Indenture of apprenticeship, Samuel Slater to Jedediah Strutt
notes: label: Description
content: This original document is Samuel Slater's indenture of apprenticeship to Jedediah Strutt, dated January 8, 1783. The document is written in ink on laid paper and includes a wax seal.
label: Description
content: In 1771 Jedediah Strutt established a spinning factory in Nottingham, England with Richard Arkwright. Arkwright's spinning frame, which used water power, fundamentally altered the capabilities of British cotton production by allowing a single spinner to fill many bobbins with spun yarn strong enough to be used as warp. British restrictions on the export of materials used to make cloth slowed the development of spinning and weaving mills in its colonies. Samuel Slater arrived in New England six years after he apprenticed with Strutt. He went to work for the Providence, Rhode Island-based firm of Almy and Brown, debuting his version of Arkwright's frame in 1791 and opening his own mill two years later, while simultaneously working for Almy & Brown. Slater's version of Arkwright's frame helped jump-start colonial cotton cloth production and is often cited as fundamental to the nascent Industrial Revolution.
label: Description
content: Slater's original spinning frame is also in the National Museum of American History, TE.T11197.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. Georgia Slater Bartlett and Miss Lydia R. Slater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T13660.00B
label: catalog number
content: T13660.00B
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Indenture, Slater
label: Object Name
content: Indenture
label: Object Name
content: Document
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 8 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 21.59 cm