From 1980 through 1993, community partners in Lowell, including the National Park Service and University, hosted 12 gatherings of scholars in the name of the Lowell Conference on Industrial History. At least three volumes of conference proceedings were published. The regular meeting of teachers, students, historians, architects, preservation advocates, sociologists, art historians, economists, elected and government officials, and others made Lowell a hub of research and dialogue on the process and consequences of industrialization in the nation and world.