Today in History: Elias Howe & the Sewing Machine

Elias Howe
Today in History–July 9–the Library of Congress features sewing machine inventor Elias Howe, born on this day in 1819. Find out more about Howe’s struggle to get recognized for his work and how the mechanical sewing machine helped transform the nature of work during the nineteenth century by visiting the Today in History section. Then click the links below to check out this remarkably large list of sewing machine primary sources we stitched together.

Inventor Elias Howe from America’s Library

Elias Howe portrait

Conquests of invention; Cyrus H. McCormick, Elias Howe . . .

Elias Howe historical newspaper coverage

Sewing machine historical newspaper articles & advertisements

Sewing machine images

Sewing machine books & articles

Sewing machine life history interviews

Sewing machine recorded oral histories

Sewing machine sheet music

The Battle of the Sewing Machines In The Muse blog July 9, 2010

Sheet Music of the Week: Sewing Machine – the Musical! Edition In The Muse blog July 11, 2011