Industrial Revolution for Kids: The People and Technology That Changed the World, with 21 Activities
the phonograph 1879 College football debuts 1880 Thomas Edison develops an electric lightbulb John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil owns 90 percent of oil refineries in the United States 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act is passed 1884 First skyscraper is built in Chicago 1886 American Federation of Labor forms Haymarket Riot occurs 1889 Jane Addams establishes Hull House 1891 James Naismith invents the game of basketball 1892 Carnegie Steel Company is the largest US steel maker Homestead Strike occurs 1893 Economic depression Panic of 1893 hits Chicago hosts the World's Columbian Exposition Illinois governor pardons surviving Haymarket Riot participants 1894 Pullman Strike occurs 1897 Nation's first subway is completed in Boston 1899 First juvenile court system is established in Illinois Marshall Taylor wins the world one mile track cycling championship 1901 Pan American Exposition is held in Buffalo New York President William McKinley is assassinated
1903 Wright Brothers complete the first successful airplane flight 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition is held in St Louis Missouri 1905 Bessie Moore becomes the first woman to win the US Women's Singles Championship four times 1906 Upton Sinclair shocks readers with his book The Jungle Pure Food and Drug Act is enacted 1913 Henry Ford sets up the first assembly line to manufacture cars IS IDY
During the Industrial Revolution children like Lucy Larcom and this young cotton spinner worked long hours in textile mills Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints Photographs Division LC DIG nclc 05382
INTRODUCTION Lucy Larcom 11 Year Old Doffer CCT THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A PLEASURE to feel that I was not a trouble or burden or expense to anybody it really was not hard just to change the bobbins of the spinning frames every three quarters of an hour or so with half a dozen other little girls who were doing the same thing Lucy Larcom wrote those words about her first day as an 11 year old mill girl in Lowell Massachusetts in 1835 At eight years of age Lucy had moved with her mother and siblings from Beverly Massachusetts when her dad died Her mother ran a boardinghouse for women who worked at the Lawrence Manufacturing Company Lucy’s older sisters went to work in the mills and when the family needed more income Lucy began her job as a doffer She spent her days changing sewing bobbins on the water powered looms that spun thread and wove fabric Sometimes Lucy and the other girls explored the mill or played games among the machinery Although the work wasn't hard Lucy did work long hours 5 AM to 7 PM Lucy’s 1 in weekly wages helped the Larcoms keep a roof over their heads and food on their
