Best Foot Forward: The Shoe Industry in Massachusetts

In the early 1800s, Massachusetts found itself at the heart of the nation’s shoemaking industry by attracting and retaining skilled shoemakers and shoe machinery engineers. Only when the technology invented by Massachusetts shoemakers became available beyond the state did the industry’s market expand throughout the country. Even with the spread of industrialization, Massachusetts remained the largest producer of shoes in the United States through World War I, responsible for nearly forty percent of America’s shoes and home to an equal percentage of its shoemakers. Anna Fahey-Flynn is the Collaborative Library Services Manager at the Boston Public Library and curator of the Digital Commonwealth exhibition that forms the basis for this talk.

Shoe ad courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.