City (pop., 2000: 105,167), northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. Settled in 1653 as East Chelmsford, it became a major centre of cotton-textile manufacturing in the 19th century.
It was renamed for industrialist Francis Lowell and was incorporated as a city in 1836. In the 20th century it began losing textile manufacturing to southern states, and it diversified into other industries. The Lowell National Historical Park (established 1978) commemorates the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. It is the birthplace of the artist James McNeill Whistler and the seat of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.