Catalogue Entry

Lane's prints of Lowell show the city at a period of rapid growth. The textile manufacting industry had been established in Lowell with the first mill (which later became the Middlesex Mill) in 1813. In 1826 the city had 2,500 inhabitants, by 1836 there were 17,633, and by 1845 nearly 30,000. In response to this population growth, the first regular stagecoach route was established in 1822, and the Boston-Lowell Railroad line was completed in 1835. In 1842 Charles Dickens stopped in Lowell on his American tour and wrote about it in his "American Notes." By 1843 there were 33 mills in Lowell, employing 6295 women, 2345 men, and producing 1,425,800 yards of cotton cloth per week.

The American Antiquarian Society has an excellent online exhibition about the mill girls and their representation in nineteenth-century print.

References:

Arthur L. Eno, Cotton Was King: A History of Lowell, Massachusetts (Somersworth, NH: New Hampshire Publishing Co., 1976), see Appendix B.

Rev. Henry A. Miles, Lowell: As it Was, and As It Is (Lowell, MA: Powers and Bagley, 1845).

English-born Thomas Moore was the successor to William S. Pendleton's lithography shop in 1836. Prior to this changing of hands, Moore worked in Pendleton's shop for years as a clerk and bookkeeper. During his four years (1836-40) at Pendleton's 204 Washington Street address, he had under his employ many famous artists, including F.H. Lane, Robert Cooke, and Benjamin Champney. Moore's Lithography printed the usual variety of work, including portraits, town views, public institutions, maps, plans, certificates, cards, etc. In 1840, Moore sold his Boston shop to B. W. Thayer, ending his lithographic career in Boston.

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825-1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback.

E. A. Rice and Co. was a bookseller and stationer in Lowell, Massachusetts. City directories of the period give the business address as 95 Merrimack Street, where he sold books, drugs, and medicines before 1845, after which the business moved to 144 Merrimack Street. 

Reference:

Oliver March, Turner's Directory and Almanac (Lowell, MA: Powers & Bagley, 1842).