Laborers and Producers

This hand loom for making small strips of cloth called tape belonged to Maria Nolt of West Hempfield Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Born Maria Kauffman in 1735, she had already married Jonas Nolt by the time this loom was made and dated 1768. It is inscribed with her name.

Women contributed to the boycott of British goods by making items like linen tape.

Peter Wentz Farmstead. County of Montgomery, Pennsylvania

This hand loom for making small strips of cloth called tape belonged to Maria Nolt of West Hempfield Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Born Maria Kauffman in 1735, she had already married Jonas Nolt by the time this loom was made and dated 1768. It is inscribed with her name.

Women contributed to the boycott of British goods by making items like linen tape.

Peter Wentz Farmstead. County of Montgomery, Pennsylvania

This hand loom for making small strips of cloth called tape belonged to Maria Nolt of West Hempfield Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Born Maria Kauffman in 1735, she had already married Jonas Nolt by the time this loom was made and dated 1768. It is inscribed with her name.

Women contributed to the boycott of British goods by making items like linen tape.

Peter Wentz Farmstead. County of Montgomery, Pennsylvania

Once the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, printings quickly spread through the newly declared United States. This printing was published by Baltimore’s postmaster and printer, Mary Katharine Goddard, in January 1777. Goddard’s printing was the first to include the names of the signers of the document. Her own name, as printer, also appears at the bottom of the page.

Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.