Visitors to the Mill have seen the dozens of graffiti on the walls recording the first snow (and other remarkable weather events) going back to the 1860s. Although our “first snow” was in October this year, we have followed that with a big December snowstorm blanketing the Mill. Old Schwamb Mill in the snow December … Continue reading Winter and Christmas at the Mill
Boxes in the Mill
The minute they step in the door, visitors to the Mill sense that very little has changed since it closed as a business in 1969. Founding Trustee Patricia Fitzmaurice deserves credit for instituting two policies that have kept the life in our living history museum for the past fifty years. First, she made it a … Continue reading Boxes in the Mill
Animal Hide Glue: Go-To Adhesive in the Schwambs’ Frame-making Process
The Old Schwamb Mill’s glue room is one of its timeless interior spaces. Located at the northwest corner of the main building’s second floor, its windows overlook Mill Brook and Mill Lane. Indeed, the glue room is a time capsule illustrating a key step in the frame-making process: the gluing of the frame quadrants. Here, … Continue reading Animal Hide Glue: Go-To Adhesive in the Schwambs’ Frame-making Process
The Old Man of the Mountain Frames
The Clinton W. Schwamb Company, like its predecessor Charles Schwamb and Son, manufactured frames for retailers such as frame shops, furniture stores, and galleries. One of the Schwambs’ strengths was making specialty items to the exact specifications of their customers. On a tour in 2011, Wayne Schwamb, who worked with his father Elmer at the … Continue reading The Old Man of the Mountain Frames
Edward Schwamb and the Crescent Zouave Fife and Drum Corps
Today’s Schwamb Shares entry travels outside the mill building to explore some of the cultural life in the small emerging Crescent Hill neighborhood, a section of today’s Arlington Heights established in 1872, several blocks west of the Charles Schwamb mill. A vibrant mix of artisans, recent immigrants, and Boston professionals settled into the new suburban … Continue reading Edward Schwamb and the Crescent Zouave Fife and Drum Corps
Tin Pan Alley on the Mill’s Third Floor
Tenth in an occasional series of Schwamb Shares As we write this in July 2020, the temperature is nearing 100 degrees outside and certainly is higher than that in the Mill. In the nineteenth century, the third floor must have been a hot place to put in a ten-hour day (typical summer hours in Arlington … Continue reading Tin Pan Alley on the Mill’s Third Floor
What We Can Learn from the Mill’s Accident Reports
Ninth in an occasional series of Schwamb Shares The Old Schwamb Mill’s archives include 78 accident reports completed between 1915 and 1930. The reports were submitted to the Federal Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Boston, Mass., the insurance company covering the Clinton W. Schwamb Company’s workers in accordance with Massachusetts Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1911. … Continue reading What We Can Learn from the Mill’s Accident Reports
Telephone Comes to the Mill
Eighth in our occasional series of Schwamb Shares Visitors who have toured the Mill’s downstairs front office may have learned that the Mill’s current phone number 781-643-0554 is essentially the same one that the Clinton W. Schwamb Co. had as early as 1921 -- 0554. Here’s the earliest phone bill in the Mill’s archives. Clinton … Continue reading Telephone Comes to the Mill
Paper Ephemera: Windows into the Schwamb Mill’s Work Culture
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
Jacob Schwamb’s Divine Initiative: Co-founding The First Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church
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
