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Bachand, Albert. History of North Adams.
Williamstown: World Travelogue Company, 1969. VHS format video tape.
Volumes 1-5, approx five hours total.
Bachand, Albert. History of North Adams.
Williamstown: World Travelogue Company, 1969. VHS format video tape.
Volumes 1-5, approx five hours total.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Videos 189-193)
These rambling videos cover the history of North Adams in a somewhat haphazard fashion, manuevering from topic and time period frequently, and covering a good deal of early town history, architecture, and industries. The composition is of photos and maps with a voiceover explaining their origin and setting.
Baker, Elizabeth A. "Blackinton: A Case Study of Industrialism, 1856-1876," Historical Journal of Massachusetts. Vol. IX, No. 1, January 1981. pp. 15-26.
Locations(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Baker's essay for the HJM is apparently a condensed version of her undergraduate thesis of the same title (Purchase, NY: Manhattanville College, April 18, 1980), and focuses on the town of Blackinton, which was incorporated into North Adams in the late nineteenth century. Named after prominent North Adams manufacturer Sanford Blackinton, the area was then dominated by his woolen factory, the Blackinton Mill (est. 1821). Baker devotes her essay to studying the evolution of the increasingly distant relationship between Blackinton and the mill's laborers, as well as the effects that these changes had on their experience of the workplace.
During the early years of his factory's development, Blackinton remained close to his workers, living in a modest home near their own residences and maintaining a strong presence in the day-to-day operations of the mill. However, this feeling of closeness and "industrial harmony" deteriorated along with working conditions in the mills even as profits soared as a result of the Civil War and as the work force began to be dominated by immigrant Welsh laborers. Blackinton himself withdrew to an ostentatiousmansion in the heart of North Adams, and the workers found themselves facing a series of pay cuts and lay-offs, which they protested without much success. After one lay-off in 1876, workers who were re-hired for a shorter working day discovered that they were only being paid for an eight hour shift, while their workday was actually almost an hour longer. When the company admitted its error but did nothing to correct it, the workers reacted by striking. This eight day strike was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining compensation for the extra time-- due in part to draconian measures employed by the mill's management. Even so, Baker argues that it was nevertheless important for the workers in that the experience allowed them to redefine the terrain of their working environment, take pride in their labor and ethnic solidarity, and also positioned them to fight for their right to bargain with companies in the future.
Baldessarini, Ross. North Adams, Mass.: An Architectural Study. Williamstown: Williams College, Unpublished term paper for American Art course, January 1958.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Call No. Ref. 728B)
Baldessarini focuses on trends in North Adams architectural projects over the course of a century as he forms connections between architectural and societal developments. He covers both owner and worker housing, and finds that the expansion of industrial endeavors in North Adams gradually created distinctive working and owner class neighborhoods, which had quite disparate housing standards. During the first half of the nineteenth century, when hard currency was scarce and transport modes for supporting extensive commerce almost altogether lacking, mill ownership did not necessarily indicate unusual wealth, and owners lived in the simple style of their workers, with earthen-floored, small homes. However, as North Adams manufacturers grew progressively wealthier and its work force increasingly non-native, owners built houses which in their grandeur and imposing stature-- as well as obviously non-local design-- emphasized a greater physical and architectural differentiation from the tenement homes of the working class.
Baldessarini provides a history of the homes of manufacturers and the development of worker housing in the city, as well as the conditions created by the city's construction history. In assessing the state of North Adams housing conditions at the time (1958), he finds that although the city doesn't face much trouble via domination by old, deteriorating mill housing, there does need to be a greater amount of forward thinking and cooperation if residents are to avoid being dominated by the reckless subdivision of existing housing lots and the fault-ridden construction of "warmed-over Cape Cods" that began after World War II. Businessmen and factory owners of the previous century were often able to guide the shape of the town simply by their choice of lot divisions and building specifications, and Baldessarini argues that this has created a sort of architectural selfishness in North Adams that could prove harmful if left unchecked.
Bird, F.W. Last Agony of the Great Bore. Second edition. Boston: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1868.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Ref. 385B)
Bird's book provides a good sample of the arguments of those who fought against the Hoosac Tunnel as it was being planned and built in the mid-nineteenth century. Bird was apparently as passionate about his side of the fray as Harrison (The Great Bore: A Souvenir of the Hoosac Tunnel: A History of the Tunnel) was for the ultimately triumphant tunnel supporters, and perhaps even more so. With great fervor and a highly melodramatic tone he attacks the project as an "all-devouring maelstrom." In the process he cites the outrageously over-budget expenses of the then eighteen year long process, alleges corruption on the part of one of the project directors and various politicians, and argues that the Troy and Greenfield Railroad- which the tunnel was to service- would be a waste since the southern route of the Boston and Albany Railroad could by his calculations easily handle all of the shipping requirements of northern Massachusetts. Bird's account includes figures on the costs of tunnel construction and information on taxation by town and county, as well as excerpts of testimony regarding the project to the Massachusetts state legislature.
Bliss, Raymond Christopher. A Study of Union History at the Sprague Electric Company in North Adams, Massachusetts, 1929-1970. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished History thesis, 1976.
Location(s): Williams College Archives; Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library (Call No. hv F7475 S7 B5)
Drawing extensively on business and union records, newspaper articles, and personal interviews, Bliss deftly constructs the development of unions at Sprague, from the original locals to the gradual infiltration of national unions. Bliss traces the ups and downs of unions to a variety of factors, including economic conditions, managerial-employee relations, and the ethnic/ generational composition of the Sprague work force. Throughout, he examines the decisions made about and by unions from the perspective of business, union, and labor interests, and explores the implications of broad national trends as well as events specific to North Adams and Sprague Electric, such as the strikes of 1941 and 1970.
Bliss divides the union history of Sprague into three distinct periods. In the first period (1929- mid 1960's), the union scene is dominated by the local, possibly company-instituted Independent Condenser Workers' union (ICW). The ICW worked closely with management most of the time, avoiding strikes whenever possible and fending off attempts by AFL-CIO national affiliates to infiltrate their ranks. Bliss attributes this reluctance towards joining national unions to both the ICW's (and Sprague workers) close ties to management and to a largely immigrant labor force frightened by the proposals of strikes floated by national unions and loathe to give more of their hard-earned money in dues to support the supposedly extravagant lifestyles of top union officials.
This era of local unions worked as long as Sprague relied on the labor of North Adams residents alone and remained prosperous, but was developing problems as World War II approached, Sprague expanded its base of operations, and the locals proved unable to negotiate effectively as management curtailed their relative power. During World War II, a long wildcat strike (1941) and several walkouts demonstrated the increasing ineffectuality of the ICW to deal with the grievances of its members and negotiate secure and binding contracts with the management. The nationals made headway, claiming the small machinists' department in 1949, but the ICW managed to maintain the loyalty of its members by developing an increasingly antagonistic tone towards management and by raising its dues in 1964 (to 25 cents/week from 10 cents) to attempt to become a more effective force in negotiations and grievance processing.
In the second phase of union history-- the mid-1960's-- Bliss covers the eventually successful bid by the national AFL-CIO affiliated International Union of Electrical workers' union (IUE) for the right to represent labor at Sprague, after a long, hard battle with management and the ICW. Bliss depicts this change as a result of the efforts of a younger, native-born, and more militant labor force willing to fight for their perceived due, as well as the inability of the local union to negotiate effectively for workers' rights in a corporation that was becoming increasingly international in scope and relying less and less on the North Adams labor force. Having won the representation vote by a slim margin, the nationalization of the Sprague unions continued as the clerical and white collar workers were united under the American Federation of Technical Engineers. (AFTE)
In the final stage of union history, the national unions struggled to get Sprague to commit to continuing contract improvements, binding arbitration in the event of contract disputes, and an agency shop clause requiring all workers to join the union. By the time of the ten week-long strike of 1970, Bliss argues that the Sprague work force had matured to the point where it was able to agitate for salary guarantees, and the fact that negotiations eventually went to Washington, D.C. indicates that the power of the national union proved a formidable force to be reckoned with by Sprague executives.
However, the victory was not without its costs to North Adams workers. Although the union had proved that it could stand up to management, the strike also brought on the loss of hundreds of jobs for North Adams residents and accelerated Sprague's decision to further remove its production-- and more jobs-- to places where the local labor market was a bit more docile. According to Bliss' interpretation, the rise of the national union and the increasing militancy of the Sprague laborers indicated that the work force had matured, but that this maturation also signaled its downfall in an era of international labor competition. In essence, the management always stays one step ahead of local labor efforts to pin them down.
