(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
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This Allen sisters [Frances and Mary Allen (1858-1941)] photograph shows the textile tools common to every household in the 17th to 19th centuries. By the time Memorial Hall Museum opened in 1880 few women and girls made cloth at home. Most people bought cloth that had been made in factories in Europe or America. The old-fashioned spinning wheels, and other tools of the women of the nation, could then be given to museums.