Papermaking

Historical significance

Paper is made of plant materials. Many say that the wasp was the first papermaker as the insect used plant materials to build a nest. In Colonial America, the ragman would buy worn out cotton and linen rags. Cotton bolls from the plant are spun and woven into material. Linen comes from the flax plant. These rags were beaten into a pulp using power from water wheels. The pulp was dried on large screens to make sheets of paper.

How Papermaking Relates to Tipton-Haynes

Landon Carter Haynes was the editor of the Tennessee Sentinel, a newspaper published in Jonesborough. The nearest known paper mill of the period was in Knoxville. The Tennessee Sentinel was printed three to four times a year not daily. Paper was very scarce and expensive.

Student Activity

Students will learn about papermaking in the time of Landon Carter Haynes and then make a piece of recycled paper. Imprinted in the wet pulp will be a flower or leaf. Just as people years ago recycled old rags into paper, students will learn of nineteenth century and modern recycling.