From the 1840s to the 1930s, nearly a million French Canadians left their homes and crossed the border into New England, mostly to work in the textile mills. Many were farmers whose livelihood was being threatened by a decrease in fertile land, which was slowly being swallowed up by industrial expansion. There were textile mills in Canada, but wages were lower than those paid by US companies. Many of the families planned to stay only long enough to raise the money to pay off their debts or to buy a farm back in Canada. Consequently, about half of the immigrants returned to their homeland after a few years, including, apparently, this family.

During their short time in Winchendon, they became a tiny part of the town's history, and were immortalized by Lewis Hine's camera. In the picture above, taken on a sunny Sunday in September, the family looks proud, all decked out in their nicest clothes, and seemingly unfazed by the struggles they must have already endured just to get there from Quebec. But without the caption, we might think they are a happy, relatively prosperous family living in a large farmhouse in a storied colonial town. In other photos however, the children stare at us from their mill environment, sometimes half-smiling, but always looking weary.