Step into the Hale House for a special Historic Beverly program with Dr. Kimberly Alexander on flax, linen, and the vital role of textiles during the American Revolution.

This program will explore how flax was processed into linen and why homespun textiles became important symbols of independence, resistance, and political identity in Revolutionary-era America. Guests will learn about the connections between household labor, material culture, and the broader movement for independence.

The program includes a hands-on flax processing and spinning demonstration with Reuben Downey.

Dr. Kimberly Alexander is on the faculty of the History Department at the University of New Hampshire, where she is Director of Museum Studies and Senior Lecturer. Alexander was a James Hayes Research Fellow for 2023-2025, awarded by the UNH Center for the Humanities for her Flax-to-Linen Project. Before coming the UNH, she held curatorial positions at several New England museums, including the MIT Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum and Strawbery Banke. Her most recent books are Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), which won an Honor Award from Historic New England in 2019 and Fashioning the New England Family (Massachusetts Historical Society, 2021).