flood in its full historical context, from the tank’s construction in 1915 through the multiyear lawsuit that followed the disaster. Puleo uses the gripping drama of the flood to examine the sweeping changes brought about by World War I, Prohibition, the anarchist movement, immigration, and the expanding role of big business in society. To understand the flood is to understand America of the early twentieth century – the flood was a microcosm of America, a dramatic event that encapsulated something much bigger, a lens through which to view the major events that shaped a nation.

It’s also a chronicle of the courage of ordinary people, from the firemen caught in an unimaginable catastrophe to the soldier-lawyer who presided over the lawsuit with heroic impartiality. Even now, the tragic event behind Dark Tide continues to capture the imagination of readers across the country and is the only adult nonfiction book on America’s most unusual tragedy.

Author Bio

A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor of articles and book reviews to publications and organizations that include American History magazine, Politico, The Boston Globe, and the Bill of Rights Institute, Steve has also taught history at Suffolk University in Boston and at UMass-Boston. He also has developed and taught numerous writing workshops for high school and college students, as well as for adults who aspire to be writers.

Steve holds a master’s degree in history from UMass-Boston. His master’s thesis, “From Italy to Boston’s North End: Italian Immigration and Settlement, 1890-1910,” has been downloaded more than 25,000 times by scholars and readers around the world. Steve is also a Massachusetts Historical Society Fellow and is a past recipient of the prestigious i migliori award, presented by the Pirandello Lyceum to Italian-Americans who have excelled in their fields of endeavor. Steve and his wife Kate, who live south of Boston, donate a portion of his book proceeds to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). His latest work is The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union (2024), a biography of U. S. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.

Links:

Author Page: Stephen Puleo

Bookshop.org: Dark Tide

Bookshop.org: The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union

City of Boston: The Great Molasses Flood, 100 Years Later

Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.

Mill Talk: Walking Through Walls: Virtual Design and Business Innovation

presented by Oren Sherman

REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT

Since Francis Cabot Lowell and Paul Moody set the first power looms in motion in 1814, textiles have been at the crossroads of American industry, artisan craft, and functionality. The great textile mills of New England drove the American Industrial Revolution, starting with the Boston Manufacturing Company on this very site in Waltham.

Now two centuries later, designers are forging innovative ways to ‘weave’ textiles using 3D technology and design in virtual space, grounded by the principles of the loom. Award-winning designer, artist, and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Oren Sherman, will bring us along on his own journey, discovering the cultural meaning and evolving technology embedded in textile design. Pattern traveled on textiles and the availability of locally made affordable woven cloth gave birth to an industry supercharged by the Waltham-Lowell System, including fabric dyeing and pattern design. That scale led to rapid innovation in manufacturing and design.

In exploring the construction of commercial textile patterning, Sherman found himself leaving the world of the ‘repeat’ and exploring in virtual space. He’ll explain how a desire to ‘walk through walls’ lead him to 3D weaving as an inspiration that, ironically, led him back to the first principles of the elegantly complex power loom. Oren’s talk will feature vivid color and vibrant patterns, while simultaneously connecting innovation with cutting-edge technology.

Author Bio: Oren Sherman

An alumnus and professor specializing in design, marketing and branding at the renowned Rhode Island School Of Design, Oren has partnered with corporations across the country developing original artwork and licensed collections that capture a brand’s identity. His work is sophisticated, contemporary and utterly unique, standing at the cutting edge where art meets commerce. Oren’s versatility and visual intelligence inform his distinctive approach. His art powers brand, creating a multi-level subliminal experience that resonates as an unspoken message everywhere the environment touches the customer.

Oren's work lives at the intersection between visual storytelling, art and architecture, focusing on applying two-dimensional work in a three-dimensional way to create engaging and experiential spaces. Oren worked at Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston, crafting strategic narratives and original artworks for interior spaces, creating a multilevel, subliminal experience that resonates as a lyrical and unspoken message, recently making the leap to consulting and exploring both fine art and designing collections in 3-D space.

In 2022 he was awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award from Boston Design Week and in June 2022 gave his first TEDx presentation “Finding Creativity: A Solo Journey to a Connected Place.”

