Samuel Slater

Vintage carding machine by Samuel Slater, 1790, vintage silver print glossy 8 x 10 photograph. Credited to the Smithsonian Institution.

Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835), early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System." In the UK, he was called "Slater the Traitor" because he brought British textile technology to America, modifying it for United States use. He learned textile machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry, then immigrating to the United States at the age of 21. He designed the first textile mills in the US and later went into business for himself, developing a family business with his sons. A wealthy man, he eventually owned thirteen spinning mills and had developed tenant farms and company towns around his textile mills, such as Slatersville, Rhode Island.

Printed in the second half of the 20th century as part of the American Heritage Publishing Archive.

Verso bears original handwritten ID notations and publicity snipe. In very good condition.

Provenance: From the American Heritage Publishing Archives.