Bowen. "Celestials in Sunday School," Harper's Magazine. 1870's.
Location(s): Clipping in "Chinese in North Adams" Vertical File, North Adams Public Library
Bowen's is a short article which describes the schooling of an eager and well-behaved Chinese work force in Calvin Sampson's North Adams shoe factory. One of the few times Sampson allowed any reporters to enter the facilities, this article was obviously aimed at humanizing the Chinese workers and normalizing their presence. Although their future status in the U.S. was viewed as uncertain by Bowen, who reserves comment on Sampson's strike-breaking tactics, he asserts that the Chinese are essentially good people doing their best to survive in a foreign land without the support of their families.
Burns, Stewart. "Like a Family? Women Workers at Sprague Electric, 1930-1980," a report for Shifting Gears: The Changing Meaning of Work in Massachusetts, a project of the Massachusetts Foundation for Humanities and Public Policy. North Adams: Western Gateway Heritage State Park, date unknown.
Location(s): Files of Maynard Seider
Burns' article is based upon a series of interviews by trained volunteers of women who worked at Sprague Electric during the aforementioned time period, and is an attempt to try to evaluate the experience of working at the electronics giant from their own perspective. The women's working patterns, feelings of loyalty to the company and its founder, and views on the labor unions and strikes are examined in some detail, and it becomes apparent that women workers at Sprague both upheld and shattered expectations in their working careers. While the range of experiences was appropriately diverse, several trends appeared. In general, women professed a profound admiration for R.C. Sprague, recalled fondly the olden days of luncheon parties and singing at their work stations, became dismayed as their workplace became increasingly prone to psychological stresses, and displayed a great deal of ambivalence over the role of the unions and the strike of 1970, even if they had been and were still active union members.
Women workers at Sprague were often career production workers-- working even after marriage and childbirth at greater rates than might have been expected for the middle decades of the century-- and at the encouragement of Sprague management, an unusual move for the times. At the same time, women of the time were less likely to raise protests against gender discrimination, even though they were certainly aware of its existence. Burns and to some extent the women themselves attribute this behavior to a combination of gender limitations given the time period and the docility supposedly instilled by the Catholic religion of many of the workers, although his successor (see Gabrielsky) comes to a somewhat different conclusion.
Chambers, John A. The Emergence of the High School in Williamstown and North Adams. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished American Civilization thesis, 1971.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
Chambers' essay is devoted to outlining the rhetorical and actual development of the high school in general, and in the towns of Williamstown and North Adams in particular. He follows the development of the free public high school from its inception in the early decades of the nineteenth century to its decades of struggling to survive and form a coherent identity in the middle of the century to its acceptance as institution by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Massachusetts was truly a pioneer in promoting public high schools in the nineteenth century, requiring by 1826 that towns of over 500 families support a high school. However, as Chambers points out, this and other laws were more of a guideline than a strictly enforced rule. Smaller towns like North Adams and Williamstown, lacking the benefit of a substantial capital base, lagged far behind in following the law. Chambers argues that it was the emerging prominent businessmen in both towns (and especially in North Adams) who eventually promoted and provided the necessary legal and financial support to get the schools started, with the dual purpose of serving the college-bound students of the middle class and providing a means of control over the children of the growing working class. As such, the schools of the era reflected a schism of purpose between the goals of "preparing for college" and "fitting for life." As the curriculum of the schools became more standarized, the former goal served far fewer students but received far superior teachers and resources, while the broader "fitting for life" category faced perpetual overcrowding. The control over the former program came from standards of local colleges of the time. Meanwhile, in the latter realm educators and prominent citizens promoted mental discipline and moral instruction, outwardly in the name of equalizing social status and earning potential but also for controlling the feared social impulses of an unrestrained working class in an increasingly urban environment, especially in North Adams.
Chambers maintains that this duality of purpose was brushed aside by educators, but finally brought to task by the efforts of school attendees themselves, who through their efforts brought in numerous extracurricular activities such as athletics and debate and through working for the introduction of curriculum additions (such as business and machine work) made the schools their own despite attempts to control them.
Chambers utilizes numerous secondary sources to trace the theoretical momentum behind the development of the high school and its curriculum, and a mixture of school board and town records and newspaper articles to set the stage for the local development of the schools. Included in the thesis are schedules of the courses offered at both the Williamstown and North Adams schools over a period of several decades, as well as numerous charts detailing trends in per-student spending, student teacher ratios, and per capita valuations of the towns.
Cole, Carin. Between Two Worlds: The Business Career of Albert C. Houghton. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished American Studies thesis, 1991.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
Cole's thesis follows the career path of Albert C. Houghton, the reigning leader of textile manufacturing in North Adams and surrounding towns in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cole sees Houghton as a bridge between New England's older, kinship based economy of small businesses and the more modern, impersonal corporations of the twentieth century.
Cole paints Houghton as an adventurer-- a land speculator able to make the cross-over into manufacturing with aplomb. In the late nineteenth century, as local textile factories began to fail, Houghton saved the Arnold Print Works and its subsidiaries (the Beaver and Eclipse Mills in North Adams, the Williamstown Manufacturing Company, and the North Pownal Manufacturing Company) from near certain doom. After a tragic fire at the APW in 1872, he rebuilt the mill from scratch and strenghthened the informal cooperation between the APW and its subsidiaries by modernizing and coordinating their operations, eventually taking over controlling interests in the companies from the Arnold brothers. The Arnolds, who had been quite successful manufacturers at their prime, operated in a manner that was too old-fashioned to work in the 1870's era of financial stringency, and their practice of allowing the subsidiary mills to retain independence resulted in an increasingly unacceptable lack of coordination.
Houghton was younger and a man of great vision, and therefore better equipped to bring textile manufacture in North Adams into the twentieth century. By coordinating the efforts of the mills, taking personal responsibility for the companies' finances, and adopting the latest in machinery and cotton dyeing techniques, Houghton created a formidable-- and profitable-- enterprise in North Adams. He did not completely abandon the ways of the old kinship-based companies-- Cole make a point of telling us that Houghton relied on his brother and uncle for financial assistance during several shaky periods at the print works-- but his methods corresponded more closely to the all-encompassing "lock, stock, and barrel" systems of Rockefeller and Carnegie. The five mill system became a singular entity, with each subsidiary's actions closely linked to that of the whole.
However, Houghton was unable to hold onto his empire until death due to his own inability to change with the times after the turn of the century. His continued speculatory activities and inability to deal with increasing levels of specialization landed the company in hot water, and it was again time for someone younger to bail out the company. Thus, although Houghton was a man who "transforms his own circumstances"-- a transitionary character whose fortitude bolstered the North Adams textile industry at a time when its founders would have just as soon let it die out-- his powers of perception and implementation failed him in the twentieth century as the textile production scene shifted abruptly once again.
Cole utilizes a variety of sources to piece her narrative together, including memorial addresses in honor of Houghton, census data, the verbose records of the R.G. Dun and Company (credit assessors), the registrar of deeds in several towns, and newspaper articles of the time. Cole did not, however, have access at the time to the papers of Houghton himself, which are now available.
Committee for a New England Bibliography. Massachusetts: A Bibliography of Its History, ed. John D. Haskell, Jr. Boston: GK Hall and Company, 1976.
Location(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library; Williams College Library
Committee for a New England Bibliography. New England: Additions to Six State Bibliographies(Vol. 8) and Bibliographies of New England History: Further Additions to 1994, ed. Roger Parks. Bibliographies of New England History. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989.
Location(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
These volumes of a periodically updated bibliography list works by town. Many of those listed by the Committee are already in this bibliography, but there are a number of tangentially related works not included here which may certainly be of use to the researcher.
Coyne, Terrence E. "The Hoosac Tunnel: Massachusetts'
Western Gateway," Historical Journal of Massachusetts.
Vol. XXIII, No. 1, Winter 1995. pp. 1-20.
