The old Anaconda Copper Company smelter stack, completed in 1919, is one of the tallest free-standing brick structures in the world at 585 feet. The inside diameter is 75 feet at bottom, tapering to 60 feet at the top. In comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall. The stack dominates the landscape like the Company once dominated the area's economic life. Since the smelter closed in 1980, the stack has become a symbol of the challenges that face communities dependent on finite resources.
The site is open to the public.
Website does not specify any interpretive services beyond signage available at the site.
Today, the Southern New England Chapter (SNEC) of the Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA) keeps the industrial legacy of this region alive. Through its chapter newsletter, annual conference on New England industrial archeology and exclusive tours of industrial sites—most of them active, working factories otherwise inaccessible to the general public—the Society explores the places, lives, and ideas of the region's industrial heritage.
General interest organization for adults; does not seem to be focused on youth or school education.
The America's Industrial Revolution workshop at the Henry Ford will draw together K12 educators with leading humanities scholars and museum staff for unique enrichment exercises centered on the impact of industrialization. The workshop is designed to encourage participant curiosity and deepen knowledge on the subject, engage participants with innovative methods of transmitting enthusiasm and content to students, and empower participants to use cultural resources to enliven the teaching and learning of history. Participants will explore the diverse ways that Americans experienced social change between the 1760s and the 1920s through lecture/discussions and by visiting with museum curators at 12 of the 80 historic sites interpreted in Greenfield Village, including Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, Hermitage Plantation Slave Quarters, 1760s Daggett Farm, 1880s Firestone Farm, a railroad roundhouse, and a 19th-century grist mill. In addition, time is set aside each day for exploration of archival sources in the Benson Ford Research Center and to work on individual lesson plans for implementation back home. The week's activities will culminate with a visit to a related National Historic Landmark, the Ford Motor Company's Rouge Industrial Complex.
This workshop entails approximately 40 hours of direct instruction and participation. Michigan SB-CEUs will be available, pending approval from the Michigan State Board of Education, for a nominal fee of $10. The workshop staff will work with participants to provide the documentation needed to apply for CEUs from their home districts or states. Undergraduate or graduate credit is available for this workshop through the University of Michigan–Dearborn.
This iCue Mini-Documentary presents the textile industry in Lowell, MA, as representative of the transition of American girls from the farms to the factories.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the African-American push for workplace equality as the economy changed after World War II. Their efforts in the post-war years would spark the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces indentured servitude, which plantation owners offered laborers in order to attract them to the colonies. In exchange for travel expenses, these laborers were expected to work the land for several years.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the invention of the harvesting machine by Cyrus McCormick, which revolutionized wheat production and freed up the American workforce.
This workshop combines scholarly presentations with on-site investigations of the canals, mills, worker housing, and exhibits of Lowell National Historical Park and of other sites in Lowell's historic district. Sessions draw on scholarly monographs, primary sources (such as "mill girl" letters), and works of literature and historical fiction. The workshop intersperses hands-on activities with lecture-discussions and field investigations. In addition to Lowell's landmark resources, the workshop takes full advantage of Old Sturbridge Village exhibits and scholars to explore pre-industrial rural life and draw on the expertise of scholars and presenters at Walden Pond and Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts, to explore how prominent authors addressed the question of industrialization's effect on American life, values, and the environment.
The Tsongas Industrial History Center will provide participants a certificate for up to 40 professional development points (CEUs/PDPs) for the face-to-face portion of the workshop and up to 40 additional points if pre/post-workshop assignments are completed, including the submission of a copy of a curriculum portfolio of at least five class periods of instruction. At additional cost, teachers wishing graduate credit may earn up to three graduate credits for the workshop through the UMass Lowell Graduate School of Education.