Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. Volume 3: The Boarding House System as a Way of Life

摘要

In this, the third and final volume of reports on the investigations of the Boott Cotton Mills operation in Lowell, the focal point of the efforts is the mill operatives and the boardinghouses in which they lived. With the boardinghouses now gone and the examination of interior space limited to documentary research, the report endeavored to probe the proxemics of the workers' daily lives by turning attention to the rear yards. These small but intensively used areas served the needs of mill workers and boardinghouse keepers alike. Here was a truly urban space where work and leisure activities merged to create a material record that is a select yet fitting legacy for a laboring people. Much like the prankster's jar of peanuts that explodes in the hands of the unsuspecting dupe, the boardinghouse yards have contained innumerable surprises.