Links: Designer Page: Oren Sherman

MILL TALK: POSTPONED The Lowell Code: Cracking Innovation from the Industrial Revolution to AI

presented by Dr. Nathan Lang-Raad

POSTPONED

Join the Charles River Museum for an illuminating exploration of timeless innovation principles through the lens of Francis Cabot Lowell's revolutionary ideas. Dr. Nathan Lang-Raad will uncover how these same concepts drive today's tech giants and shape our digital future. From Lowell's daring industrial espionage in British textile mills to his groundbreaking implementation of the power loom, his journey parallels the disruptive innovations we see in Silicon Valley today. Dr. Lang-Raad will demonstrate how Lowell's approach aligns with nine essential habits of innovative thinking, drawing insights from his book "Renaissance Thinking in the Classroom."

This talk will draw fascinating parallels between Lowell's innovations and modern challenges, offering valuable insights for anyone interested in the evolution of American industry and technology. Dr. Lang-Raad will explore how these habits of thinking - including cultivating diverse curiosity, taking risks, and embracing lifelong learning - can be applied to foster innovation in our rapidly changing digital world. Attendees will discover how historical lessons from the Industrial Revolution apply to current technological advancements, with a focus on interdisciplinary learning and addressing real-world problems.---

Author Bio:

Dr. Nathan Lang-Raad is an educator, speaker, and author with a passion for innovative teaching methods and the integration of technology in classrooms. He has served in various roles throughout his career, including as a teacher, school administrator, and education supervisor at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Dr. Lang-Raad is the author of several books on instructional coaching and innovative teaching methods.

Renaissance Thinking in the Classroom: Interdisciplinary Learning, Real-World Problems, Intellectually Curious Students by Dr. Nathan Lang-Raad provides educators with a comprehensive guide to fostering innovative thinking in K-12 education. This book details nine specific habits of thinking and a challenge-based framework that educators can integrate to promote students' academic knowledge and lifelong learning skills.

Links:

Website: Dr. Nathan Lang-Raad

Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.

MILL TALK: The Railroads of Waltham: An Industrial City on the Move

presented by Rick Kfoury

Join the Charles River Museum for a journey back to Waltham’s railroad heyday, when the advent of the railroad was deeply entwined in the industrial history of the region, and the Boston Manufacturing Company specifically.

Links:

Blurb.com "The New England Southern Railroad Volume 1"
Blurb.com "The New England Southern Railroad Volume 2"
QUEEN CITY RAILS - MANCHESTER'S RAILROADS 1965-1990
Steam Trains of Yesteryear: The Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern Story

Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.

Mill Talk: The Rosy Dawn of Industrialization: Distant impacts by early New England

presented by Kevin Coffee

The environmental impact of industrialization is often imagined as belching smokestacks or noxious effluents. But local pollution is only the most obvious impact of industrialization. Often overlooked are the distant impacts and ‘externalities’ that accompanied mechanized production and the growth of modern cities.

The Waltham and Lowell systems which birthed textile manufacturing in America were highly profitable and spurred a massive influx of investment capital into the sector. Between 1830 and 1840, more than 270 textile manufacturers were incorporated in Massachusetts alone, each equipped with hundreds of machine tools and dozens of hydro-turbines.

The tremendous demand for raw materials – wood, cotton, iron, clay, limestone, granite, etc. – transformed landscape and watershed. The dramatic rise in demand for raw cotton in America and Britain intensified the brutality of forced labor in the American South, expanded the plantation system into Alabama and Mississippi, and prompted war against Mexico. The growing network of factory sites co-produced an extensive network of railroads and canals. The first twenty years of factory building in Lowell alone required clearing more than 25 square miles of forest for structural timber.

In this talk, historical archaeologist Kevin Coffee shares his research on the standing structures commissioned by the Lowell manufacturers and explores some of the most significant wide-area impacts produced by the new industry.

Kevin Coffee is an archaeologist and museologist whose research explores the materiality of late-modern societal development, especially urbanization and industrialization. From 2018 into 2023, he was the chief interpretation and education officer at Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell MA. He has published about urban development and industrialization in Industrial Archaeology Review, Post-Medieval Archaeology, Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, and in the Routledge International Handbook of Heritage and Politics. He has presented on the subject to annual meetings of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, and the Society for Industrial Archeology. He is also the author of Museums and Social Responsibility (Routledge 2023) and Objective Culture and the End of the Museum (Routledge 2025).

Tech Talk: The Making of Millpower: An Animated Series for the Charles River Museum

Join us for a Tech Talk about our new series of short animations on the history of the Boston Manufacturing Company, designed to educate and entertain audiences of all ages, with a particular focus on middle school students.

