Lowell

City in Middlesex County, northeastern Massachusetts, on the Merrimack and Concord rivers, 40 km/25 mi northwest of Boston; population (2000) 105,200. Industries include textiles, footwear, electronics, plastics, and chemicals. Lowell was incorporated in 1836 and developed as a major textile centre in the 19th century; it is one of the line of former mill towns on the Merrimack that owe their foundation to water power derived from the river. Wang Laboratories, a computer company, moved its headquarters here in 1978 and is a major employer in the city.

The Lowell National Historic Park was created in 1978, incorporating a substantial part of the old city as being the birthplace of the US industrial revolution. The city is named after the US industrialist Francis Cabot Lowell.

Lowell is the seat of the Lowell Technological Institute (University of Massachusetts at Lowell). It is the birthplace of the Beat writer Jack Kerouac and the painter James Whistler, and home to actor Bette Davis. The Whistler House Museum of Art opened to the public in 1908.