Overview

Eli Whitney was an idealist and visionary who has been forgiven the unwitting consequences of his brilliant inventions; the cotton gin turned slavery from a tottering institution into a thriving business, and the milling machine gave rise to the horrific abuses of American industry. The museum occupies several buildings erected by Whitney as a model for a factory town, and preserves the roots of the industrial revolution that changed the country and the world. The museum is two miles north of the New Haven Green.