ANGELA LAKWETE
Associate Professor
History Department, 310 Thach Hall
Auburn University, Ala. 36849
334.844.6635
email: lakwete at-sign auburn dot edu

Education

  • Ph.D. 1997. History. University of Delaware, Hagley Program in the History of Industrialization.
    Dissertation Title: Cotton Ginning in America, 1780-1860.
    Major fields: History of Technology and U.S. History.
    Minor field: U.S. Economic History.

  • M.A. History. University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, 1994.
  • M.S. Library Science. Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 1990.
  • B.A. Anthropology. Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont, 1971.

    Current Projects

  • Black Spinsters and Southern Homespun.
  • Manufacturing Modernity: The Machine Makers of Antebellum Alabama.

    Books
    Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America. History of Technology Series, Merritt Roe Smith, Series Editor. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, November 2003. Winner of the 2004 Edelstein Prize

    Articles
    "The Saw Gin Manufacturing Industry in Mississippi, 1796-1860." In Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association 52 (March 1999): 9-22.

    "Myonichikan at the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., 21 June 1996 to 18 February 1997: Exhibit Review of American Spirit Alive in Japan: Three Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright," in Myonichikan Report: Newsletter of the Group for the Preservation of Myonichikan 31/3 (March 1997).

    "Identification and Preservation of Dyes." In Indonesian Textiles: Irene Emery Roundtable on Museum Textiles 1979 Proceedings, ed. Mattiebelle Gittinger, 326-35. Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1980.

    "Salish Blankets." In Ethnographic Textiles of the Western Hemisphere: Irene Emery Roundtable on Museum Textiles 1976 Proceedings, eds. Irene Emery and Patricia Fiske, 505-18. Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1977.

    Book Reviews
    Minding the Machine: Languages of Class in Early Industrial America. By Stephen P. Rice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Reviewed for Technology and Culture 46/2 (April 2005): 442-4.

    The South, the Nation, and the World: Perspectives on Southern Economic Development. By David L. Carlton and Peter A. Coclanis. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003. Reviewed for Technology and Culture 45/2 (April 2004): 434-6.

    The Conquest of Labor: Daniel Pratt and Southern Industrialization. By Curtis J. Evans. Southern Biography Series. Series Editor, Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Baton Route: Louisiana State University Press, 2001. Reviewed for the Alabama Review 56/3 (July 2003): 207-8.

    The Second Great Emancipation: The Mechanical Cotton Picker, Black Migration, and How They Shaped the Modern South. By Donald Holley. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. Reviewed for Technology and Culture 42/2 (April 2001): 350-2.

    Flowing Through Time: A History of the Lower Chattahoochee River. By Lynn Willoughby. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1999. Reviewed for the Alabama Review 53/2 (April 2000): 153-5.

    Cinderella of the New South: A History of the Cottonseed Industry, 1855-1955. By Lynette Boney Wrenn. Knoxville: University of Tennesee Press, 1995. Reviewed for Gulf Coast Historical Review 14/2 (Spring 1999): 134-6.

    Instruction
    Associate Professor, 2005; Assistant Professor, 1999-2005, Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.: Undergraduate surveys: Technology and Civilization (both halves); U.S. History (both halves); Upperdivision Course and Graduate Seminar in Southern Industrialization.

    Lecturer, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Md.: Undergraduate surveys: U.S. History (both halves), World History (first half), African Diaspora, 1995-7.

    Visiting Assistant Professor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mi.: Graduate Seminar: U.S. Textile History, Summer 1993.

    Recent Lectures
    "The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Antebellum Contexts," Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, Auburn, Ala., 20 Sept. 2005.

    "William A. Aikin and Industrial Huntsville, 1819-1839,” Organization of American Historians, Annual Meeting, San Jose, 3 April 2005.

    "Becoming a Nation: The Cotton Gin and American Identity," Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, Huntsville, Alabama, 6 June 2004.

    "Manufacturing Modernity: Machine Makers of the Cotton South," History Workshop, University of Delaware, Newark, Del., 24 February 2004.

    "Cotton on the Silk Road: Culture and the Transfer of Cotton Gins," East and West: Textile Crossroads, Twentieth General Assembly, International Center for the Study of Ancient Textiles (CIETA), Lisbon, Portugal, 29 Sept. 2003.

    "From the Mainstream to the Marginal: A Brief History of Wool," Integrated Textile and Apparel Science, Auburn University, 3 March 2003.

    "Alabama's Antebellum Cotton Gin Makers," ArchiTreats 2002: Food for Thought, Alabama Department of Archives and History, 20 June 2002.

    "Reading Back Failure: The Cotton Gin and American Memory," Race and/in the History of Technology Workshop, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., 22 March 2002.

    "Was Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin Invention a Turning Point in History?," Turning Points in History, The 27th Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Historians, Albany, Ga., 15 April 2000.

    Outreach

  • “Eli Whitney and the ‘Simple South’ Paradigm,” Auburn University Black Student Union, Black History Month Lecture Series, 217 Foy, 23 Feb. 2005.
  • “The Cotton Gin Question,” Auburn Civitans, Indian Pines Golf Course, 14 Jan. 2005.
  • "Alabama's Antebellum Cotton Gin Makers." Lee County Historical Society, Loachapoka, Alabama, 13 April 2003.
  • "Alabama's Antebellum Cotton Gin Makers." Autauga County Heritage Association, Prattville, Alabama, 09 Jan. 2003.
  • Cottage Cotton Spinning Demonstration, Loachapoka Syrup Sop, Lee County Historical Association, Loachapoka, Alabama, Annually from 2002.
  • "Benjamin David Gullett: His Precedents and His Legacy," Opening Day Lecture, Louisiana Cotton Museum Foundation, Lake Providence, La., 25 March 2000.
  • Roller Cotton Gin Demonstration Cart. Hands-on-History Program, Education and Visitor Services Division, National Museum of American History, funded by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, June-October, 1997.

    Fellowships and Awards

  • The 2004 Edelstein Prize for Outstanding Book in the History of Technology, The Society for the History of Technology.
  • Marguerite Scharnagel Award, History Department, Auburn University, Summer 2003.
  • Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, San Diego, June 1998-August 1999.
  • Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Museum of American History, June 1997-May 1998.
  • Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship, National Museum of American History, August 1994-August 1995.
  • Huggins-Quarles Award, Organization of American Historians, 1994.
  • Grants-in-Aid, Early American Industries Association, 1994.
  • Research Travel Award, University of Delaware, Dept. of History, Summer 1992.
  • Hagley Fellowship in the History of Industrialization, Hagley Museum and Library and University of Delaware, 1990-1994.
  • Fellow, American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 1987-.

    Professional Memberships

  • Society for the History of Technology
    Edelstein Prize Committee Member, 2005.
  • Southern Historical Association
    Program Committee, 2006 Annual Meeting.
  • American Historical Association
  • Centre Internationale des Etudes des Textiles Anciens

    Textiles Conservation Career
    Textiles conservator from 1972-1990: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1985-90; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1976-85; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 1975-6, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1972-5.

    updated October 2005