The Mills Along the Blackstone

The Museum of Work and Culture’s Mills Along the Blackstone: Locally Made, Internationally Known, is an interactive multimedia exhibit and digital archive where visitors can discover the significance of Woonsocket’s mills and how they shaped the fabric of the community. Visitors can learn how the power of the Blackstone River influenced the development of the city and witness Woonsocket’s physical transformation. 

The exhibit includes three main components:

The entry point to the exhibit introduces visitors to the power of the Blackstone River and includes video screens of Woonsocket Falls, providing striking visual and audio elements to underscore the content of panels detailing how it served as the driving force behind America’s Industrial Revolution. 

Watch on the screen and on the table, 3D renditions of five different Woonsocket Mills: the Social Mill, the French Worsted, the Brickle Mill, the Barnai Worsted (now Museum of Work and Culture) and the La Fayette Worsted. 

At the heart of the exhibit space is an interactive touch table that allows visitors to travel through time as they trace the evolution of the textile industry from its humble beginnings of the Social Mill to the city where “Cotton Mania” reached epidemic proportions before the decline of manufacturing in the mid to late 20th century. In each period the visitor will be given the opportunity to “visit” highlighted mill sites, learning the details of their production and workforce through both distilled histories as well as photographs. The table also has the advantage of being expandable, with information about additional mills being able to be added in the future, as well as information about local businesses, houses of worship, schools, and other establishments.

The Mill Memory Bank, preserves the legacy of those who made our state’s proud manufacturing history possible. As a digital registry of profiles of former mill workers, the Memory Bank allows families and friends to permanently honor their loved ones’ contributions, with each profile including photographs, details of work history (such as occupation, location, and years worked), ethnic background, and biographical anecdotes. Docents should invite visitors to share their loved ones stories by registering in the MMB. Forms are available and it is free to register.