Preserving and providing access to the special collections of the Old Slater Mill Association.
Celebrating a century of historic preservation in Rhode Island
Old Slater Mill Association (OSMA) was formed in 1921 to save the 1793 Old Slater Mill from demolition. Simon Willard Thayer, President of the Lebanon Knitting Company, purchased the mill in 1920, and held title until the OSMA could incorporate and accept responsibility for the building’s restoration.
Over a century, OSMA expanded the site to include the 1810 Wilkinson Mill, the 1758 Sylvanus Brown House, Hodgson-Rotary Park, and Slater Mill Park. In 2021, the Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark was accepted by the U.S. Government to formalize the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park. In 2024, Slater Mill Park was acquired by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency for use as a riverfront municipal park.
In 2023, OSMA established the Slater Industrial Archives to preserve and provide access to the vast special collections of the OSMA.
Archives of the association
OSMA operates the SLATER INDUSTRIAL ARCHIVES at 175 Main Street, downtown Pawtucket, RI. The function of the Archives is to preserve and provide access to the special collections of the Association. These include company records, photographs and slides, graphic and ephemera, maps and blueprints, historic boxed and rolled textile, books and pamphlets, and historic artifacts that tell the story of the foundations of the American Textile Industry.
Photographs reveal our humanity
Thousands of photographs and slides in the collections at the Slater Industrial Archives document the history of Pawtucket, its mills, it’s workers and its people, the historic landscape of the Blackstone Valley, and the impact the Old Slater Mill Association and museum had on the community over a century.
News clippings document our successes and milestones
Slater Industrial Archives holds scrapbooks that were kept by Old Slater Mill staff over a century, and document the activities and culture that revolved around the Old Slater Mill museum during its development and its early acquisition. They also focus on the development of tourism activities in RI that often highlighted the Old Slater Mill as one of RI’s greatest cultural assets. Also captured is the transformation of Pawtucket during the Slater Urban Renewal, and the many ways we celebrated the City of Pawtucket and its history.