Two quotes from female textile mill workers in Maine
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine, 1888
Maine State Library
In 1888, the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics asked Bangor resident Flora Haines to tour the state and write a report about the conditions of working women. Flora visited textile mills, fish canneries, and factories that made cigars and shoes.
During her visits, she spoke to the workers and asked them questions about their jobs and their lives. She gave out blank forms for them to fill in and used their answers to write the report.
The report contains information on how much workers were paid, how much money they could save, if they lived at home or rented, and what their work was like. The women could comment anonymously about their jobs. Flora received 222 forms back from the women she visited.
Flora told one newspaper that the factory owners were, ‘extremely polite to me, giving me the privilege of talking to the women when at their work as much as I chose.’
Source 2 - Image
Source 2 - Artifact
Ship Carpenters’ Union Flag
1917-1930
Maine State Museum 2015.30.4
Union flags were made to show workers’ pride in their jobs. This one was made between 1917 and 1930.
This is a blue silk banner for the Ship Carpenter’s Union in Portland, Maine. Ship carpenters had the job of building ships! Maine used to have a big ship building industry, especially in coastal towns.
It shows symbols of the ship building trade, including an anchor, a builder’s square, and a compass. The arm and hammer symbolize industry.
You might see the number 1953 on the banner – it’s not a date, it’s the number of the union.
Source 3 - Image
Source 3 - Image
Textile Mill Strike
September 11, 1934
Photograph from the Kennebec Journal
Maine State Museum 98.78.1670
This photo shows a large group of men and women protesting in front of Edwards Mill in Augusta, Maine. They are workers on strike.
In 1934, thousands of textile workers across America went on strike. People go on strike when the company they work for treats them unfairly.
They stop working until the company agrees to make a change – maybe giving workers more money, shorter hours, safer working conditions, or other improvements to their jobs. The 1934 textile strike was mostly unsuccessful for workers, especially in the South.
Edwards Mill was a textile mill. The man holding a sign in the photo is wearing a “UTW” armband, which stands for the “United Textile Workers” union.
His sign says, “The strike is on/ Don’t scab/ It’s now or never.” A “scab” is someone who keeps going to work instead of striking.
If you look very closely, you can see police officers and children in the photo.
Source 4 - Image
Source 4 - Image
Kids Working in a Textile Mill
1900-1905
Photograph from the Kennebec Journal
Maine State Museum 86.95.1
This photograph shows a group of workers at the Cabot Mill in Brunswick, Maine. The Cabot Mill was a cotton textile mill, which is why you can see white cotton thread on the machines in the photo.
There is a group of male and female children and teenagers in the photo. They all work at the mill. Children did many important jobs in textile mills, though the work was hard and sometimes dangerous.
The one adult in the photo is the foreman, Joseph Eugene Labbe. He immigrated from Quebec, Canada in 1887. He came to Maine with his two younger brothers, who only spoke French. Most of the children in this photo are probably also Franco-Americans.
Fun fact – about 20 years before this photo was taken, children in the Cabot Mill went on strike. Eight-year-old workers found out that kids the same age were making a penny more at a textile mill in Lewiston. At the Cabot Mill in 1881, men earned $1.42 a day, women earned 90 cents a day, and children only got $1.00 for a whole week of work.
The children’s strike inspired the adults to strike, and the whole mill shut down. The strike succeeded, and workers got more money.
Maine Industry Primary Source Sets developed in collaboration between the Maine State Archives, Maine State Library, and Maine State Museum.
