Date of Award

Summer 8-31-2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Dr. Nicholas Juravich

Second Advisor

Dr. Roberta Wollons

Third Advisor

Dr. Teresa Fava Thomas

Abstract

This thesis examines the centrality of Italian immigrant labor in launching Leominster, Massachusetts’ transformative plastics industry. The study traces the arc of the immigrants’ stories from their arrival at the turn of the twentieth century, when their unskilled labor helped Leominster transition from artisan comb production to industrial celluloid manufacturing, to their rise as new technical experts and company owners in the 1940s. They endured hazardous work conditions and social marginalization to create better lives for themselves and their families.

Ultimately, their efforts were critical to the expansion and global recognition of Leominster’s plastics industry. Yet the role of immigrant labor in this success story is underreported. Using oral histories, local newspaper articles, and corporate records, this thesis intertwines analysis of Leominster’s plastics history and the growth of the city’s Italian immigrant community to provide a unique, multigenerational case study of labor, innovation, and upward mobility in the era of American industrialization.

Comments

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