Gamecock Weathervane, From the tower of Sutton Woolen Mill, North Andover, MA; 1800-50
date: label: Date made
content: Early 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: Weathervane, rooster. Gamecock Weathervane, First half 19th C From the tower of Sutton Woolen Mill, North Andover, MA. A hollow rooster perched on a ball atop a wooden pole. It was donated to ATHM by the Ames Textile Corporation, which was the eventual owner of Sutton’s Mills.
label: Description
content: Dimensions: 16.5” horizontal x 17” vertical x 20” depth
label: Description
content: The Massachusetts towns of Andover and nearby North Andover were one of the most important early centers of woolen production, and the industrialization of woolen yarn and cloth production, in the US. As early as 1814, small mills run by Abraham Marland and Nathaniel Stevens, and the Sutton brothers, William and Eben, were producing the staple fabric, wool flannel, that served the American populace for undergarments, shirts, baby clothes, and summer weight outer garments. The Tariff Act of 1828 looked favorably on the manufacturing of woolens, and companies such as the Sutton Woolen Mill, whose first mill building was built in 1823, were the centers of community growth as immigrants moved in to provide labor for the rapidly increasing demand for cloth production. As small and homely an object as this weathervane testifies to the evolving American economy of the first half of the nineteenth century, as independent artisans gave way to small, locally run factories like the Sutton Woolen Mill. The firm was known as Sutton’s Mills in the later 19th and early 20th century, after it had grown to include several buildings. The Sutton family was involved in business operations with the Stevens family and other Andover textile notables in running other woolen mills in and near Andover.
label: Description
content: ATHM Collection: Gift of Sutton Mills/Ames Textile Corp.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: American Textile History Museum Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.0232.02
label: catalog number
content: 2017.0232.02
label: accession number
content: 2017.0232
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Weathervane
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: copper; wood (overall material)