Location(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library
(Periodicals); Files of Maynard Seider
Coyne's article is an attempt to address the modern-day scholarly
dismissal of the Hoosac Tunnel's importance, trying to get into the
consciousness of a North Adams populace without the benefits of the
hindsight we currently enjoy. Although the Tunnel is currently-- and
with reason-- dismissed as a tremendous drain on resources and lives
for a poor economic return, Coyne maintains that there was indeed
precedent for thinking that the Tunnel would be a grand success, with
little to indicate otherwise prior to its undertaking. In the essay
he explores the nineteenth century models which brought about economic
prosperity, follows the arguments against the Tunnel by the existing
railroad lines and their understandably concerned towns, and underlines
the power and passion needed to succeed with the endeavor in the face
of adversity. From this point of view, the Tunnel advocates were not
reckless speculators whose foresight was undermined by their greed and
belief in unmitigated progress, but visionaries whose tenacity and
ingenuity were a tribute to the entrepreneurial, industrious Yankee
spirit.
Dalrymple, Orson. History of the Hoosac
Tunnel. North Adams: O. Dalrymple, publisher, 1987 reprint of
c. 1880 original.
Location(s): Williams College Archives and Center for
Environmental Studies library (Call No. TF238 H7 H57); Amherst College
Library (Call No. F73 .18 .S53)
This is a glowing account of the building and completion of the
Tunnel, and its tone testifies to the extent to which the Tunnel was
seen as a certain economic boon to North Adams-- well worth the almost
200 lives claimed during its construction, according to the author.
Of especial interest are the details of developments in construction
methods, and maps which detail the progress and layout of the Tunnel's
route.
Filson, Brent. "Calvin Sampson's Chinese
Experiment," Yankee Magazine. February 1985. pp. 93-138.
Location(s): Clipping in "Chinese in North Adams" Vertical
File, North Adams Public Library
This article serves as a retrospective view of this incident in
labor history, beginning with an account of the dramatic entry of the
Chinese workers into North Adams behind thirty police escorts and the
gun-toting presence of C.T. Sampson, a local shoe manufacturer who had
imported them into Berkshire County for the express purpose of halting
an on-going strike by the Knights of St. Crispin union members at his
shoe factory. Although the "hot experiment" in strike-breaking
accomplished Sampson's desired objectives by destroying the
troublesome Crispin union and saving him $40,000 dollars in the first
year alone, it eventually petered out. The Chinese, having saved
their money and been denied the ability to bring their families to the
U.S. to settle, returned to their homeland after their three year
contracts expired. Meanwhile, a vanquished white ethnic labor force
moved back in, minus the subversive influence of the Crispin
brotherhood.
Gabrielsky, Robert Paul. "The Evolution of
the Marshall Street Complex in North Adams," Historical Journal of
Massachusetts, Volume XIX, No. 1, Winter 1991. pp. 24-42.
Location(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library
(Periodicals); Files of Maynard Seider
In light of Massachusetts' reputation for surviving massive
structural changes to its economy, including the loss of entire
industries, Gabrielsky is interested in examining how such monumental
changes affect attitudes about and the character of the work
experience. In this essay, the Marshall Street complex becomes his
main focal point. Having carried the town through the late nineteenth
century to the years of the Great Depression, the Arnold Print Works
finally folded in 1942, signaling the end of an era of textile
production which brought numerous immigrants to the area and changed
the landscape both physically and socially. The town was lucky; soon
afterwards, the bustling Sprague Electric moved into the same
buildings and ushered in an era of high tech production.
Sprague was known during its earlier decades for its system of
patriarchal welfare capital. The company supported sports teams, a
radio program, vocational training, and parties for the workers, which
Gabrielsky argues were accepted at the expense of more significant--
and to the company, more expensive-- benefits such as improved health
care, pension plans, and wages. Although these benefits made the
Sprague workplace initially seem a godsend to those used to working in
the dirty and noisier textile mills, the darker side of this system of
"ritual friendliness" was that it resulted in the formation of a less
autonomous labor force. As a result, the local representation by the
union was fairly weak, and by the time the stronger CIO union came
into the picture, the decision to move jobs out of North Adams had
already been made by the company, which grew less and less loyal to
the North Adams site. Although the 1970 strike accelerated this
outward movement of jobs as a result of managerial decisions and
economic trends, it only hastened what would have happened anyhow. As
a result of this seeming betrayal, North Adams residents cautiously
anticipate the returns as the complex prepares to serve MassMoCA and a
variety of high technology firms, but without promises of the numerous
jobs that Sprague once provided.
Gabrielsky, unlike his predecessor Burns,
maintains that Sprague workers, because of the heavy emotional ties of
working for the company, have a somewhat selective memory regarding
their work environment, and maintains that their recollections of
social gatherings on breaks were exaggerated because of the short time
allotted for those breaks, and discovers incidents which indicate a
certain hostility towards managerial workers which Burns may have
overlooked.
Harrison, Joseph L. The Great Bore: A
Souvenir of the Hoosac Tunnel: A History of the Tunnel. North
Adams: Advance Job Print Works, 1891.
Location(s): Williams College Archives (Call No. 99 H75 H2);
North Adams Public Library (Call No. Ref. 385H); Amherst College
Library (Call No. F73 .18 .S53)
This small book contains numerous statistics about the Hoosac
Tunnel (e.g. how many tons of nitroglycerin used for blasting, the length
of the Tunnel) as well as a brief history of the long saga behind the
decades-long struggle to get the Tunnel built, which has been
developed at greater length in Anthony Parise's essay on the Tunnel (North Adams and the Hoosac Tunnel.
Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished American Civilization
thesis, 1973). There are also brief descriptions of the businesses
and factories operating out of North Adams at the time this
publication was written, including employment and payroll figures. It
is presumed that Harrison culled these figures from the business
records of the companies in question; no mention is made of his
sources. Interspersed with business and railroad histories are
suggestions for hikes and trips to see the Tunnel, reflecting the
author's enthusiasm for the project.
Harrison's outlook on the impacts of the tunnel for the city of
North Adams reflects the highly optimistic views of mid- to
late-nineteenth century residents, very much unlike accounts from
decades later, when it was realized that the much-anticipated Tunnel
did not in fact improve North Adams' competitive advantage or economic
status.
Herschenson and Reed Associates. The
North Adams Historic Preservation Plan. Ithaca, NY: Herschenson
and Reed Associates, 1980.
Location(s): Williams College Sawyer Library (Call
No. F74. N67 N67). A similar, abridged version is also available. It
is called The Architectural Heritage of North Adams, and
consists of Part I of the Historic Preservation Plan. (Call
No. NA55 N67 A73)
Designed to advise the City of North Adams in its plans to
preserve its architectural heritage, this report is part assessment of
the current status of architecture and its history in North Adams,
part suggestions for plans to undertake the preservation of certain
areas. The first section of this project focuses appropriately on the
city's architectural history and trends, evaluating the presence and
condition of various styles and neighborhoods, forming a nice
complement to a video on the subject produced by the North Adams
Historical Society in 1989 (Forgotten
Glory). The report examines the effects of the real estate crunch
in the city and various types of architecture, including residences,
churches, industrial complexes, etc., in addition to the lingering
effects of the destruction caused by Urban Renewal programs of the
1960's.
The second part of the report focuses on developing plans to save
the remaining architecture, and includes suggestions for establishing
neighborhood preservation districts and developing programs to educate
people about and celebrate on the architectural history of the area.
The third and final part of the report in turn delineates plans for
assigning responsibility to carry out the various parts of the
preservation plan, and includes suggestions for a Downtown Merchants'
Association and a Historical Society as well as ways to capitalize on
tourism and a form of home-steading which rewards people who take on
dilapidated homes in order to repair them.
Independent Condensers Workers' Union and International
Union of Electric Workers Business Records, 1946-1973. Amherst,
MA: University of Massachusetts at Amherst Archives,MSS #315.
Location(s): University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Archives, 25th Floor of the Library Building
This small collection (approx. 2 linear feet) contains a wealth of
official information on the union activities of the above period,
including union constitutions, contracts with Sprague Electric,
transcripts of meetings of the negotiating committee with Sprague
management, and information regarding benefits policies over the
years. The collection covers the Sprague production workers'
transition from the local ICW #2 to the AFL-CIO affiliate IUE #200,
detailing the results of the special elections held in 1967 to elect
officers and the new and more elaborate policies, by-laws, and
constitutions ushered in by the IUE. This collection also includes
copies of the union correspondence, brief Log
bulletins, and a 1958 speech by R.C. Sprague in which he states that
the company cannot become "too large in any one community," including
North Adams.
