Making Money, Destroying Neighborhoods

Our exhibit on the living conditions during the Industrial Revolution.

As part of the Industrial Revolution unit, our class recently made a “museum” of sorts. In groups, we made museum exhibits, each with a specific theme that related to the revolution in some way. The themes of the exhibits came from different documents and pictures that were given to each group to be analyzed. The analysis process was integral in creating the exhibit, due to the fact that it was during this step that we chose what information was truly necessary and needed to be conveyed to the viewer. It was also during this step that the theme of our exhibit began to become more apparent. Our exhibit (shown above) shows the effects that the Industrial Revolution had on the people and their living conditions. The documents and pictures show that people lived in poverty due to low wages and high cost of living, while pieces of nature, such as the Thames River, were being polluted by the steam engines that were heavily prominent during that time. Our title, “Making Money, Destroying Neighborhoods” came from the obsession with money during the Industrial Revolution, which came with poverty in the streets and pollution in the surrounding nature. When viewers see our exhibit, I hope they walk away knowing that the Industrial Revolution may have had positive effects on the economy, but that it also had many negative effects on the people that had to live through it.

In the museum, there were four other exhibits. One, about weaving, showed the various inventions that helped to improve the weaving process and make it more efficient. Also, it was shown that weaving was the most appealing job for children and women. Another, on transportation, showed how a steam engine was composed and what materials it ran on. Many positive effects, such as the fact that it was easier to get from place to place, were shown. An exhibit on child labor showed just how young children began working during this period, and about 50% began working before age 10. The exhibit also showed the poor conditions that the children had to work in. The last exhibit, on slavery, showed that slaves led to higher production of cotton, which led to more income. If slaves had not been employed, the amount of money being made would have been considerably lower.