416 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



then, as now, quite tenacious of her reputation as a christian, slie said her 

 name should never go to Congress. A facsimile of Mrs. Baker's first 

 bonnet is preserved in the rooms of the Rhode Island Society for the 

 Encouragement of Domestic Industry. 



After braiding was once commenced, it rapidly developed itself. Mrs. 

 Baker taught her friends, and they taught theirs. The ladies were 

 deligritcd that they had found an art by means of which they might I'urther 

 adorn themselves. Braiding was carried to the school-room; the meetings 

 of church sowing circles were transformed into braiding bees; ladies had 

 their little straw bundles with them almost every where, and straw plait- 

 ing became, as it were, the crochet work' of the day. The new invention 

 suffered the common lot of all improvements, and was not without its 

 enemies. By some it was thought to induce pride, and by others to be the 

 precursor of famine, because it occasioned the cutting of the straw before 

 the grain was ripe. Even as late as 1825, a Dr. Stanley wrote an "Essay 

 on the Manufacture of Straw Bonnets," in which he laid all kinds of evil 

 results at the door of straw braid, closing with soma " moral, political, 

 miscellaneous and concluding remarks." JJotwithstanding so great an 

 opposition to it, the majority of the ladies were in favor of the new art, 

 and, of course, straw braiding daily increased in importance *s a branch 

 of manufacture. At first Mrs. Baker was a monopolist in the business, 

 having orders sent her from fort}' miles away; afterward it became cus- 

 tomary for the straw braiders to take the bonnets they had made to the 

 village along with butter, eggs, etc., and exchange them for the various 

 articles to be obtained at a country store. As the busijiess increased, straw 

 bonnet merchants became an institution; later still "sewing halls" were 

 established, and these last have gradually grown into the large establish- 

 ments of to-day. 



Among all the "straw towns" of Massachusetts is a not very large yet 

 quite enterprising one, in which straw bonnets are made to a far greater 

 extent than in any other. Foxborough is a beautiful town, situated on the 

 highlands between Massachusetts and Narraganset bays, twenty-four miles 

 from Boston, and less than twenty miles from the original seatof the straw 

 bonnet manufacture. There were formerly several bonnet factories here, 

 but they,^are now all united in the "Union Straw Works," which were 

 established by the Messrs. 0. & E. P. Carpenter in 1853, and which consti- 

 tute the largest manufactory of the kind in either this country or Europe. 

 Some idea of its magnitude may be formed, when it is stated that the 

 number employed in it (exclusive of braiders), is more than 3,000 (800 

 within and 2,500 outside the factory building), and that the value of its 

 goods annually manufactured is two million dollars. Inasmuch as the 

 immense business done here requires that every operation should be strictly 

 systematized, we cannot better get an idea of the processes through which 

 the braid goes in order to become a bonnet than by tracing its progress 

 through this establishment. 



Consider the writer as your guide, if you please — for it would not be 

 easy to traverse this three and four story acre of rooms without one — and 

 he will endeavor to answer all questions. The numerous " No Admit- 

 tances" placed upon the doors of the establishment arc not in this case 



