Wheel, Flax Spinning

Object/Artifact

-

Wayland Museum

Name/Title

Wheel, Flax Spinning

Entry/Object ID

1967.2

Description

Wooden flax spinning wheel

Acquisition

Accession

1967.2

Source or Donor

Kingsbury, Mr. & Mrs. Bruce

Acquisition Method

Gift

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Wheel, Spinning

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Textile Manufacturing Equipment

Nomenclature Class

Textileworking T&E

Nomenclature Category

Category 04: Tools & Equipment for Materials

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

Before cloth could be woven, fiber had to be spun. Flax wheels like this one turned raw plant material into linen thread, work done largely by women. In colonial New England, homespun cloth became a political act: a refusal to buy British goods, a declaration of self-sufficiency. What kinds of work get called revolutionary, and what kinds get called ordinary?