Sunday, June 08, 2014

Velvet Mills Bleg

Here's a bit of lazy man's research: can anybody direct me to some good granular stuff about the velvet mills of Rhode Island (and bits of Connecticut) in the late 19th Century? I know there's a bit of velvet mills kitsch; even an item in the National Register of Historic Places. But so far I haven't been able to drill down and figure out how it really worked. Was it high-skill, low skill? Did they import workers from Europe? Were there industrial health issues? Love to know anything you can offer.

Afterthought:  And wouldn't it be a great name for a stripper?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/29/nyregion/high-costs-are-blamed-for-the-loss-of-a-mill.html

http://www.thevelvetmill.com/history.html