Episode 2: Sheep, wool, and spinning

Описание: During the first half of 2026 I will be undertaking a project to recreate a 13 star American Flag using the techniques available at the time of the American Revolution, while also investigating the history of the people who would be involved in these processes. This program is funded in part by a grant from the Belchertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Learn more at www.massculturalcouncil.org

In Episode 2, I will discuss how to turn sheep's wool into threads needed for the project, and investigate who would be raising sheep and spinning wool in the 18th century.
Timestamps:
0:00 -Opening credits
0:34 -Introduction
1:19 -Reflections
2:19 -On to the project
3:34 -Preparing wool for spinning
5:49 -Introducing the spinning wheel
7:37 -History of raising sheep in Massachusetts
11:54 -History of spinning in Massachusetts

References:
Opening credits music: “True to the Flag March” recorded 1922
https://www.loc.gov/item/00694039/


The Massachusetts Cultural Council
www.massculturalcouncil.org

"We The People" original art , soft pastel on paper, by Holly Field

“The Battle of Bunker Hill” painted in 1786 by John Trumbull
https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/ob...

The widow of an Indian chief, watching the arms of her deceas'd husband / painted by J. Wright ; engraved by J.R. Smith 1789.
https://lccn.loc.gov/96511978

The print “The Bostonian's paying the excise-man, or tarring & feathering”
https://lccn.loc.gov/2004673302

"A treatise on the propagation of sheep, the manufacture of wool, and the cultivation and manufacture of flax, with directions for making several utensils for the business. / By John Wily." 1765 In the digital collection Evans Early American Imprint Collection. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections
https://name.umdl.umich.edu/n08000.0001.001

The Journal of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (pg 63-65)
https://ia802808.us.archive.org/20/items/j...

Map of New England 1774
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3720.ar08000...

Portrait of Elizabeth Bowdoin
https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.p...

Letter from Mrs. Bowdoin to the safety committee June 4, 1775 (page 823)
https://ia802808.us.archive.org/20/items/j...

Naushaon Island
https://archive.org/stream/naushondatacoll...

Richardson Farm in Phillipston MA.
https://westernmassfibershed.org/directory...

Image of great wheel from Historic Deerfield
https://www.historic-deerfield.org/collect...

Image of flax wheel
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections...

“A History of Livestock Raising in the United States, 1607 - 1860:” by James Westfall Thompson, USDA November 1942. page 30
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/329492...

The Adverts250 Project
https://adverts250project.org/2016/03/30/m...

Tax records of Massachusetts, 1771
https://legacy.sites.fas.harvard.edu/~hsb4...

“Wheels, Looms, and the Gender Division of Labor in Eighteenth-Century New England” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Accessed from
https://files.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-conte...

Information on Col. Wallingford webpage
https://www.paulwentworthhouse.org/wp-cont... , https://www.paulwentworthhouse.org/cato-wa...

Diary of Matthew Patten Page 258
https://archive.org/details/diaryofmatthew...

Analysis of the Probate inventory of Moses Porter
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53c...

THE , NEW ENGLAND ,_ HISTORICAL J.L\ND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER JANUARY 1964 THE DIARY OF ELIZABETH (PORTER) PHELPS
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53c...