Who (who were the industry's founders, successors, workers?)
Christopher Clark, The Communitarian Moment: the radical challenge of the Northampton Association, Cornell University Press, 1995
Oral history, interviews with former Northampton silk workers, by Professor Kiki Smith and students
Skinner's Silks and Satins: their romantic story, a booklet produced by William Skinner & Sons, 1936
The Corticelli Kitten (a company newsletter for employees, published regularly for some years)
Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: a life, a symbol, W. W. Norton, 1996
Charles Sheffield, The History of Florence, Massachusetts, including a Complete Account of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, Florence, Massachusetts: by the Editor, 1895. Reprinted by the Book Committee of the Florence Civic and Business Association.
Alfred Lilly, The Silk Industry of the United States, New York: Jenkins and THomas, Printers, 1882; Forbes Library
Ruth Houghton, "The silk industry in Northampton", Smith College honors thesis, 1929 (in the Sophia Smith Collection in Nielson Library)
Agnes Hannay, "A Chronicle of Industry on the Mill River, Smith College Studies in History , 1935-36
Alice Eaton McBee, "From Utopia to Florence: the story of a Transcendental community in Northampton, Mass, 1840-1952", Smith College Studies in History , 1947
L. P. Brockett, The Silk Industry in America, published by the Silk Association of America for the Centennial Exposition, 1876
What did the silk companies make? Who bought their products?
Who used them?
Artifacts at the Florence Civic Center, Historic Northampton, and Forbes Library
The Rose & Trumbull Co., American Silk Industry, The Silk Association of America, 1893
Peter Weis and Ann Feitelson, "The Silk Industry in Florence, Massachusetts", Piecework, January-February 1999, pp. 36-44.
How is silk made? Techniques and technology.
Samuel Whitmarsh, Eight Years Experience in the culture of the Mulberry Tree and the case of the Silk Worm, Northampton, 1839; see also other sericulture manuals of the time (by Cobb, d'Homergue, etc)
Edwin Elmer, "A Lady of Baptist Corner", painting, Smith College Museum of Art; the machine shown here is in the museum of the Westfield library (Westfield Athenaeum)
Silk reeling machine and Jacquard loom, reconstructed by Smith College students, 1998-99
The Silk Grower and Farmer's Manual, 1831 - 1838; continued as Journal of the American Silk Society and Rural Economist, 1839 - 41
Silk: its origin, culture, and manufacture, The Corticelli Silk Company, 1911
Charles Dean, The Mills of Mill River, unpublished manuscript, 1935 (Forbes Library)
Ads for silk machinery in Rose&Trumbull (see above) and Brockett (see below)
When (what contemporary records are available?)
The Daily Hampshire Gazette, 1832 - 1932
Hampshire Country and Franklin County Court Records, Northampton
Records of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, The American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA
The Stetson family letters, to be published
Where (did all this take place?)
Extant mill buildings and former mill sites, and the homes of the industry's founders, in Florence, Northampton, Williamsburg, and Leeds (a bicycle tour guidebook will be ready by the fall of 2002)
Why (did the silk industry thrive but later fail? and why does it matter? economics, material culture, the role of the industry in the development of Northampton , etc)
First Annual Report of the New England Silk Convention, Northampton, September 28, 1842
Christopher Clark, The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860, Cornell University Press, 1992 (paperback reprint edition)
Agnes Hannay, A Chronicle of Industry along the Mill River, Smith College Studies in History, 1935 (see especially the section "The establishment of the silk industry").
L. P. Brockett, The Silk Industry in America: a history, The Silk Association of America,1876.
Corticelli company pattern books
Giovanni Federico, An Economic History of the Silk Industry, 1830-1930, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Grace Hutchins, Labor and Silk, New York: International Publishers, 1929
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