Chapter 1
Leisure in America, 1900

In a farming society, work is defined more by the seasons and need than by the divisions of a clock.  Planting, cultivating, harvesting and food preservation are seasonal work.  Fixing fences, mending tools, and caring for animals are more need-based – the work is done when the need arises or time permits.  Time not working was more flexible and dependent upon the current needs of the farm.

Leisure time, as we know it, is an invention of the industrial era, where work takes place at a certain location and is driven by a strict time schedule.  In the early industrial era, the location was the factory and the strict time schedule was communicated by the mill bell which rang out work start and stop times for more than 10 hours a day, six days a week.

In an industrial society, defined by factory and office work, the strictly defined time to work created an equally strictly defined time not to work.  Evenings, Sundays, and eventually Saturdays became “time off” and a new opportunity opened up: what to do with this time off?

By 1900, Massachusetts’ industrial economy had been growing for 60 years.  What to do with the populations’ leisure time had become an industry in its own right.  From the mid-19^th century, when the mill girls of Lowell created their own literary books and societies, new ways to entertain during leisure time had been growing as well.