Waltham animator Macy Lawrence will discuss the research, design, and animation process, and the event will include a screening of the short films

MILL TALK: Racing Against the Odds: Major Taylor & the Golden Age of Cycling

presented by Todd Balf, in conversation with Lynne Tolman, writer and president of the Major Taylor Association

Join the Charles River Museum for an inspiring look at the life and times of Major Taylor, one of the most consequential athletes in American sports history.

Taylor was racing on the national and international stage at a time when the US was deeply segregated. He combatted both racial prejudice and systemic barriers to triumph as the ‘world’s fastest man.’ The legendary African American cyclist and the Charles Metz Company of Waltham were deeply intertwined through the golden age of bicycle racing and innovation. Taylor raced on Metz's "Orient" bicycles, and his sprinting ability and speed on the lightweight Orient bikes brought him national fame during the rise of cycling as a competitive sport in America.

However, as the 20th century progressed, the bicycle industry began to decline, largely due to the rise of automobiles. Charles Metz himself shifted his focus from bicycles to cars, founding the Metz Company in 1909, marking the end of an era for Waltham's bicycle production. Still, Taylor’s triumphs in the face of racial adversity remain a lasting legacy of both his own perseverance, and the innovations of the Waltham-based Metz Company.

Todd Balf writes for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and others, and is the author of several books including this summer’s “Three Kings” and “Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to be the World’s Fastest Human Being.” He is an enthusiastic advocate for cycling and accessibility.

Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World's Fastest Human Being by Todd Balf tells the riveting and inspiring story of Major Taylor, an African American cyclist who defied the odds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Amidst the deeply segregated society of his time, Taylor rose to become the world’s fastest cyclist and a global sports icon. Balf’s meticulously researched book not only captures Taylor’s athletic prowess but also highlights his struggles against racial prejudice and personal battles. This powerful narrative sheds light on a groundbreaking figure whose legacy transcends sports, symbolizing resilience and the fight for equality in a racially divided world.

MAJOR: The story of Worcester’s world champion cyclist Marshall “Major” Taylor and the race to build the world’s fastest bike

Lynne Tolman is a cyclist herself, an editor -- retired from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette -- and president of the nonprofit Major Taylor Association, based in Worcester. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She has written about bicycling for VeloNews, USA Cycling, and other publications, and she bikes with the Seven Hills Wheelmen. One of her other hobbies is genealogy, another species of the history bug.

Links:

Bookshop.org "Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World's Fastest Human Being"

Bookshop.org "Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Launched the Modern Olympic Age"

Todd Balf in "Runner's World"

MILL TALK: Making It in America: The past, present and future of New England textile manufacturing

RESCHEDULED FROM THE ORIGINAL MAY DATE

presented by: 
Rachel Slade author of Making It in America 
& Michelle Finamore fashion historian, author, and curator

New England has a rich apparel and textile manufacturing history. The United States' industrial revolution started here, and many of the region's famous families made their first fortunes in textile, shoe, and apparel production. Over the past 40 years, much of that industry has vanished as companies have been forced to deal with ever cheaper imports from abroad.

Now, a new group of entrepreneurs is reviving every aspect of this legacy. Why are they doing it? What does it take to breathe life into a dying industry? And will they succeed?

This far-reaching conversation with journalist Rachel Slade, author of Making It in America, and Michelle Finamore, fashion historian, author, and curator, will explore New England's manufacturing legacy while exploring the ways new companies are revitalizing centuries-old industries.

MILL TALK:
Historic Innovation and its Modern Legacy in 3D Photographs

Presenters:
Bernard P. Fishman
Director, Maine State Museum

George L. Mutter
Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

See a stunning 3D projection of original images from the 1800s and early 1900s, showing how past inventions, economic changes, and conceptual freedoms have made today’s world. The growth of early industry, mechanized production, industrialized warfare, transformation of cities by an emergent middle class, labor activism, the revolution in domestic life and the women’s rights movement are all shown. You will see lively and thought-provoking scenes of whaling, oil exploration, mining, textile manufacture, skyscraper construction, and the depletion of forests, grasslands, and fisheries. Look into the faces of those affected by slavery, dispossession, and poverty, as well as immigrants in search of a better life. Although this world is gone, we live in its shadow.

