Back to the Work, our upcoming project with Lippitt House Museum, is sending us on a wild chase around Rhode Island, discovering the path of industrialization. Last weekend we took an incredible tour of Slater Mill in Pawtucket, which as their website says is "recognized internationally as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution." The tour was an in-depth look at the journey Samuel Slater took in his lifetime from frustrated English would-be entrepreneur to inventor of a factory system that changed the way our country and the world did basically everything.
What follows is a photo and video essay of the tour, led by the wonderful Dee Gustafson. By the end, Jed and I were pretty convinced that the Industrial Revolution didn't actually save any human energy. It just put the energy into different places.
