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Historical Items

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Item 23525

Vacant Spinning Room in Pepperell Mills, Biddeford, 1910

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: 1910 Location: Biddeford Media: Photographic print

Item 23522

Spinning Room of Pepperell Mills, Biddeford, 1910

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: 1910 Location: Biddeford Media: Photographic print

Item 23523

Women Spinning at Pepperell Mills, Biddeford, 1910

Contributed by: McArthur Public Library Date: 1910 Location: Biddeford Media: Photographic print

Online Exhibits

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Exhibit

Pepperell Manufacturing fire insurance map, 1929

Biddeford, Saco and the Textile Industry

The largest textile factory in the country reached seven stories up on the banks of the Saco River in 1825, ushering in more than a century of making cloth in Biddeford and Saco. Along with the industry came larger populations and commercial, retail, social, and cultural growth.

Exhibit

Samplers: Learning to Sew

Settlers' clothing had to be durable and practical to hold up against hard work and winters. From the 1700s to the mid 1800s, the women of Maine learned to sew by making samplers.

Exhibit

Spinning room, Haskell Silk Company, Westbrook, 1907

Silk Manufacturing in Westbrook

Cultivation of silkworms and manufacture of silk thread was touted as a new agricultural boon for Maine in the early 19th century. However, only small-scale silk production followed. In 1874, the Haskell Silk Co. of Westbrook changed that, importing raw silk, and producing silk machine twist threat, then fabrics, until its demise in 1930.

Site Pages

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Site Page

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - Early Years on Mt. Desert Island

"… tending the animals, preserving the food, spinning and weaving the clothing, cooking and tending the children. The first physician came to Mt."