This collection will prove extremely useful to anyone interested
in examining the evolution of wages and benefits, the negotiating
process, and union activity in general at Sprague. Most of the
materials focus on the ICW, but there is a fair amount of materials on
the IUE as well.
Kinsey, Linda F. Voices of North Adams: A
Booklet Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the City of North
Adams, Massachusetts. North Adams: Beck's Printing Company, 1996.
Location(s): Williams College Archives (Call No. 99K 55
V65). Also on sale at various establishments in North Adams.
This booklet is a "kaleidoscope of views" compiled by Kinsey from
excerpts of interviews (and/or written responses) with current North
Adams residents, from the very young (a class of fourth graders) to
the older residents who can remember back to the days of the Arnold
Print Works.
Topics such as "Memories," "Spirit," and "Promise" spark responses
from these North Adams denizens, as everyone from Mayor John Barrett
III to local business men and women and laborers speak out about their
memories of institutions past-- such as the APW and Sprague Electric--
concerns about the city's present, and hopes for the future as
reflected by the MassMOCA and Greylock Glen projects.
Massachusetts Department of Commerce and
Development. City of North Adams (Monograph #97). Boston:
Mass. Dept. of Commerce and Development, 1955.
Location(s): Williams College Archives (Call No. 99M38n)
This short (approx. 15 pages) booklet contains a wealth of
statistics about population, occupation, transportation, and business
in the City of North Adams, listing trends over several decades.
There is very little prose or interpretative analysis, as this
booklet mainly consists of tables listing information from census data
or business records. Very useful for background information for the
scholar interested in mid-twentieth century developments.
A Williamstown version of this document also exists in the
Williams College Archives. (Call No. 99M384w)
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Executive
Planning Group. Feasibility Study and Development Plan.
North Adams: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Executive
Planning Group, November 1989.
Location(s): MassMoCA Offices
The MassMoCA Feasibility Study primarily deals with plans for the
museum-in-progress and has a fairly succinct history of the site's
former industrial activity, but also a number of good site maps and
descriptions of each building's architectural structure, size,
condition, and former usage, which prove very useful to understanding
and appreciating the layout of the complex.
Mutual Benefit Association (of the Arnold Print
Workers). [The] Arnold Print, published sporadically
throughout the year, c. March 1918- 1922.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Ref. 677.1 A75)
These newsletters, produced by the employees of the Arnold Print
Works, are quite similar to the later Sprague Log, covering company
news, sporting events, weddings, funerals (including a lengthy
memorial to long-time factory manager Arthur Gallup in the December
1919 issue), and births. In addition, there are articles dealing with
everything from nutritional advice to opinion pieces often focused on
encouraging employees to work hard at their jobs as a way to help both
their employers and, in turn, themselves during the difficulties of
wartime.
The cover art on these newsletters is generally rather striking,
and it is interesting to see that much of the advice seems
slanted towards the recent immigrant- not surprising since
immigrants comprised a sizable portion of the APW work force
at the time. It functioned as a mechanism for both support
and advice/influence, at once cajoling them to embrace an
American ethic of hard but honest work and advising them
about how to deal with issues that arise in the lives of
immigrants, such as how to contact the nearest immigration
office (in Boston- July 1921 issue).
Nierenberg, Jay Louis. North Adams, a New
England Mill Town: A Political, Economic, and Psychological Study.
Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished Political Science thesis,
1942.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
Nierenberg's 240 page thesis was apparently a source of great
consternation for Williams College when it was written, and
understandably so. Part expose of North Adams' problems with machine
politics and part attempt to understand how the local unions at
Sprague Electric and other plants were so weak, Nierenberg is a
fearless writer and critic of corrupt politicians and bullying
managements who names names and calls people on the floor for their
actions. This alone might have caused the College considerable
discomfort, but Nierenberg's somewhat questionable research methods
pushed the History department over the edge. Nierenberg's text
contains numerous unsubstantiated quotes-- he claims that he couldn't
get many of his interviewees' names because many of the interviews
took place while he was hitchhiking back and forth between
Williamstown and North Adams. He also candidly admits that he
includes quotes which were specifically related to him "off the
record," even including the name of the speaker. Finally, his own
interjections about the rudeness of certain Catholic priests, the
questionable quality of an eye doctor's care for his patients while
mayor, and his oft-stated sympathies for the unions undermine his own
credibility as a reliable source. As a result of this-- and fearful of
the backlash should the piece be broadcast for public consumption--
Williams had the thesis sealed until 1992. (see notes enclosed with
the thesis)
Nierenberg's colorful prose does make for an interesting read, and
between his sensational piece and more staid, scholarly-sound ones
such as the union history done by Raymond Bliss in 1976, one does get
a sense of the political, social, and work climes of the city
c. 1920-42, including an intimate knowledge of the city
manager/mayoral appointed committee debates. Nierenberg was obviously
highly engaged by his project, and followed events taking place-- such
as the proposed liquidation of the Arnold Print Works in 1942 and the
1941 wildcat strike at Sprague-- through North Adams Transcript
articles. However, his personal agenda-- to strengthen unions and
impose what he considered the far superior split between public works
and politics provided by a "city manager" form of government-- gets
interjected at every juncture, with nay-sayers likely to be labeled as
uninsightful (in the case of the citizenry in general) or corrupt and
dangerous (in the case of businessmen and crooked politicians).
North Adams and Adams: Their Representative
Businessmen and Points of Interest. New York: Mercantile
Illustrating Company, c. 1894.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Call
No. Ref. 974.44)
This booklet contains a brief history of the development of Adams
and North Adams, focusing upon the latter's bustling growth from
mid-nineteenth century onward. It extols North Adams' virtues as a
"thoroughly modern place," (20) listing banks, businesses, and their
respective founders, officers, and extent and history of operations.
Interestingly, although the lists of businesses run to the dozens, no
factories are listed, and the names Houghton, Arnold, and Blackinton
remain conspicuously missing.
In this video, local historians Maureen Wood, Paul Marino, and Dan
Connerton guide the viewer through the architectural trends in North
Adams over throughout the years, tying developments in these endeavors
to developments in local society.
They first discuss the qualifications necessary for buildings to
make the National Register of Historic Buildings and give a brief
overview of the architectural styles prevalent in North Adams. The
Queen Anne, Italiannate, Second Empire, Colonial Revival styles are
covered in some detail, with pictoral accompaniments.
The coverage then turns chronological, beginning with the simple
houses and mills of early settlers of North Adams. These buildings
reflected the difficulty of life and lack of available hard currency
as North Adams-- then the northern village of Adams-- slowly grew in the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Houses often
consisted of only two or three rooms with dirt floors, and mills paled
in comparison to anything we know. The town, although possessing
significant water power, lacked adequate accessibility to foster rapid
growth and impressive industries.
This changed radically as access to transportation-- in the form of
railroad lines-- effectively placed North Adams on the map around
mid-century. At this time larger factories and even entire mill
complexes were built, and houses became a bit more elaborate. At
first, mill owners lived relatively close in to the workers they
supervised. However, as the century wore on class differences became
more pronounced, with owners living apart from an increasingly
immigrant labor force in more and more extravagant houses. The
historical society covers the houses and histories of owners and
prominent businessmen in some detail, including the likes of
A.C. Houghton and Sanford Blackinton. They also delve into the
expansion and abandonment of the mills, and examine the housing of
workers in tenement and one-family housing and the impacts of
immigration upon the social and geographical composition of the town.
This video will prove extremely helpful to those wishing to orient
themselves to the North Adams of about 75-125 years ago, and features
some spectacular aerial views of the city that keep the viewer in the
context of the city's current layout.
This video provides a general history of North Adams, focusing on
its famous residents, local history, and the construction of the
Hoosac Tunnel. There is a small section on the tape devoted to
architecture-- a tenet developed more fully in the video Forgotten Glory-- and another to the
possibility that an iron smelting plant from North Adams helped to
supply the production of the U.S. Monitor.
North Adams Planning Board. North Adams,
Massachusetts: Master Plan. Consulting by Technical Planning
Associates, New Haven, CT, 1965.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Call No.