You will be provided magic glasses to see these photos in 3D, as they were viewed in Victorian parlors.

Warning: This presentation includes explicit images as they were shown in the day. Content may not be suitable for children.

MILL TALK: Artificial Intelligence and the Next Industrial Revolution?

presented by: Sam Ransbotham, Professor of Analytics,  Boston College Carroll School of Management

Do recent advances in artificial intelligence herald a new stage of human development? Or is the current AI fervor yet another technology hype?

Rapid advances in AI have captured considerable public interest. Like prior technology developments, we can increasingly replace human activity with machines. But while prior technology developments deeply affected physical labor, AI developments (particularly generative AI) encroach on what was previously an entirely human domain -- knowledge work. Machines now seem to be able to think and learn. With these developments, we may see liberation from routine tasks, standardization of processes, and a head start on human learning. But we may instead see unemployment from job displacement, bias at a massive scale, and a race to mediocrity.

“Has the machine in its last furious manifestation begun to eliminate workers faster than new tasks can be found for them?” Stuart Chase asked this topical question in his book, “Men and Machines” -- in 1929. While everyone seems to talk about artificial intelligence, we’ll talk about what people are really doing now and where they seem to be headed.

The discussion will build from a 10-year MIT Sloan Management Review research program and stories from the Me, Myself, and AI podcast. In particular, we’ll focus on the role of human agency in choosing how we use these exciting tool developments.

Ransbotham received a National Science Foundation Career Program award “in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education,” for his analytics-based research in security. He was also honored with an INFORMS ISS Sandra A. Slaughter Early Career Award, which recognizes “early career individuals who are on a path towards making outstanding intellectual contributions to the information systems discipline.”

Ransbotham earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, an MBA, and a doctorate, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Before earning his doctorate, he founded a software company with a globally diverse client list including the United Nations IAEA (Vienna), FAO (Rome), WHO (Geneva), and WMO (London). Since 2015, he has been an editor for MIT SMR’s Big Ideas initiatives, including Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy, and Competing With Data & Analytics.

RESISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS FULL!

Mill Talk: Travel 3D with the 19th Century TimeGuys

presented by George L. Mutter, Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School and Bernard P. Fishman, Director, Maine State Museum, Augusta, ME

Magic glasses will be provided

Note: Due to the special nature of this 3D presentation, this Mill Talk will not be recorded or livestreamed. This is an in-person event only.

Warning:  This presentation is uncensored, showing imagery as it was prepared for and shown to audiences in the day.  Some content may be considered offensive to current sensibilities.  Viewer discretion is advised.

George Mutter trained in medicine at Harvard and Columbia, and is currently a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School.  He is a prolific scientist and educator, having authored over 120 scientific papers, and delivered numerous invited lectures internationally. 

Bernard Fishman is an Egyptologist trained at Columbia U. and U. of Pennsylvania.  He worked in Egypt with the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago before becoming a nonprofit institution administrator.  He is presently the Director of the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine.  

Mill Talk: THE HIDDEN COSTS OF A GREENER FUTURE
Unearthing the Environmental Impact of Electrification, presented by Dr. Tomas Villalón

FREE to the Public
REGISTRATION REQUIRED

This lecture will be recorded for later viewing on the WGBH Forum Network.

The sustainable future we are collectively building comes with significant environmental costs, primarily felt by the global south. The mining and processing of rare earth metals, nickel, cobalt, copper, and many other critical materials, essential for electrification and renewable technologies, often result in considerable ecological damage.

We will explore how the mining and extraction of these materials, while essential for driving forward the clean energy revolution, often contradicts the principles of environmental stewardship. The lecture will particularly focus on the impact in the global south, where much of the world's mining and refining activities take place, often with less stringent environmental regulations and oversight. This raises critical questions about the true cost of our transition to renewable energy and electric mobility.

In response to these challenges, Dr. Tomas Villalón will share Phoenix Tailings’ transformative approach to mining and material processing. Our innovative strategies aim to revolutionize the industry by extracting rare earth metals and other crucial materials sustainably. He will discuss their cutting-edge techniques for minimizing ecological impact through rethinking the approach to material refining and the remediation of toxic waste. By turning a historically pollutive process into a more environmentally responsible one and cleaning up the toxic byproducts of mining operations, Phoenix Tailings is not only contributing to the cleaner production of electrification materials but also paving the way for a more equitable and truly sustainable future.

