Spinning Wheel, Flax

Spinning Wheel, Flax

Spinning wheels
Flax processing
Textile tools
Domestic manufacturing

American Colonial flax spinning wheel of the New England type with simple turnings and a basket distaff held open by a horizontal disc. Constructed of oak, cherry, metal, and varnish. The distaff assembly is a replacement copied from a similar wheel at the Black House Museum in Ellsworth, Maine, and the varnish is likely not original. According to donor Blanche Eldridge, the wheel had remained in the Hutchings family of Penobscot, Maine, since 1764. Some components were missing when received and were later reconstructed.

ca. 1764

Cataloged by J. Eves

Held by Windham Textile and History Museum

Wood, metal, and varnish object, 40 × 21.5 × 32 inches

Mill Museum Collections
Accession number: 2017.01

Penobscot, Maine, United States
18th century
Preindustrial textile production