Ref. 974.44)
This master plan concentrates on present and anticipated future
land use, and although it appears that the planner's main obsession
was with discovering and rooting out urban "blight," it will prove
useful to anyone trying to get a feel for the character of North Adams
life during the early 60's. Maps are provided and keyed to display
economic, social, and physical usage patterns, and figures of wealth
and occupational breakdowns supplement the image formed of the city as
a mature-- or alternatively, aging-- mill town. Although the plan
cites tourism revenue as one potential source of income, the planning
board remains insistent that North Adams will always remain primarily
industrial in character, an interesting assertion in light of the act
that the city is now pinning its hopes on tourism venues (such as MassMoCA) which capitalize on the
industrial character of North Adams.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Video 803)
This "docu-drama" represents a dramatic interpretation of events in
the history of Sprague Electric in North Adams, representing a fairly
broad range of opinions and views in the process. The experience of
working for the company was greatly affected by one's gender,
occupation, and generation, as well as the business and economic
status of the company throughout the decades.
The union history of the company is well-detailed from a variety of
angles, some of which (i.e. a meeting of sleazy businessmen to discuss
their crooked politics in the 1930's) may be interpreted as dramatic
license. As the decades pass, it becomes increasingly evident to many
Sprague workers that they cannot rely on the under-powered local ICW
union to successfully argue their grievances. Strikes in 1941 and
1949 were followed by pushes to bring in national unions, which were
staved off until the mid-60's.
Much of the social history of the company is documented as well--
from company-sponsored sports teams and dances to award ceremonies and
dinners. These events underline the paternalistic qualities of the
company's management under R.C. Sprague, whose presence looms over all
activities of the company-- as a father to some, an oppressor to
others, and somewhere in between for most.
The strike of 1970 and the eventual closing of the plant in the
mid-80's depict the increasingly virulent antagonism between Sprague
management, laborers, and the world economy. The long-lived strike
and the introduction of federal mediators appears to have convinced
Sprague management to continue moving their production and management
facilities elsewhere, and sour feelings abounded all around. By the
end of Sprague's tenure in North Adams, residents and management ask
themselves how things might have gone differently, had they not struck
or had the city retained another major factory. The play's ending
portrays these "what if's?" with sympathy, but attempts to push
viewers-- who are presumably mainly North Adams residents-- to move
onwards and reclaim their city for themselves.
The Sprague Years uses dialogue and remembrances from
former employees of the company and also employs slides of
company-related photographs and news clippings throughout the play.
These techniques translate into video fairly well most of the time,
but it occasionally produces a somewhat disjointed effect.
Parise, Anthony F. North Adams and the Hoosac
Tunnel. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished American
Civilization thesis, 1973.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
Parise's thesis details the long battle-- and disappointing
results-- to have the Hoosac Tunnel built during the mid-nineteenth
century, exploring the hopes and dreams of increased prosperity North
Adams residents attached to the Tunnel's completion. Unfortunately,
these dreams never really came to fruition for the city, even after
the tunnel was operational.
As a somewhat isolated town in western Massachusetts in the early
nineteenth century, the increasingly industrial North Adams looked to
improvements in transportation-- in the form of canals and then
trains-- in order to have their products reach other markets. This
was obviously a necessary step that allowed manufacturers to procure
the necessary capital and reason to expand their base of operations in
North Adams. Parise maintains that once North Adams residents saw the
increased prosperity brought by the Worcestor and Western railroad--
whose main line was twenty miles south in Pittsfield-- they naturally
assumed that more of a good thing was even better. Pushing along with
the City of Troy and interested businessmen, North Adams residents
helped to found the Troy and Greenfield railroad, which set about
laying a more direct route from Boston through the "neglected"
northern part of the state over to Troy, with a direct link in North
Adams.
This would prove to be a lengthy battle of over twenty years in
duration, as the tunnel's construction was halted numerous times due
to lack of funds, inadequate machinery, and loss of life. Parise
charts the status of the Tunnel over time, using newspaper articles
and other histories of the tunnel, underlining the continued
confidence of North Adams residents in the Tunnel's ability to secure
their continued prosperity.
When the Troy and Greenfield finally made its first full run
through the Tunnel in 1875, the much-anticipated event was heralded
with glee and confidence that the Tunnel would soon prove worth the
twenty years, $29 million cost, and scores of lives lost in the
process. Instead, the Tunnel was an economic disappointment, allowing
eastern cities such as Fitchburg to take advantage over markets where
North Adams had formerly been dominant. Nevertheless, as North Adams
recovered from the brutal recession of the mid-1870's-- through no help
of the Tunnel-- the Hoosac Tunnel remained associated with "Progress"
in the minds of North Adams citizens, who viewed it as a tangible
symbol of their industrial prowess.
Parise tracks down the progress, completion, and long-range effects
of the Tunnel through North Adams Transcript articles, business
and general histories of the Tunnel and Western Massachusetts and
Troy, NY, and Massachusetts Census records in the decades before and
after the completion of the tunnel.
Passer, Harold Clarence. "Frank Julian Sprague:
Father of Electric Traction, 1857- 1934," reprinted chapter from
Men in Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952.
Location(s): Sawyer Library, Williams College (Call No.
TK140 S6 P3)
Passer provides an account of the conditions behind and evolution
of urban mass transport in the late nineteenth century, crediting
Frank Julian Sprague for providing the inventions, managerial
organization, and commitment it took to convince cities to adopt
electric railways and allow horse and steam-powered rails to yield to
the former mode's superiority. Sprague is also given credit for
revolutionizing elevator transport.
Passer primarily uses articles-- about half written by Sprague,
half by fellow engineers-- from technology and engineering journals of
the time to build his case for promoting Sprague as the true father of
electric traction over Thomas Alva Edison, who seems to have picked up
the credit in the popular consciousness. Passer traces in intricate
detail the ins and outs of Sprague's training, inventions, and
business deals, delineating both his genius and his tenacity.
Although Sprague's acumen for electronic design was significant,
Passer maintains that it was Sprague's business acumen, ability to find
newly-formed, open-minded companies not already entrenched in the
older methods of urban transport, and willingness to put himself and
his reputation (echoes of Albert C. Houghton and the Arnold Print
Works) on the line that ensured that his lines were successful and
efficient. As with Harriet C.J. Sprague's account, Passer wishes to
preserve F.J. Sprague's standing and give him the credit often given
to Edison, but Passer's mission isn't quite as personal, which gives
him more room to explore Sprague's inventions and business deals.
Pidgeon, Daniel. Old World Questions and New
World Answers. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Company, 1884.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Call
No. Ref. 917.44P); Amherst College Library (Call No. 917.2 P592ol)
Several chapters in this Englishman's anthropological tour of New
England cover items pertaining to North Adams, specifically his
sections on the Chinese workers in Calvin Sampson's shoe factory in
the 1870's, and the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel. Pidgeon
decries the persecution of Asian workers in the U.S., portraying the
sentiment against them as selfish and un-American. His take on
Sampson is rather flattering; he paints a sympathetic Sampson who
regretfully bade the Chinese good-bye only after being pressured to do
so by whites in the town, rather than an opportunistic strike-breaker.
Pierson, William Harvey, Jr. Industrial
Architecture in the Berkshires, Volumes I and II. Doctoral
Dissertation in Philosophy at Yale University, 1949. Ann Arbor, MI:
University Microfilms, a Xerox Corp., 1971.
Location(s): Sawyer Library, Williams College (Call
No. NA6400 P5: v. 1-2)
Pierson's doctoral thesis centers upon the study of the
development and implementation of industrial architecture in the
Berkshires as it evolved from its domestic and English predecessors
and counterparts. Asserting that industrial architecture was a
lamentably underrated field at the time, he eagerly delves into the
simple and often beautiful clarity and clever ingenuity which resulted
from the mill's unique synthesis between architecture and engineering.
This piece is an impressively thorough coverage of the factory
form's predecessors and origins in England in the eighteenth century
to its arrival and adaptation in New England and subsequently the
Berkshires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specific
buildings and complexes are described in great detail and become part
of a narrative on the changing nature of industrial building and its
adaptations according to the specific needs of various places and
uses.
Since industrial architecture was intrinsically and intriguingly
interwoven with societal, technological, and economic development,
Pierson's thesis devotes as much time to these issues as he does to
the actual structure and ornamentation of the mill buildings
themselves. In the process, the mill becomes a complex object which
is useful to us in telling of a community's needs, resources, and
character at each stage of its maturation.
