Eric Arnesen, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Chicago addresses the interplay between the African-American experience between Reconstruction and the Great Migration, the U.S. Constitution, and shifting democratic ideals.
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Michael Ray narrates a basic overview of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The presentation looks particularly at the union's founders and the government reaction to the growing strength of the IWW and includes clips of IWW propaganda.
Slater Mill is a museum complex dedicated to bringing one of the most exciting and significant periods of American history to life. Visitors to the site experience a time when an America of small farmers and craftsmen was poised to become the industrial leader of the world. In the Slater Mill itself, visitors are surrounded by vintage textile machinery bathed in the light of large windows. With expert commentary from costumed interpreters they can imagine the lives of the people—many of them children—who made the early mills come alive.
In the nearby Wilkinson Mill they can feel the throb of the great 16,000-pound mill wheel, a replica of the original wheel that harnessed the power of the Blackstone River to make the era's finest tools. Children get up close and personal with early production processes as they provide the power and operate miniature machinery in the Apprentice Alcove. In the Sylvanus Brown House they can look back to a time when spinning, weaving, cooking, and quilting were the stuff of everyday life.
The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, workshops, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).
The Museum tells the stories of 97 Orchard Street. Built on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1863, this tenement apartment building was home to nearly 7,000 working class immigrants. They faced challenges people understand today: making a new life, working for a better future, starting a family with limited means. In recognizing the importance of this seemingly ordinary building, the Tenement Museum has reimagined the role that museums can play in modern lives.
The museum offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and educational and recreational events.
Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding history of American enterprise. Hagley is the site of the gunpowder works founded by E. I. du Pont in 1802. This example of early American industry includes restored mills, a workers' community, and the ancestral home and gardens of the du Pont family.
The museum offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, research library access, demonstrations, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).
The Museum tells the story of the people who came from Europe to work in the anthracite mining and textiles industries. On a tour of the facility visitors will experience the lives of proud people who endured harsh working conditions yet carved out communities filled with tradition. The diverse collection highlights life in the mines, mills, and factories. Visitors are welcomed into the families' homes and neighborhoods with a moment of reflection in the kitchen, a visit to the pub, or a seat in a local church.
The museum offers exhibits, tours, trolley rides, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational events.
The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum promotes, honors, and celebrates the legacy of A. Philip Randolph and contributions made by African Americans to America's labor history. The Museum facility educates the public about the legacy and contributions of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The permanent collection displays exhibits which are pertinent to the study of the Pullman Historic District, the Great Migration, American labor history, A. Philip Randolph, the Pullman Porters, and the American Civil Rights Movement.
The museum offers exhibits.
The Society owns and maintains several historical sites, including the 1742 Square Tavern, the 1860 Bartram Bridge, and the Paper Mill House Museum. This building provided housing, beginning in the 1770s, for industrial workers who worked in the mills along Darby Creek. A large addition was added circa 1820. The older section was converted to a general store, circa 1845, to provide for the needs of the workers. Darby Creek runs through the property to the east of the building. The building, now owned by Newtown Township, has been restored to house permanent historical exhibits.
The society offers tours and recreational and educational events; the museum offers exhibits and tours.
A restored boarding house with two floors of interactive exhibits tells the tale of Lawrence, one of the nation's first planned industrial cities. Along with stories of Lawrence's mill workers and industry, the workers' role in the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike is relived with images and sounds. Visitors can walk along the esplanade of a 19th-century canal and through a park created within the walls of an industrial-era building.
The park offers exhibits, tours, a short film, and educational and recreational programs.
The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City was the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history until 9/11. David Von Drehle, the author of Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, discusses the fire in this segment from the NBC Today Show.
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