Willimantic Thread Factory

The massive building shown here, set within an otherwise rural landscape, was the Willimantic Thread Factory. It was part of a thriving textile industry that was established near Hartford, Connecticut, over the course of the nineteenth century.

Julian Alden Weir’s choice of a factory as his primary subject followed the lead of his French Impressionist mentors, who embraced industry as part of the modern landscape. Weir made no reference to the drudgery of mill labor and the rising worker unrest occurring at the time. Instead, the factory is a benign presence among the town’s bright white houses and church steeples.