The Lowell Offering was a monthly periodical collected contributed works of poetry and fiction by the female textile workers of the Lowell, Massachusetts textile mills of the early American industrial revolution. It began in 1840 and lasted until 1845.
Cover of the Lowell Offering, Series 1, No. 1
The Lowell mill girls were young female workers who came to work in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts during the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The workers initially recruited by the corporations were daughters of New England farmers, typically between the ages of 15 and 35. By 1840, at the height of the Textile Revolution, the Lowell textile mills had recruited over 8,000 workers, with women making up nearly three-quarters of the mill workforce.
Tintype of two young women in Lowell, Massachusetts (c. 1870)
Cover of The Lowell Offering, Series 1, Number 1 (1840)
1836 Constitution of the Lowell Factory Girls Association