Mill Talk: Community Engineering: Stories and Soaring to the Future

An Evening with Engineers Without Borders USA

Engage in a dynamic and lively conversation with the leaders and volunteers of Engineers Without Borders USA!

The Charles River Museum will host EWB-USA CEO Boris Martin, Former EWB-USA Board President Dr. Chris Lombardo, and EWB-USA volunteers from across the New England area for a happy hour social followed by a unique and forward-moving Mill Talk on community engineering. Expect to be regaled with stories of impact, engaged in reflection on engineers’ and educators’ calling, and moved toward action to build a better world.

Come for a happy hour social (with light appetizers and a cash bar) from 6-7 pm, and a dynamic and conversational Mill Talk with Dr. Boris Martin and Dr. Chris Lombardo from 7:15 to 8 pm.

Perhaps above all, Boris is proud to contribute to EWB-USA’s global impact projects that provide reliable access to safe water, renewable energy, nutritious food, and improved economic opportunities for thousands of underserved communities across the USA and around the world. His commitment is to make EWB-USA a leading Community Engineering organization and a catalyst and partner for Community Engineering around the world.

Dr. Chris Lombardo
Dr. Lombardo is currently employed at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies and Lecturer in Electrical Engineering. His teaching focuses on electronics, engineering design, and the intersection of engineering and human centered design with a focus on low resource settings.

Mill Talk:
How Dickens Helped Bring Christmas to Boston

Readings and performances of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol have played an integral part in winter holiday festivities since longer than most of us can remember. What fewer people know, however, is that the British literary superstar and his popular novella actually helped bring Christmas back to Boston.

Accompanied by a beautiful slide show, Susan Wilson—the Official House Historian of the Parker House—traces the history of Christmas celebrations, which were discouraged and even banned in the Puritan stronghold of colonial Boston. Wilson explains how and why Christmas finally began to be embraced in the mid 19th century, and how Charles Dickens' arrival in 1867—when he made his home at the Parker House for 5 months—really added fuel to the yule log.

Mill Talk: "Those Valuable People, the Africans"
The Slave(ry) Trade, the Global Cotton Kingdom, and the Industrial Textile Revolution in World and U.S. History

presented by Prof. Ronald W. Bailey

This MILL TALK is FREE and open to the public.
Registration required. REGISTER HERE

This talk explores a key chapter in trans-Atlantic, U.S., and African American history. The title is from a quote from Malachi Postlethwayt, a British mercantilist theorist in 1745. The book on which this talk is based chronicles contributions made by millions of African peoples and their descendants to the vast “wealth of nations” that financed the economic and social progress of modern Western civilization called the “industrial revolution.” The same global process has been identified as one cause of the “underdevelopment” in Africa and other parts of the world. The phenomenal contribution resulted from the uncompensated labor of enslaved Black peoples across several centuries and on several continents. Prof. Bailey has coined the term “slave(ry) trade”™ to encompass an array of activities generally considered as separate developments.  This includes the trade in Africans as commodities; commerce in slave-produced goods, especially sugar and cotton; trade among slave-based economies; production of manufactured goods from slave-produced raw materials; and related financial and commercial activities.

The story is narrated in three “acts” focused the slave(ry) trade’s pivotal role in three key periods of global history. Act I is a chronicle of Europe’s journey—especially Portugal and Spain—out of its “Dark” Middle Ages beginning in the 9th century and into a new global system centered around the Atlantic Ocean. With a focus on Great Britain, Act II begins in a world of expanding commerce—the “Age of Reconnaissance” or “Age of Discovery” in the 1500s—the period of mercantilism and the “Triangular Trade” when the colonization of the Americas and other parts of the globe was completed. Great Britain emerges as the first global industrial power in the 18th century. Act III explores  the American Revolution and focuses on the role of the slave(ry) trade and the global cotton kingdom in transforming colonial America into a world power as the independent United States, a process that continues with the Civil War in the 1860s.

Bailey’s publications include Introduction to Afro-American Studies: A Peoples College Primer; Remembering Medgar Evers . . . For a New Generation; Let Us March On: Civil Rights Photographs of Ernest Withers, Jr.; and Black Business Enterprise: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.  His articles have appeared in the Journal of Social Issues, Journal of Negro Education, Agricultural History, Review of Black Political Economy, Black Scholar, Souls: Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, and the Journal of African American History.

