The Merrimack Valley Textile Museum

The purpose of the Merrimack Valley Textile Museum (North Andover, Mass.) is to collect, exhibit, and study material related to the history of American textile manufacturing. Like many other history museums, it houses a significant collection of materials with which scholars may study part of the past. The idea for the museum originated with a woman who wanted a gallery in which to display her father's collection of looms, spinning wheels, and other hand-operated textile equipment. The North Andover (Massachusetts) Historical Society could not accommodate her collection without making major changes. Consequently, in the summer of 1959 the society engaged Bruce Sinclair, an exceptionally able graduate of the Hagley Museum Fellowship Program in American History and Historical Museum Training. When Sinclair resigned in 1964 to accept an NDEA Fellowship to pursue studies for his Ph.D. at Case Institute of Technology, he left behind a new corporation in a $300,000 building, an exhibit on technology unequaled in its general excellence, and a promising library devoted to textile history. Space inside the red brick building-which is squeezed against a hillside facing the town common-is divided between the collections of the curator and the librarian. A docent guides visitors, including secondary school and college students, through the galleries. The docent also demonstrates the techniques of preand postindustrial cloth making. The bulk of the Curator's Study Collection is not in the public galleries but is made available for scholars. His collection includes hand

Archaeology · Geography · Textile · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies