Monadnock Moment No. 188

Era 4: Expansion and Reform - 1800 to 1860

"The Lowell Offering"

Harriet Parley was born in about 1815 in the town of Claremont, then still a part of Cheshire County. She was the sixth child of Stephen Parley, Claremont's congregational minister. At age fourteen Harriet began to earn her own living by weaving palm-leaf hats and sewing. She was taught French, drawing and other subjects so that she might become a teacher, a profession which her family and friends strongly urged her to enter. Harriet despised teaching, however, and left home to avoid that work.

She went to Lowell, Massachusetts, where she took a job as one of the thousands of girls working in the large factories. Early in 1841 Harriet became involved with a new magazine called "The Lowell Offering." After her twelve hour day in the factory she would return to her boarding house and write articles for the magazine. In fact, all of the writers for the magazine were female mill workers. Harriet was asked to become editor of the publication and soon purchased the magazine. As proprietor she personally solicited articles, edited, folded, cut and bound a circulation of 4,000 issues each month.

The magazine survived for only ten years, but became famous across the country and throughout Europe during that time. The pioneering concept of involving mill girls in both the artistic and business aspects of the magazine's production was seen as a triumph for women and for the new age of industrialization. Claremont native Harriet Parley earned a place in several national biographical dictionaries because of her effort to enlighten and improve the lives of thousands of mid nineteenth century mill girls.