{ "slug": "collinsville-tools", "title": "Collinsville: Tools, a Company Village and a Museum", "towns": [ "Canton" ], "counties": [ "Hartford" ], "dateRange": "1850–1970", "topic": "Industry & labor", "summary": "Trademark records, company history and a worker’s preservation effort trace the tools and people of Collinsville.", "history": [ { "heading": "A village organized around manufacture", "text": "The Collins Company began in 1826, and by the middle of the nineteenth century its edge-tool business had become the defining industry of Collinsville, a village within Canton. Axes and other cutting tools linked the factory to distant markets. The village’s buildings, transport connections and everyday institutions grew in relation to that business. County browsing should therefore place Collinsville under Canton while keeping the familiar village name visible.", "source_ids": [ "collins-research", "collins-town" ] }, { "heading": "Branding a physical product", "text": "Nineteenth-century trademark registrations in the Library of Congress provide a different kind of visual evidence from a factory photograph. They record the names and marks used to identify edge tools and agricultural implements. The 1878 and 1883 registrations in this collection show how a manufacturer asserted the identity of its products beyond the factory gate. These are documentary graphics, labeled as such, rather than photographs of workers or evidence of a particular workshop process.", "source_ids": [ "collins-1878", "collins-1883", "collins-plows" ] }, { "heading": "A worker begins to save the past", "text": "Pattern maker Frederick Robert Widen collected tools, memorabilia and other objects as he watched older material disappear. His collection developed during the 1930s and moved into company-provided space as it grew. This is a preservation story rooted in someone who knew the factory through work. Objects saved from routine disposal later made it possible to interpret the company and the town through tangible evidence.", "source_ids": [ "collins-museum" ] }, { "heading": "After the company closed", "text": "The Collins Company shut in 1966. Residents concerned about the future of Widen’s collection organized the Canton Historical Society, and the Canton Historical Museum opened publicly in 1970. Closure did not end the community’s relationship with the industrial site. Instead it changed the task from making products to preserving and interpreting a manufacturing past. The museum’s catalogs, tools and local records remain useful starting points for research into the work and lives associated with Collinsville. The gallery presents historic trademark documents, identified as documentary graphics rather than photographs.", "source_ids": [ "collins-museum", "collins-archives" ] } ], "timeline": [ { "date": "1878", "event": "An edge-tool trademark registration records the Collins brand.", "source_ids": [ "collins-1878" ] }, { "date": "1883", "event": "Registrations document additional tool and agricultural-implement marks.", "source_ids": [ "collins-1883", "collins-plows" ] }, { "date": "1930s", "event": "Fred Widen begins assembling the collection that becomes the museum.", "source_ids": [ "collins-museum" ] }, { "date": "1966", "event": "The company closes and local preservation organizing follows.", "source_ids": [ "collins-museum" ] }, { "date": "April 5, 1970", "event": "The Canton Historical Museum opens to the public.", "source_ids": [ "collins-museum" ] } ], "sources": [ { "id": "collins-research", "title": "Canton Historical Museum: research overview", "url": "https://cantonmuseum.org/reference/research/" }, { "id": "collins-town", "title": "Town of Canton: Natural Resource Inventory, historical resources", "url": "https://www.townofcantonct.org/filestorage/19342/20074/47253/NRI_Final_Approved.pdf" }, { "id": "collins-museum", "title": "Canton Historical Museum: Our History", "url": "https://cantonmuseum.org/about-canton-historical-museum/our-history/" }, { "id": "collins-archives", "title": "Canton Historical Museum: Archives", "url": "https://cantonmuseum.org/reference/archives/" }, { "id": "collins-1878", "title": "Library of Congress: Collins edge-tool trademark, 1878", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022667864/" }, { "id": "collins-1883", "title": "Library of Congress: Collins earth-working tools trademark, 1883", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022672018/" }, { "id": "collins-plows", "title": "Library of Congress: Collins agricultural implements trademark, 1883", "url": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022672070/" } ], "images": [ { "id": "da4b305695c31c290e4d", "image": "/county-images/5b1e524949aae467eb4d0298831f39d044e34b7eb242cbaecda35cfb837c0628.jpg", "title": "Collins edge-tool trademark registration, 1878", "alt": "Collins edge-tool trademark registration, 1878 — 1878 Mar. 19.", "date": "1878 Mar. 19.", "credit": "The Collins Company (registrant; designer not named) / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "The Collins Company (registrant; designer not named)", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022667864/", "rights": "Public domain in the United States: published trademark graphic, 1878 Mar. 19. (copyright term expired).", "license": "Public domain (United States)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022667864/", "kind": "document", "later": false, "originalCaption": "[Trademark registration by The Collins Company for Sam. W. Collins brand Edge Tools]", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/trmk/1t00000/1t05000/1t05700/1t05778v.jpg" }, { "id": "c97848395ce541a80629", "image": "/county-images/de82110733c6fb5c14b9e77cfea51861473db6351ad304fb0680b45663007b80.jpg", "title": "Collins earth-working-tool trademark registration, 1883", "alt": "Collins earth-working-tool trademark registration, 1883 — 1883 Jan. 16.", "date": "1883 Jan. 16.", "credit": "The Collins Company (registrant; designer not named) / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "The Collins Company (registrant; designer not named)", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022672018/", "rights": "Public domain in the United States: published trademark graphic, 1883 Jan. 16. (copyright term expired).", "license": "Public domain (United States)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022672018/", "kind": "document", "later": false, "originalCaption": "[Trademark registration by The Collins Company for Collins & Co Hartford brand Certain Earth-Working Tools]", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/trmk/1t00000/1t09000/1t09900/1t09954r.jpg" }, { "id": "810979303f0148535ce8", "image": "/county-images/a1577a2af8aedf0ca93aeec49114bdd776ea8f1fcfb098bb5c45c2f49a60e901.jpg", "title": "Collins agricultural-implement trademark registration, 1883", "alt": "Collins agricultural-implement trademark registration, 1883 — 1883 Jan. 30.", "date": "1883 Jan. 30.", "credit": "The Collins Company (registrant; designer not named) / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "The Collins Company (registrant; designer not named)", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022672070/", "rights": "Public domain in the United States: published trademark graphic, 1883 Jan. 30. (copyright term expired).", "license": "Public domain (United States)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022672070/", "kind": "document", "later": false, "originalCaption": "[Trademark registration by The Collins Company for Collins & Co., Hartford Cast Cast-Steel Plows brand Certain Agricultural Implements]", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/trmk/1t10000/1t10000/1t10000/1t10006v.jpg" }, { "id": "03ea8ba68babc874008c", "image": "/county-images/78fdefaafeee5313dacc221677422afa578a7fddaf8d6194f24415d8fbfb73ba.jpg", "title": "Legitimus edge-tool trademark, 1881", "alt": "Legitimus edge-tool trademark, 1881", "date": "1881 Nov. 15", "credit": "Creator not identified in the catalog / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division", "creator": "Creator not identified in the catalog", "source": "https://www.loc.gov/item/2022670902/", "rights": "No known restrictions on publication.", "license": "No known restrictions on publication (Library of Congress advisory)", "licenseUrl": "https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/rights.html", "kind": "document", "later": false, "originalCaption": "[Trademark registration by The Collins Company for Legitimus brand Certain Edge Tools]", "originalImage": "https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/trmk/1t00000/1t08000/1t08800/1t08830v.jpg" } ] }