April 2022: Photograph of a Brick Maker

This undated photograph shows a man standing on a brick cart in front of an impressive pile of bricks. The worker puffs a cigarette while laboring in the Dennis Brickyard. On his hands, you can see large white gloves. Without these special gloves, the skin on a...

March 2022: Photograph of Female Workers

Happy Women’s History Month. Female weavers played a huge part in the successful operation of the Bates Mills, working to create bedspreads, sheets, and other beautiful textile pieces. This month, we are highlighting a photograph circa 1910 of three female employees....

February 2022: Whitin-Schweiter Automatic Filling Winder

This automatic filling winder made sure that bobbins were fully wound with yarn in preparation for weaving on a jacquard loom. Work on this machine involved placing cones of yarn on reels or spindles of the machine; threading yarn through the various guides;...

January 2022: Piano Punching Machine

The creation of Jacquard cards to control the weave sequence on a textile loom was a multi-step process. A crucial piece of this process involved the use of the Piano Punching Machine, which is our object of the month. It encoded the fabric design into stacks of cards...