His sections on the Berkshires are highly informative, providing
another take on industrial development in the area- from the simplest
grist mills to the large complexes of the paper and textile
industries. Industrialists in the Berkshires, as he illustrates with
numerous examples, followed the conventions of Rhode Island and Lowell
as they became feasible, but with their adaptations especially suited
to the talents of their builders and the character and resources of
the region. Pierson maintains that it was especially in more isolated
regions such as the Berkshires that the plans of engineers conquered
the whims of professional architects, creating a remarkable sense of
clarity and unity in mill buildings around the middle of the
nineteenth century. He is quite critical of the haphazard,
profit-oriented construction that produced the new Arnold Print Works
complex on Marshall Street in the latter part of the century,
asserting that this style of building reflected an era in which
businessmen were no longer concerned with maintaining a sense of
harmony with and receiving the respect of their communities but rather
thrust their will upon them. This is a tenet also reflected in the
widening chasm between the residences of owners and their workers.
(See also Baldessarini's paper and the
video Forgotten Glory by the North Adams
Historical Society) It is highly interesting that Pierson should
choose to single out the APW complex as an undesirable form given that
MassMoCA currently finds it very appealing, perhaps revealing a modern
predilection for the chaotic sprawl represented by the complex.
Whatever the case, Pierson's text makes for a highly informative and
contextualized study of industrial architecture.
Possons, Charles H. North Adams,
Massachusetts: Tunnel City. Sponsored by the North Adams Board of
Trade. Glens Falls, NY: Charles H. Possons, Printer, Engraver, Binder,
c.1890.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Ref. 974.44P)
Possons provides another brief history of North Adams, in this
instance distinguished by its many photographs of the North Adams area
in addition to the usual listing of statistics and descriptions of the
city designed to appeal to the interests of business and
manufacturing. North Adams' prominent residents are highlighted
through descriptions of their activities and pictures of their houses,
and the local infrastructure and rail connections to the outside world
are described in detail. Accounts and numerous photographs are given
of the churches, clubs, schools, businesses, and factories of the
area, with emphasis given to larger concerns such as the Arnold Print
Works.
Powell, Daniel Edmund. Another Williamstown:
The Cotton Textile Industry in a Small New England Town,
1826-1929. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished History
thesis, 1979.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
Powell's main concern in this thesis is to uncover the "other,"
industrial side of Williamstown which at one point was the town's
largest employer, but never quite dominated its character. He traces
the development of Williamstown manufacturers from the earliest grist
mills of the late eighteenth century to the dying days of the
Williamstown Manufacturing Company-- by then known as the Greylock
Mills-- during the Depression of the present century.
Powell suggests that Williamstown manufacturing concerns grew
slowly for reasons similar to those in neighboring North Adams-- lack
of adequate capital, transport capabilities, and limited supplies of
labor and technological innovations-- and although both places
eventually overcame these obstacles, Williamstown never really
succeeded in manufacturing nor relied on it to the same extent that
North Adams did. Nevertheless, numerous entrepreneurs founded a
variety of cotton textile factories during the nineteenth century, and
Powell gives full treatment to their beginnings, progress, failures,
and changes of ownership. Manufacturing in Williamstown was usually
not the only occupation for owners, and true, lasting success was
rarely enjoyed by factory owners. Power supplies and access to
transportation was still limited-- though much improved with the
appearance of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad in 1859-- and the
completion of the Hoosac Tunnel (1875) only worsened the harmful
effects of competition. Thus, the post-1875 period was marked by
numerous closings, with only the larger, more efficient Williamstown
Manufacturing Company able to weather the storm and survive into the
twentieth century.
Just as the fact that the owners were not-- or could not-- be
dependent on factories as their sole source of income, so did the
locations and employees of these factories serve to distance factory
life from the rest of the town. The textile plants tended to locate
on the Green and Hoosac Rivers, physcially separated from the center
of town. This was especially true of the Williamstown Manufacturing
Company, which further distanced the worker population by creating
small, self-sufficient developments near its plant on the Hoosac
River, north of town. The predominance of French Canadians amongst
immigrant workers also served to create a separate community-- these
workers spoke French, were Catholic, and though viewed as rather
docile workers, proved less assimilable into the wider community than
the Irish or Italians in North Adams. Although their tendency to
desire ownership of their own land might have encouraged these
immigrants to persist in Williamstown, land in town was rather limited
and many pressed further West in search of better opportunities. The
town seems not to miss much from the departure of the textile
industry; although it benefited economically from these factories, the
town's character had not been molded into an industrial one (such as
was the case with North Adams) because industry was never really a
stable force within the town to the extent that Williams College was
and is. Textile workers certainly lost out when their means of
supporting themselves disappeared, but since they had generally
remained separate from the town proper, only the [almost] invisible
fringes of town remain as testaments to Williamstown's manufacturing
past.
Powell's sources include extensive use of U.S. and Massachusetts
Census data, business records, local histories and personal memoirs,
and general regional or industrial histories.
Roberts, Janet Ellen. A History of French
Canadians in North Adams. Williamstown: Williams College,
unpublished History thesis, 1975.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
After beginning with a brief general history of North Adams,
Roberts details the reasons French Canadians had for leaving their
homes in Canada to seek work in the mills of Western Massachusetts.
Passage from the United States to and from Canada was relatively easy,
and the lingering of the world depression of 1873 forced many of the
Quebecois-- originally farmers-- to seek work in the U.S.
At first, workers only came seasonally for short periods of time,
earning enough money to keep the farms at home going. Soon, however,
French Canadians were permanently emigrating from Canada into the U.S.
The prosperity of North Adams during the Houghton era looked
especially appealing to a fair number of the immigrants, who would go
from being virtually non-existent in the town in 1860 to approximately
25% of the population in 1909. French Canadians were appealing to
management because of their supposed docility and reluctance to
strike, which put them at odds with more boisterous ethnic groups,
especially the Irish. The French Canadians remained segregated via
their retention of religious and language customs, living in separate
neighborhoods with their own social institutions. Though salaries
were easily greater than in their homelands, the American culture was
something of a shock. French Canadians were less likely to take
advantage of educational systems than other immigrant groups, placing
their children into a never-ending cycle of dependence upon mill work.
The Church was their dominant institution, and a source of town
resentment, and the French Canadians were left without leaders in town
politics and affairs.
Gradually, the barriers of language and ethnic separateness broke
down through increasing education, a de-emphasis on French language
instruction, and intermarriage-- Roberts tells us that today only their
names and the occasional French-speaking elder remain to remind us of
their heritage.
Roberts employs Canadian, American, and local histories, census
data, baptismal records, an interview, and a number of papers written
by Williams students.
Rudolph, Frederick. "Chinamen in Yankeedom:
Anti-Unionism in Massachusetts in 1870," The American Historical
Review. Vol. LII., No. 1, October 1947.
Location(s): Clipping in "Chinese in North Adams" Vertical
File, North Adams Public Library
Rudolph's article presents a pro-labor portrayal of North Adams
shoe-maker Calvin Sampson's strike-breaking effort in the face of a
Crispin strike in 1870. While remaining somewhat sympathetic to the
Chinese workers caught in the middle of the struggle, Rudolph presents
Sampson as part of a developing elite in North Adams who saw nothing
wrong with building magnificent homes for themselves while
simultaneously underpaying their workers. As a result, a growing
sense of class consciousness developed in formerly unstratified North
Adams, and the Crispin brotherhood emerged in attempt to protect
skilled workers from replacement by unskilled ones.
In North Adams, this struggle eventually led to a drawn-out strike
against Sampson's factory in 1870 (previous shorter ones had occurred
earlier), which radiated outwards into sympathy strikes at other
plants. Sampson's decision to import Chinese laborers effectively
ended the sympathy strikes and prompted the Crispins to attempt to
recruit the Chinese and to form a cooperatively owned factory of their
own. These attempts, however, were undermined by Sampson's success
and the Depression of 1873. In the end, Rudolph's Sampson remains an
exemplar of a Horatio Alger success story who then turned around and
actively trod upon those who were trying to follow its script
themselves.
Ruger, Theodore W. A Study of Industrial
Transformation and Working Class Culture in Nineteenth Century
Williamstown. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished History
thesis, 1990.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
Ruger's thesis examines the hopes and fears that manufacturing in
Williamstown elicited during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, focusing upon the creation and character of the developing
working class within the rural town.
