Country Girls in the Big City |Eliza Adams and her sisters,|
Forest Hill Cemetery, Derry, New Hampshire |The Eliza Adams
Exhibit at the| Boarding House Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts
Inside the boarding house there was an interactive exhibit
showing some of the girls who worked in the textile mills,
including some personal items, photographs and silhouettes. Of
all the exhibits, the one I remember most was Eliza Adams from
Derry. Her trunk, letters and photograph were behind glass, but
a recorded voice of an actress read her letters aloud. It was
poignant, and even the little girls were amazed that a girl from
Derry lived and worked in those big factories weaving cloth.
Eliza is one of the most famous of the Lowell mill girls, like
Lucy Larcom, because her letters to her mother have survived
through time. Tens of thousands of girls served in Lowell and
other mill cities, but they remain silent witnesses to history.
Very few mill girls ever left letters or journals. Through Eliza
we learn her daily routine, her