Description: Thomas William Hammond 1854-1935. Born in Philadelphia of Nottingham emigres, and orphaned at the age of four, he came to England with his younger sister Maria and lived for a short while with his grandparents in Mount Street. In 1868 age 14 he enrolled in the Government School of Art. On the 1871 census he is described as a lace curtain designer, and in 1872 he was awarded the 'Queen's Prize for a Design of a Lace Curtain'. Other prizes followed and in 1877 he was again awarded the Queen's Prize, this time for the design for a damask table Cloth. Hammond was an indefatigable worker, and soon began to use his skills as a draftsman to record aspects of the changing town. He began showing his work at local venues in 1882 and in 1890 exhibited for the first time at the Royal academy. His real hobby was black and white sketching in charcoal. He drew about 350 pictures all together mainly scenes of a Nottingham he knew but which has largely passed away today. Extracted from 'The Changing Face of Tom Hammond's Nottingham' by John Beckett which is the introductory essay in 'A City in the Making Drawings of Tom Hammond'. Even Mr. Hammond has had difficulty in finding any beauty in this street which has unfortunately lost its old name and is now called 'Bow Street'. But what it lacks in picturesqueness it makes up in interest, for the house on its left side with the arches in its lower story is part of the first cotton mill in the world, and looking at it one is apt to regret that the industry did not develop in Nottingham as it did in later times in Manchester. James Hargreaves was an illiterate weaver born at Standhill near Blackburn in 1718. He invented a device whereby a hand turned wheel set in motion a number of spindles, and so, very much increased the speed of spinning. This machine was spoken of as a spinning engine, and as 'Gen' was the colloquial term for engine, his machine quickly became known as the 'Spinning Gen' or 'Spinning Jenny'. Hargreaves' ignorant neighbours, fearing lest his invention should take away their livelihood, wrecked his home and broke up his models and in sheer desperation he had to fly from Blackburn. He came to Nottingham where he met with Thomas James, who in 1767 assisted him to build the mill which Mr. Hammond shows us and some portions of which are still standing. Within its walls he carried on business with varying fortunes until his death in the year 1778. Although Hargreaves' work has been of such enormous importance to the world at large, it is interesting to remember that on his death his widow's share of the business was only valued at £400. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.