[Whitin, P. & Sons]:

$12,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[EXTENSIVE ARCHIVE OF NEARLY SIX THOUSAND MANUSCRIPT BUSINESS LETTERS AND BILLS OF SALE RELATED TO THE OPERATIONS OF P. WHITIN & SONS, THE WORLD'S LARGEST TEXTILE MANUFACTURING COMPANY IN THE ... An extraordinary archive of nearly 6000 manuscript business letters and receipts from the years 1843 to 1866, all connected to P. Whitin & Sons, one of the world's largest textile machinery companies. The documents in this archive cover all aspects of the company's operations, including materials related to the feeding and housing of their employees, manufacturing and construction materials, logistics, and accounting. It is a remarkable collection of documents revealing the day-to-day operations of a company town in New England at the culmination of the Industrial Age, as well as for business logistics, prices, and trade goods in the mid-19th century.Paul Whitin founded the Northbridge Cotton Manufacturing Company in 1809, and in 1816 founded the Whitin & Fletchers mill with his brothers-in-law, becoming full owner in 1826 and bringing his sons on board as P. Whitin & Sons. After Paul Sr. died in 1831, his sons Paul and John continued the business, which grew to become a massive textile producer, one of the largest in the world. They operated Whitinsville, an unincorporated village in Northbridge, Massachusetts, as a company town for the next several decades. Despite difficult work and long hours for their employees (largely Irish immigrants), P. Whitin & Sons and later Whitin Machin

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