Museum of Work and Culture

The Museum of Work and Culture is a labor history museum in Woonsocket that explores textile manufacturing and industrial life in the Blackstone River Valley. Its exhibits showcase mill machinery, work processes, and the homes and neighborhoods where factory workers lived.

The Rhode Island Historical Society founded this museum in 1997 to preserve the history of textile workers and industrial development in the region. It documents how factory work transformed the Blackstone River Valley and its communities.

French Canadian immigrants form the heart of the exhibits, showing how they migrated from Quebec to work in New England mills. Their presence shaped the social fabric and neighborhoods of this industrial region.

The museum features a Union Hall that can hold around 100 seated guests and is used for meetings and group events. Plan time to move through the exhibits at a comfortable pace and to explore the recreated spaces that show how workers lived.

Visitors can step into a recreated 1920s schoolroom and walk onto a triple-decker residential porch, spaces that were typical housing for mill workers. These reconstructions show the actual living and learning spaces that workers occupied during the industrial era.

Location: Woonsocket

Inception: 1997

Address: South Main Street

Phone: +14017699675

Website: http://rihs.org/museums/museum-of-work-and-culture

GPS coordinates: 41.99930,-71.51614

Latest update: December 12, 2025 14:22