Bundles of Flax           

These bundles of flax originated at the farm owned by Job Shattuck, a distinguished Revolutionary War soldier from Groton, as well as a notorious leader of Shays’ Rebellion. Flax is the raw plant material, (shown here partially processed into thread), used to create linen. The darker sample is unbleached, while the sample that is lighter in color is bleached. This is the most intensive part of the linen production process, involving repeatedly boiling the flax in alkaline solutions using materials like potash and laying it out to the sun in bleach fields. These samples were donated by Sarah P. Shattuck in 1894.