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Episode 085-July 1, 2019
In this episode, Anne Conway, director of the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, takes you through a virtual tour of the first floor of the museum. Here we’ll immerse ourselves in the lives of many of our immigrant ancestors who came to New England to work in the mills. In part 1, we’ll see exhibits representing the farm they left behind in Quebec, religious life, work in the textile mill, and the first credit union of Rhode Island. In Part 2 next month, you will tour the exhibits on the second floor.
Museum of Work & Culture-Part 1
The Museum of Work & Culture exists through the efforts of many hard-working people. It is managed by the Rhode Island Historical Society and located in an old mill building owned by the city of Woonsocket. The museum tells the broad story of immigration from about 1875 to the 1930s. Although the focus is the French-Canadian population and La Survivance (”survival”: the French-Canadians’ efforts to preserve their culture, faith, and language in their new country), the story would be recognized by immigrants from many different ethnic groups.
The museum’s artifacts came from various members of the population who donated items. Others were purchased, some from closing mills. Most of these artifacts have been digitized and can be found on the website of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Virtual tour
We are now going to take you on a journey through the exhibits on the first floor of the museum.
The first exhibit you come to upon entering the museum is the Rhode Island Merci Boxcar. After World War II, the French sent a boxcar filled with gifts as thanks to all those who aided France after the war.
Next we come to a scene of the LaTraverse family’s farm in Quebec. Here you’ll learn what life was like on the farm and why the family might make a move to a strange land. Are you old enough to know what a wringer is?
When moving from Quebec to the US, the French-Canadian’s time went from being regulated by the seasons to being regulated by the punch clock. At the clock exhibit, you can read a letter sent by an immigrant to his brother back in Quebec.
Next comes the major influence in the immigrants’ lives, the church. The exhibit consists of a representation of the facade and interior of Precious Blood Church, the first French-Canadian church built in Woonsocket. Here you will also see a beautiful mosaic made in France depicting a fallen soldier during World War I. The inscriptions read as follows (translation from the French):
To the heroes of the Great War who fell on the field of honor;
officers, priests, soldiers, known and unknown.
Our Lady of Victories in recognition dedicates this monument
(a gift from a French soul) in eternal remembrance.
Day to day life consisted of working long days in a very loud and dusty textile mill, the next exhibit along the tour. You can view the family working in the mill and see the donated tools of a loom fixer.
The Treasury of Life exhibit looks like a safety deposit box room at a local bank. Here, many French-Canadians have purchased boxes to hold their family’s momentoes. It also tells the story of the first credit union in Rhode Island.
French-Canadian News
The French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan
July 21, noon: the Annual Novena Mass at Ste. Anne du Détroit. Members of the FCHSM will participate in the mass.
The Minnesota Genealogical Society’s Canadian Interest Group
July 20, 10-1 at the William J. Hoffman Library Research Center in Mendota Heights: Canadian Morning
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