NSF and NEH grants supported the development of two website projects he initiated: www.dignubia.org and www.nubianet.org. He was also a co-founder of ACT-Roxbury (Art, Culture, and Trade—Roxbury), an organization that now operates the Roxbury Center for the Arts @ Hibernia Hall and the Roxbury Film Festival. Bailey has consulted on museum, curriculum, and technology projects. He was also the principal investigator of a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to build capacity in six African American museums in the Savannah area. He is the current co-principal investigator of a six-year digital tools project called AFRO PUBLISHING WITHOUT WALLS, or AFRO PWW-2, funded for the past six years by the Mellon Foundation.

Mill Talk: Birth of a New Utility, with Audrey Schulman

This MILL TALK is FREE and open to the public.
Registration required. Register HERE.

It's been over a century since a new utility was created.  Hear the story of how a small local nonprofit, HEET, has innovated a pathway for gas utilities to become a "thermal utilities," delivering you heating and cooling without combustion.  Eversource and National Grid are already selecting sites for the first installations, and over 15 other utilities across the country are following along.  Hear the story of innovation and how to create social change across boundaries. 

This MILL TALK is the first of a series we will be presenting in 2023 curated by Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips. More talks in this series will be announced in the coming weeks:

Climate, Energy, Infrastructure, & Justice

Infrastructure & Climate : The past, present and future of mill towns

Francis Cabot Lowell’s vision made manifest in Waltham of mechanically transforming bales of cotton into bolts of fabric under one roof was certainly a revolutionary business concept. Yet the story’s transformative influence extends so much farther, along process chains that involve land and water, materials, energy, infrastructure, topography, people, and social (in)justice. 

This ongoing, world-changing story matters more than ever today, as we seek to revolutionize afresh humanity's relationships with one another, improve how we affect our shared climate, and restore essential balance in relationships among all life on planet Earth. What can we learn from and use – or leave behind – as we fully apprehend the complex legacies of industrialization and build an ecologically sound economic future for all in New England mill towns and cities, and the world beyond?

This series of Mill Talks, underwritten by the Lowell Institute, widens the lens on the two-century old Francis Cabot Lowell Mill legacy, weaving together topics and speakers working in the messy nexus of climate, energy, infrastructure, and justice disciplines. We will hear from historians, geographers, engineers, futurists, business innovators, civic leaders, activists and more, who leverage their understanding of history and the power of their platforms to actively build energy, infrastructure, and inclusive enterprises that promote a healthy climate and economic vitality for all.

MILL TALK: From Textile Workers to Rideshare Drivers: The Never-Ending History of Creative Destruction

presented by Dave Broker

 REGISTER HERE
Masks encouraged Visit HERE for our current COVID-19 policies

In the second decade of the 21st Century, a major shift took place in the world of ground transportation. Taxicab drivers – long protected by local barriers to market entry – found themselves overtaken in the marketplace by new and disruptive rideshare services. Uber and Lyft drivers were able to provide a cheaper and simpler and more convenient means of getting around. This has created a significant benefit to consumers, though there have been winners and losers among drivers. 

Yet, even for the winners, this profession is now at serious risk of redundancy, thanks to the prospect of the driverless car. While still in development, autonomous vehicles could well mean the end of a livelihood – not only for rideshare drivers, but also for truckers and other vehicle operators – in the years to come.

However, this is not a new phenomenon. In this talk, industrial history podcaster Dave Broker explains how, between the 17th and 19th centuries, an almost identical process played out in the British textile trade. It was the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and its explosive consequences should be remembered and studied as we face the economic changes on the horizon.

MILL TALK: New England Textiles: Sustaining the Tradition—50 Years and Still Spinning

presented by John “Chick” Colony, President and Founder, Harrisville Designs

THIS EVENT IS FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Register HERE

Masks encouraged
Visit HERE for our current COVID-19 policies

In the wake of the 1970 closure of Cheshire Mills, a woolen mill that had been operated by the Colony family since the mid-1800s, John “Chick” Colony founded Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, New Hampshire.  

Today, a half-century on, Harrisville Designs, still owned by Chick and his wife, Patricia – and whose sons are now involved in running the business - is sustaining a textile tradition in Harrisville that dates back to the late 1700s. Harrisville Designs not only spins virgin wool yarn but also manufactures a range of floor looms, table looms, and lap looms.  