Using census data, interviews, and local records and histories,
Ruger depicts a working class that did not simply allow itself to be
dominated by a grasping, de-humanizing industrial machine, as opposed
to the independence represented by agriculture. Instead, Roberts
paints a more gradual and uneven process of industrial expansion and a
more autonomous working class who owned their own property, financed
churches to support their own faiths, and even set their own
production ceilings to the consternation of their helpless managers.
Even as the work force included increasing numbers of immigrants--
especially French Canadians-- it still proved cohesive, adaptive, and
responsive to the needs of its kinship and workplace networks. The
twentieth century, with its corresponding factory closings, weakened
the infrastructure of the industrial community somewhat, as workers
were forced to find jobs in other fields-- or towns. However,
throughout the years in which Williamstown had a substantial
industrial presence, its working class proved able to constantly adapt
their "established modes of thought and behavior within the newly
emerging opportunities and constraints of industrialization." (90)
They found-- and actively took part in creating-- new rhythms of
leisure, work, and physical and social mobility.
Ruger's thesis proves relevant to students of North Adams history
because of his focus on the Williamstown Manufacturing Company, one of
Williamstown's major manufacturing concerns and a tributary of the
Arnold Print Works.
Seider, Maynard. "The 1920's and 1930's,"
North Adams: unpublished article, date unknown.
Location(s): Files of Maynard Seider
This essay details the events in labor history of the
aforementioned decades, covering the textile industry and the growing
presence of Sprague Electric. Seider describes the scope of the over
thirty local unions covering the area for a variety of crafts,
industries, and companies. Workers of this era proved to have been
quite active in the unions, and Seider describes extensively a number
of area strikes, including one which went national in 1934.
The 1934 strike, called by the United Textile Workers of America
after textile manufacturers nationwide fought compliance with new
minimum wage laws, proves to overturn many ofthe scholarly
preconceptions of the North Adams area work force during this era.
Whereas textile workers in Lowell and other long-established labor
communities simply ignored the strike and kept working, the supposedly
docile workers of Adams and North Adams rallied to support the strike.
By organizing into "flying squadrons," workers from plants in the area
successfully convinced most workers in area cotton textile production
facilities to take part in the strike. However, the national unions
eventually caved to pressure from FDR and called off the strike after
refusing mediation by the NLRB. As a result, the national union lost
a fair amount of its prestige amongst the locals, and this event might
possibly explain some of the work force's later aversion to national
union representation in North Adams. When a similar strike occurred
on a small scale in the Berkshires the following year, the locals
refused an offer for help from the national organization. This strike
was broken up when companies divided the work force by negotiating
better contracts with some influential groups of laborers.
Seider also discusses some of the early labor history of Sprague
Electric, covering the major accomplishments of the ICW #1 (getting a
guaranteed 4 hour work day and forbidding favoritism in dealing out
tasks), but ends by calling for more research to be done on the
evolution of North Adams from a town with diversified manufacturers
and labor representation to a "company town."
Seider, Maynard. "The CIO in Rural
Massachusetts: Sprague Electric and North Adams, 1937-1944,"
Historical Journal of Massachusetts. Vol. XXII, No. 1, Winter
1994. pp. 51-73.
Location(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library
(Periodicals); Files of Maynard Seider
In this article, Seider undertakes the explanation of an event
obscured by time in Sprague Electric's history-- the reasons for the
Sprague union changing from ICW Local #1 to ICW Local #2-- and his
findings indicate that the IUE made greater headway during this time
than most people might have thought. As early as the late 1930's,
union workers were becoming less convinced of their small local's (ICW
#1) ability to handle grievances and research adequately, forcing
workers to take Sprague managers on their word regarding the company's
financial status. The IUE, a CIO affiliate, had unions in the General
Electric plants in nearby Pittsfield, and organizers were sent in to
spread information about the advantages of national union
representation.
In spite of opposition from within ICW #1 and the management at
Sprague, the IUE was actually voted in by the workers in 1938,
contradicting the notion that the IUE was unable to gain a significant
stronghold within the company until the 1960's. However, the IUE's
tenure in Sprague was to be short, however. Soon after, the ICW #2
was formed to take the place of its inefficient predecessor, and voted
in by a somewhat small percentage of the Sprague work force. The IUE,
which was at the time growing in size despite attempts by the company
to stamp them out, filed suit with the National Labor Relations Board.
The NLRB concluded that while the ICW #1 had indeed been a company
union and therefore illegal, its successor (ICW #2) was indeed
independently and operated. As a result of this decision, the IUE
lost its position within the company, and the ICW #2 gained legitimacy
as the properly recognized union.
The IUE did not quietly fade away, however, and after a largely
unsuccessful wildcat strike in 1941 which seemed to indicate the
ineffectiveness of the ICW #2, began to once again woo the affections
of Sprague workers in the mid-1940's. A fierce propaganda campaign
ensued, with the ICW capitalizing on local loyalty and fears about
big-spending national union officials wasting their hard-earned wages
and the IUE emphasizing the inability of the small local to keep its
promises of strong negotiation. This time the ICW came out the
unquestionable winner, which Seider maintains is not that surprising
since it was by that time an established, known quantity, as opposed
to the relatively unknown IUE. In addition, R.C. Sprague proved to be
quite a shrewd paternal capitalist, portraying himself as the
aggrieved father throughout the proceedings and implementing a series
of small but very worker-friendly benefits-- including sponsoring
sports teams, allowing workers to listen to radio shows on the job,
and starting the company newsletter the Log-- which established
a sort of "moral economy" in which workers felt a great deal of
loyalty to him.
Seider, Maynard. "Nineteenth Century Northern
Berkshire Labor History," North Adams: unpublished article, date
unknown.
Location(s): Files of Maynard Seider
This article is a general survey of trends in business and labor
in North Adams during the 1800's, which as Seider points out
originated from both general and local conditions and circumstances.
Seider is especially interested in denting our notions of the docility
of the North Adams labor force during this period. The absence or
inefficiency of such activity, commented upon by researchers from Rudolph to Bliss, is largely
due to the selectivity of contemporary accounts. The sympathies of
the North Adams Transcript and historians like W.F. Spear were decidedly on the side of
manufacturers and businessmen, and as such strikers and labor groups
hardly merited entries in their articles or histories. Seider's
subsequent research, using the more comprehensive Massachusetts Bureau
of the Statistics of Labor records and an assortment of union and
other papers, uncovers an impressive amount of labor activity,
including strikes which achieved various degrees of success and the
institutionalization of a large annual Labor Day celebration. Various
trends splintered the power of the work force as the turn of the
century neared, but this does not change the fact that North Adams
laborers struck during this period with a frequency and success rate
that was at the very least on par with other major manufacturing
communities in the state.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Video 153) N.B.
The picture quality of the tape in the Public Library is rather poor.
This video documentary tells the stories of the workers of the
Marshall Street complex, during both its Arnold Print Works and
Sprague Electric years, in attempt to reconcile the old, bustling
North Adams with its present state of stagnation. Interviews of
former workers talk about working conditions, wages, and strikes as
well as about the communities formed by their working relationships
with each other. The feeling and eventual failure of R.C. Sprague's
paternalistic policies is remembered vividly-- fondly by many who felt
it had been a decent place to work, resentfully by others who felt
they had left themselves open towards exploitation. The closing of
Sprague's operations on Marshall Street has left residents bitter and
feeling betrayed. Only with the fledging (a
href="http://www.massmoca.org">MassMoCA
Shifting Gears Project: Work and Culture on
Marshall Street. Interviews with North Adams residents and former
workers from the Arnold Print Works and Sprague Electric. North
Adams, MA: Western Gateway Heritage State Park and Lowell, MA: Center
for Lowell History, University of Lowell, c. 1988-1989.
Location(s): Transcripts at Massachusetts College of Liberal
Arts Library; Original tapes at Center for Lowell History
This set of 40+ interviews was commissioned in the late 1980's
project (Shifting Gears) to examine the changing meaning and culture
of the workplace from 1920-1980. They were carried out over a period
of two years by trained volunteers and Western Gateway
scholars-in-residence Stewart Burns and Robert Gabrielsky. A wide
variety of workers from the Arnold Print Works and Sprague are
represented, from managers to technicians to production workers to
current high school students and even a few MassMoCA workers. Each
interview provides a fairly detailed history of that person's family
background, residence in the area, work history, and community
involvement, with extensive attention paid to the changing experience
of the workplace and attitudes towards labor unions at the companies.
