Lowell National Historical Park

Lowell National Historical Park is in the city of Lowell, in the state of Massachusetts. This is the place where the textile industry rose greatly in 19th-century America, and it is called the ‘cradle of America’s Industrial Revolution.’ As enormous textile mills powered by the force of the river’s water were built, it still preserves today the appearance of the time when America was changing from an agricultural nation into an industrial one.

On the reverse of the coin is depicted a mill girl working before a power loom (a loom driven by power), with the clock tower of the Boott Mills visible through the window. It is a scene that holds together the figure of a girl weaving thread inside the factory and, beyond it, the factory building standing tall.

The ‘mill girl’ in this picture refers to the young women workers who, at that time, left the countryside and came to work at the factories. They were responsible for the labor of America’s early industrialization, and they were also people who, amid harsh working conditions, began to raise their own voices. The clock tower outside the window symbolizes a new way of life of factory labor that ran according to a fixed timetable.

Lowell National Historical Park was designated a national historical park on June 5, 1978, and it conveys that era by preserving the factory buildings, canals, and machines. This coin, one of the ‘America the Beautiful’ series, honors not only nature but also the industrial history that America has traveled.

When you look at the figure of this girl held on a single coin, you naturally come to recall the fact that what made today’s America was not only great figures but also the countless workers who labored without a name.