1871
Plume and Atwood Manufacturing Company Records
Collection, M-1
1874 – 1895
1909 – 1957
1909 – 1957
Plume and Atwood Manufacturing Company was organized in 1869 by Israel Holmes, John C. Booth, Lewis J. Atwood, David S. Plume, Aaron Thomas, George W. Welton, Burr Tucker, and others. The company made sheet brass, wire, lamp parts, rivets, fasteners, other small brass goods. Main office was in Waterbury, rolling mill in Thomaston, stores in Boston, New York, Chicago. Canadian business was done through Montreal agent Walter Grose.
The Westport Art Collection (hereinafter referred to as the “Collection”) is a collection of works of art that have been acquired primarily through gifts to the Town of Westport (“Town”) or purchased, along with works of art in the Works Progress Administration Collection (“WPA Collection”). The WPA Collection art was created under the federal art programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal economic recovery plans of the 1930s and 1940s. It includes murals and other artwork commissioned for municipal and school buildings. Today, the Town of Westport is the steward of these federally owned works, most of which have been restored and remain on public view.;The records of the Plume and Atwood Manufacturing Company document the inner workings of the company and span a time period of 1874-1895, and 1909-1957. The collection is naturally arranged in 3 series: Correspondence, Ledgers, and Ephemera. One document is written in Spanish, the rest are in English.
The largest series is Correspondence (1894-1895). Most of the correspondence appears to have originated from offices outside of Waterbury. Of special interest are the Walter Grose letters are inserted after Box 3, Folder V (Gri – Gry). Grose was a middleman or agent. His letters are arranged alphabetically according to the company for whom the orders were intended. The last folder (Box 4, Folder H), is marked "Double Orders." That designation simply means that the letter contained orders for two or more companies, and thus could not be alphabetized. Grose was based in Montreal, and all the companies he served seem to have been Canadian.
Ledgers is the second series and it spans a time period of 1874-1894. The ledgers, unlike the letters, seem to come from Plume and Atwood's main office in Waterbury. There are 10 in all. They are numbered consecutively with the rest of the collection. Thus the first ledger, which follows Box #8, is called Ledger #9. Ledgers 9 – 19 involve outlays of cash for labor, supplies and raw materials. Ledger 20, a balance book, records both receipts and expenditures. The last two are daily records of orders for brass goods, and thus provide a kind of record of sales. Ledgers 11, 11a, 12, 13, 13a, and 14 were discarded due to moderate to severe water damage – they were payroll books from the 1880s.
Lastly, Ephemera spans 1867-1957 and includes items such as an obituary, a sample board of pins, a patent, product catalogues, etc.
The largest series is Correspondence (1894-1895). Most of the correspondence appears to have originated from offices outside of Waterbury. Of special interest are the Walter Grose letters are inserted after Box 3, Folder V (Gri – Gry). Grose was a middleman or agent. His letters are arranged alphabetically according to the company for whom the orders were intended. The last folder (Box 4, Folder H), is marked "Double Orders." That designation simply means that the letter contained orders for two or more companies, and thus could not be alphabetized. Grose was based in Montreal, and all the companies he served seem to have been Canadian.
Ledgers is the second series and it spans a time period of 1874-1894. The ledgers, unlike the letters, seem to come from Plume and Atwood's main office in Waterbury. There are 10 in all. They are numbered consecutively with the rest of the collection. Thus the first ledger, which follows Box #8, is called Ledger #9. Ledgers 9 – 19 involve outlays of cash for labor, supplies and raw materials. Ledger 20, a balance book, records both receipts and expenditures. The last two are daily records of orders for brass goods, and thus provide a kind of record of sales. Ledgers 11, 11a, 12, 13, 13a, and 14 were discarded due to moderate to severe water damage – they were payroll books from the 1880s.
Lastly, Ephemera spans 1867-1957 and includes items such as an obituary, a sample board of pins, a patent, product catalogues, etc.
The collection is naturally arranged in 3 series. Correspondence and Ephemera are arranged alphabetically, Ledgers are arranged chronologically.
Plume and Atwood Manufacturing Company (created by)
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