Sarah Bagley Thread Holder

Sarah Bagley, whose name was honored by the production of this 4 ½” long tin thread holder, was the founder of the Lowell (Massachusetts) Labor Reform Movement, after having moved to that city in 1837 to work as a weaver at the Hamilton Manufacturing Company. She left Lowell in 1848 to care for her father, who had come down with typhus, and was never to be heard from again. Her activism on behalf of women workers obviously preceded the formal establishment of the Women’s Rights movement in Seneca Falls in 1848, but Sarah Bagley was still regarded as a major early pioneer by suffragists in that state.

The thread holder was produced by the “Sarah’s Suffrage Victory Campaign” of Boston to raise money for expenses involved in the 1915 referendum. To encourage distribution, suffrage headquarters in Boston offered $500 in prize money to be distributed among the 17 women who had achieved the most in terms of sales of the product. The remainder of the profits were to be divided evenly between state and local Suffrage League headquarters. The top of the holder was also issued independently as a badge.