[N.B. Although the interviews are generally quite good and informative
regarding the experiences of their informants, the actual
transcriptions are rather mediocre. In addition to a host of
grammatical mistakes ("euthanasia" is transcribed "Youth in Asia" in
one interview), numerous names of local landmarks (e.g. the Hoosic
River) and even important figures in the narrative (such as union
leader Jack Boulger) are butchered. Therefore, it may be wise to
familiarize oneself with general works regarding the history of the
companies and the area so that the mistakes aren't accidentally
perpetuated.]
Smith, Charlotte E. The Rise and Fall of
Southern Williamstown: 1762-1900. Williams College Independent
project, May 1981.
Location(s): Williams College Archives (Call No. 99S 53r)
This paper examines the development and devolution of the separate
identity of the southern part of Williamstown, which Smith connects
with the industrial and professional development of the Northern part
of town and developments in the transportation industry. She finds
that as these conditions pushed the sectors towards economic
integration, social and institutional barriers crumbled.
Covered here are figures on occupations and wages over the years, a
history of the various schools, churches, and enterprises in South
Williamstown, and an evaluation of how the development of railroads
and autos which aided North Adams and Williamstown industry effected
this primarily agricultural area. Appendices at the end draw from
census data and surveys, and Smith draws heavily upon church records,
directories of Williamstown, and various local histories.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Video 7)
This short program is devoted to the celebration of the Italians in
North Adams and their heritage, focusing on their migration to the
city and eventual acceptance therein, their generational differences,
and their lasting customs and rituals. A fair portion of the tape is
devoted to tracing the development of Saint Anthony's church and its
once-reknowned sports program. Another portion of the tape is devoted
to short biographies of the town's leading Italian businessmen and
public officials.
Spear, W.F. History of North Adams,
Massachusetts, 1749- 1885. North Adams: Hoosac Valley News Print,
1885.
Locations: Williams College Archives (Call No. 99S 55h);
North Adams Public Library (Call No. 974.44N, multiple copies)
This book covers the early settlement and development of North
Adams, from its incipient status as a fortified area and northern
township of Adams to its industrial development and maturation in the
nineteenth century. It reads like a "Who's Who" volume, paying homage
to the men who helped develop the town into a bustling manufacturers'
haven. The development of institutions such as local churches,
schools, and public houses are charted, almost every sector of the
late nineteenth century city economy is described in some detail, and
lists of the local lawyers, justices, and even postmasters through the
Spear's publication date are compiled.
Sprague Electric Corporation. The Sprague Log and
Annual Reports. North Adams: Sprague Electric Corporation,
c. 1938- mid 1970's.
Location(s): Williams College Archives (listed under Sprague
Electric Company Records: ca. 1938-1970, Acc. No. 89-063);
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library
The Log was for decades a venue through which news was
disseminated throughout the Sprague Electric work force. Employees
had the opportunity to become department reporters, sharing the news
of the department with the rest of the company. Birth, death, and
marriage announcements abounded in the Log, as did
announcements about the company's status in various plants throughout
the world, management announcements, and plans for the future. Since
the Log mainly functioned as a company newsletter, union
activities were scarcely mentioned. In fact, some articles and comics
in the issues are not-so-subtle attempts to sway workers towards
company-centered thinking and away from union activity and asking too
much from the company. Even so, the publication remains a valuable
resource for glimpsing a view of life in a company town where the
company-sponsored summer picnics, winter Christmas parties, and
year-round sporting activities became a valued tradition lamented by
workers as their relationship with Sprague deteriorated after the 1970
strike. It is quite telling that the Log also disappeared in the
years after the strike.
The company's Annual Report manages to be both informative in its
delivery of the facts of Sprague's financial status to its employees
and at the same time seeks to remind them that they are lucky to be
getting as much of the company's income as they do. The 1970 report
boasts of 1969's record sales- the same record sales that prompted
union workers to strike for higher wages in the Spring of that year-
but warns of the coming period of economic vacillation and stiff
competition which forced them to maintain a fiscally conservative
mindset. Featured stories accompany each report, including those
focusing on the opening of a new research center (1962) and
Sprague-sponsored continuing education programs (1963). The 1965
report also contains a ten year financial summary.
The Williams College Archives has a fairly extensive set of
Logs, though seemingly none from periods during which workers
had recently been on strike. There are also a number of Annual
Reports which are generally scattered amongst the collection with
Logs according to their publication date. The Massachusetts
College of Liberal Arts Library also has fairly extensive set of the
Logs; I am not certain whether they also have the Annual
Reports.
Sprague, Harriet Chapman Jones. "Frank
J. Sprague and the Edison Myth." New York: The William-Frederick
Press, 1947.
Location(s): Sawyer Library, Williams College (Call
No. TK140 S6 S6)
This short pamphlet is dedicated to setting the general
citizenry's minds straight when it comes to assigning credit for the
successful development of systems of electric railway cars, the
multi-unit controller for less troublesome navigation of tracks, and a
variety of advances in elevator technology. In each of these cases,
the true inventor was Sprague, and yet somehow Thomas Alva Edison
wound up getting all of the credit. Without wishing to deny Edison
credit for the accomplishments that were indeed his, Sprague sets out
to preserve F.J. Sprague's place in engineering history and the public
consciousness. In doing so, she utilizes an interesting collection of
newspaper and journal articles, company records, and letters from a
tribute held in Sprague's honor on his 75th birthday in 1932, some of
which are quoted in their entirety.
Sprague, John L. Revitalizing
U.S. Electronics: Lessons from Japan. Boston:
Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Call No. 621S);
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Library (Call No. hv WF74 75
S7); UMass-Amherst DuBois Library (Call No. 9696 .A3 .U614)
This book by the former president of Sprague Electric-- and son of
founder R.C. Sprague-- is an comparative analysis of the economic,
industrial, and social advantages the Japan and the United States each
hold. It has a more anecdotal quality than most business analysis
literature, and Sprague freely admits that part of his mission is to
determine what conditions and mistakes led to Sprague's demise. Of
particular interest to scholars of Sprague's operations in North Adams
are his discussions of labor force characteristics and research
developments in the two countries throughout the book, and
management's take on the 1970 strike at the North Adams
plant. (pp. 111-114)
Tavelli, Richard, and John Hauck. The
Italians in North Adams: A History of Their Cultural and Political
Contributions. Williamstown: Williams College, unpublished History
317 and PSCI 335 papers, 1972.
Location(s): Williams College Archives
From an apparently mutual pool of interviewees, Tavelli and Hauck
explore the social and political lives of Italian residents in North
Adams. Tavelli focuses on an exploration of the important religious
and social institutions of the Italian community, relying on Church
records and the North Adams Directory to help him describe the
accomplishments and goals of the Italian populace, which he identifies
as having distinct generational differences. Tavelli's account of
Italians in North Adams highlights their work culture, their social
interactions, and their interconnections with the city at large, an
effort which naturally leads into Hauck's political analysis, which
recounts the numerous contributions of Italians in political office
and civil servant positions.
Terryberry, Ann B. ANADEX [Adams-North
Adams Index]. North Adams: North Adams StateCollege, 1984.
Location(s): Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Terryberry's ANADEX is an extremely comprehensive index of
a score of historical works covering the two towns. One can look up
topics such as strike activity, public figures such as A.C. Houghton,
and entities such as Sprague Electric and find both the relevant works
and even the page(s) on which said topics receive mention. This is
quite useful for several reasons, not the least of which is that many
of these are older works which lack indices of their own. In
addition, given the age and fragility of some of the volumes covered,
looking topics up in the ANADEX will save these books from
needless wear and tear.
North Adams Historical Society.
Forgotten Glory. North Adams: North Adams Historical Society,
August 29, 1989. VHS format video tape. 54 minutes.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Video 126)
North Adams Historical Society.
Preserving Our Past. North Adams Historical Society, January 9,
1989. VHS format video tape. 32 minutes.
Location(s): North Adams Public Library (Video 139) N.B.
The picture quality of the tape in the Public Library is rather poor.
North Adams State College Theater. The Sprague Years. North Adams: North Adams State College, November 1995. VHS format video tape. Two hours.
Shifting Gears: Work and Culture on Marshall
Street (The North Adams Marshall Street Mill Complex.) North
Adams: 1989. VHS format video tape. Approx. one hour.
Sons of Italy. North Adams: The Italian
Heritage. North Adams: Cuyler Images, October 25, 1986. VHS
format video tape. 14 minutes.