Harrisville yarns and looms are widely used for both weaving and instruction by members of the Weavers’ Guild of Boston, whose Centennial Celebration exhibition is on display at the Charles River Museum through the end of 2022. 

In this talk, Chick Colony, with his 50 years of hands-on perspective, will discuss ongoing developments in New England textiles since 1971, touching on sheep, scouring, dyeing, and – of course – manufacturing, and where we, and Harrisville Designs, may go from here.  

MILL TALK: Spinning as “Industry” presented by Zoë Lawson

If you would like to attend this Mill Talk, REGISTER HERE
Space is limited.
Proof of vaccination and face masks required.

A technical writer by day, Zoë Lawson is a spinster and public historian by vocation. She has been spinning for more than 35 years and has given numerous demonstrations at historic sites in the Boston area. An active 18th-century re-enactor, Lawson recently began to explore Medieval textile and fiber production. She enjoys experimenting with historical tools and methods and teaching spinning to anyone who wants to learn by doing.

“Spinning as ‘Industry’” is based on Lawson’s research on textiles and textile production prior to the Industrial Revolution. Even though mills as we think of them did not exist, the many stages of fabric production were organized and industrialized, within the parameters of the time period. Lawson will also discuss fiber preparation as well as the spinning process and will demonstrate spindle spinning, to remind us why the Industrial Revolution was so revolutionary.

MILL TALK: Cities at the Falls, with Patrick Malone, Professor Emeritus, Brown University

If you would like to attend this Mill Talk, REGISTER HERE
Space is limited.
Proof of vaccination and face masks required.

The story of power canals and waterpower at Waltham, Lowell, Lawrence, and other mill towns is one of innovative engineering and awe-inspiring construction. From above the Moody Street dam in Waltham, the Boston Manufacturing Company’s power canal ran parallel to the Charles River, allowing it to drive multiple mills in a line. Company founder Nathan Appleton first saw this concept in operation in New Lanark, Scotland, and helped bring it to the U.S. Learn how the flows of water, technology, and capital converged to power the American Industrial Revolution.

Much of his scholarship examines waterpower development on American rivers, but he has also examined tide mills and the use of steam engines for textile manufacturing.

MILL TALK: What Came Before, with weaver Marjie Thompson

If you would like to attend this Mill Talk, REGISTER HERE
Space is limited.
Proof of vaccination and face masks required.

Weaver Marjie Thompson of Maine has studied the handcraft of weaving as it was practiced over the millennia and around the globe. Here, she discusses New England and Mid-Atlantic weaving traditions before the era of water and steam powered textile mills. The fibers, fabrics, and patterns of labor represent a fascinating story of both continuity and change.

Mill Talk: ALMOST A RIOT—Irish Labor & Working Conditions on the Canals & Railroads presented by Kate Viens, PhD, Dir. of Education, Charles River Museum

IN-PERSON REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS FULL

This Mill Talk will also be livestreamed on our YouTube Channel

Proof of vaccination and face masks required.

It’s Francis Cabot Lowell’s birthday! Join us at the 1814 mill site where Lowell and his peers pioneered the integrated cotton manufacturing that served as the model for the Lowell, MA industry. Learn what it was like to build the canals and early railroads, and how Irish workers rose up to challenge low wages and unsafe working conditions. Their experiences gave these men and their families an enduring place in American life.

This MILL TALK is part of a regional series of events:
The Irish Canal Builders
Wednesday, March 9 – Sunday, April 24
at various museums

Our museum is pleased to participate in a weeks-long series of events to commemorate the April 6 bicentennial of the arrival of the first Irish in Lowell. Led by Hugh Cummiskey, this group of workers was responsible for digging the canals that would power the new mills, dramatically expanding of the textile industry launched here in Waltham.

Events include a talk by Brian Mitchell, author of The Paddy Camps: The Irish of Lowell, 1821-1861 (sponsored by St. Patrick’s Parish); a Middlesex Canal walk, bike tour, and discussion of the novel This Enchanted Land: Middlesex Village (at the Middlesex Canal Museum); and “Lowell Talks: The Irish Canal Builders,” a panel conversation including the museum’s Director of Education, Kate Viens (Lowell National Historical Park).

For details, visit the websites for St. Patrick’s Parish (lowellirish.weebly.com), the Middlesex Canal Museum (www.middlesexcanal.org), and Lowell National Historic Park (www.nps.gov/lowe/).