Adult Lecture Series: “Spinning Toward Revolution: Growing Flax & Processing Linen in New England, 1764-1775

Beginning in earnest in 1764, the importance of growing flax and processing linen in New England was one important element of revolutionary opposition to imported English textiles. Dr. Alexander will focus on women’s role in this resistance using newspapers, spinning matches, and extant garments. Following the talk, join us for an opportunity to handle flax straw, comb flax, and examine 18th and 19th century linen survivors. Celebrate #handsonhistory! Dr. Kimberly Alexander is on the faculty of the History Department at the University of New Hampshire, where she is Director of Museum Studies and Senior Lecturer. Alexander was a James Hayes Research Fellow for 2023- 2025, awarded by the UNH Center for the Humanities for her Flax-to-Linen Project. Before coming the UNH, she held curatorial positions at several New England museums, including the MIT Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum and Strawbery Banke. Her most recent books are Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), which won an Honor Award from Historic New England in 2019 and Fashioning the New England Family (Massachusetts Historical Society, 2021).