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NORWAY — Norway Memorial Library will host a talk by University of New England history professor Elizabeth DeWolfe via Zoom from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18. The talk was originally scheduled as a live talk in March, but was postponed.
The illustrated talk will explore the life of young women who worked in the mills, the opportunities mill work brought and the challenges of the difficult labor. It will also examine the “great turn-out,” the 1841 strike at the York Textile Mill in Saco, Maine’s first labor strike. It will look at the tense days that followed the strike and how it connected to national agitation for women’s rights, including suffrage. It’s a fascinating story of young women calling out men on broken promises, organizing to take collective action, and making a public display that anticipated by 170 years, the women’s marches of today.
DeWolfe is the author of “The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories,” about the short life and tragic death of a New England textile operative. Her research focuses on the stories of ordinary women whose lives would otherwise be forgotten and she brings her archives-based research into the classroom in courses on women’s history, historical research methods, and American culture.
To join the zoom meeting, visit networkmaine.zoom.us/j/84213405762. For more information, call 207-743-5309 ext. 1 or email norlib@norway.lib.me.us.
