Seventh in an occasional series of Schwamb Shares During the course of a tour of the Old Schwamb Mill objects such as tools, machines and historical artifacts are the main attraction. A less evident, parallel display of paper items affixed to the Mill’s walls also deserves our attention. visitors with eagle eyes can spot political … Continue reading Paper Ephemera: Windows into the Schwamb Mill’s Work Culture

Sixth in our occasional series of Schwamb Shares. Jacob Schwamb (1815-1881) was the oldest of six Schwamb brothers who immigrated from Germany’s Rhineland to the Boston area between 1838 and 1857. Like many of his brothers, Jacob was a woodworker. Two of his brothers, Charles and Frederick Schwamb, cofounded the Schwamb picture frame mill in … Continue reading Jacob Schwamb’s Divine Initiative: Co-founding The First Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church

Fifth in our occasional series of Schwamb Shares A volunteer does not lead many tour groups through the Old Schwamb Mill before hearing the question: “Where is the water wheel?” Youngsters fresh from reading about the mills of old, Arlingtonians puzzled by the distance between the Mill and the Mill Brook, mill enthusiasts visiting from … Continue reading Where’s the Water Wheel?

Fourth in an occasional series of "Schwamb Shares." In Jacob’s Bitzer’s "History of the Mills along Sucker Brook," read at a meeting of the Arlington Historical Society in 1924, he says that the Schwamb factory’s business gradually shrank through the later nineteenth century. He adds that Clinton and Louis Schwamb, grandsons of the founder Charles … Continue reading The Largest Frame the Schwamb Mill Ever Turned

Third in our occasional series of "Schwamb Shares." One just didn’t expect to see President Warren Gamaliel Harding in the Old Schwamb Mill. But, there he was, all 40 inches by 47 inches of him in a larger-than-life painted image on cloth, rolled up and stuck in one of the wood moulding racks on the … Continue reading The Mill’s Warren Harding Banner