Spinning Bee Tableau in Lexington, 31 Aug.

On Tuesday, 31 August, LexSeeHer, an organization dedicated to recognizing women’s history in Lexington, will gather at the site of a spinning bee in 1769.

According to a report from Lexington in the Boston Gazette, on 31 August of that year:

Very early in the Morning, the young Ladies of this Town, to the Number of 45, assembled at the House of Mr. Daniel Harrington, with their Spinning-Wheels, where they spent the Day in the most pleasing Satisfaction: And at Night presented Mrs. Harrington, with the Spinning of 602 Knots of Linnen, and 546 Knots of Cotton.

Daniel Harrington’s wife Anna, who no doubt did much of the organizational work for this event, was from the Munroe family. There were lots of Harringtons and Munroes in Lexington, not to mention their like-minded neighbors.

Such spinning bees were a way for colonial women to support the manufacture of cloth in the province, thus aiding the non-importation strategy to end the Townshend duties. They demonstrated the broad popular base of that protest movement and, given women’s supposed freedom from profit-seeking and politics, lent a moral air.

Even 1,148 knots of yarn wouldn’t make a lot of cloth, and the thread these busy amateurs made probably wasn’t as fine as what professionals in Britain produced. But symbolically such public actions were important. This gathering took place next to Lexington’s common, so it was a visible event, and the newspaper report amplified the news.

LexSeeHer plans to stage “a tableau representing these brave, industrious women.” Eventually they hope to sponsor a monument dedicated to Lexington women's history nearby.

This gathering is scheduled for Tuesday, 31 August, at 6:00 P.M. at 3 Harrington Road.