Historical note:

            The Arkwright Company of Coventry, R.I. began in 1810 as a textile mill owned by James DeWolf. Two mill buildings were constructed, one of which burned down in 1851. With the construction of a new building in 1883, the company became Interlaken Inc., and was engaged primarily in the manufacture of cloth for book binding. It was purchased by an English firm, Winterbottom Mills, in 1892, but continued operating under the Interlaken name. Interlaken absorbed the nearby Harris Manufacturing Company in 1900. A new plant was built in 1922 to manufacture tracing cloth for architects and draftsmen; it was called Arkwright Finishing Company, and was nominally a separate business until a formal merger in 1959 as Arkwright-Interlaken, Inc. The name was changed to Arkwright Inc. in 1973. It gradually phased out its textile operations and moved to the coating of film. The last cloth was produced in 1983.

            Winterbottom, the parent firm, was bought out by Venesta International in 1961. Venesta was bought out by Ozalid Group Holdings in 1972, who were in turn bought out by Oce Van Der Grinten (a Dutch firm) in 1977.

Bibliography:

Rupp, Richard A.; and Peter R. Townsend. The Mill at Remington's Run: A Chronological History of the Arkwright Manufacturing Company, 1809-1999. East Greenwich, R.I.: Meridian Printing, 1999.

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Scope and content:

            This collection consists of a handful of important early records from 1815 to 1848, and a much larger quantity of records dating mostly from 1962 to 2002. The early records include a textile sample book, an account book and three folders of company store receipts. The later records include minutes from the Board of Directors dated 1962-1976; various union relations and personnel records dated 1971-2002; and a variety of miscellaneous files.

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Provenance:

            The small account book and early sample book were donated by A.S. Gorham in 1928. The loose accounts dated 1846 to 1848 were probably donated by Franklin Cushman as part of the Elijah Williams Family Papers in 1951, and prior to 1997 were stored in folders that read "found among Jason Williams Papers". The remaining portion dated 1892 to 2001, comprising the bulk of the collection, was donated by Arkwright employee Richard A. Rupp in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

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Processing note:

            Because this collection has arrived in small increments over a period of years, its arrangement is inconsistent. The finding aid has been arranged by series and then alphabetically within each series, but the actual folder arrangement tends to reflect the order in which gifts were received.

            Two other collections at the R.I.H.S.L. are known to have Arkwright-related material. In the Stephen Hopkins Collection is an account book of Benoni Colvin of Scituate dated 1813-1816, who frequently sold lumber to the Arkwright Company and others. The records of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union include two boxes of union records plus a file of membership cards for Local 1554-T, based at Arkwright Incorporated, from 1962 to 1997.

            In addition to these sources, a careful search of the Elijah Williams Family Papers, especially those filed under Jason Williams, might yield some additional information. The extensive DeWolf Family Papers may also prove useful.

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Inventory:

Series 1: Early records

Box 1, folder 1. Textile sample book, 1815; account book, 1816

Box 1, folder 2. Loose company store accounts, 1846-1847

Box 1, folder 3. Loose company store accounts, 1-6/1848

Box 1, folder 4. Loose company store accounts, 7-12/1848

Series 2: Corporate records

Box 1, folder 7. Correspondence, 1934-1949

Box 1, folder 8. Correspondence, 1961-1969

Box 1, folder 9. Correspondence, 1970-1974

Box 1, folder 10. Correspondence, 1975-1992

Box 1, folder 18. Contracts, deeds and leases, 1963-1975 (from minute book)

Box 1, folder 19. Deeds, 1875-1938

Box 2, folder 1. Minutes, 1963

Box 2, folder 2. Minutes, 1964

Box 2, folder 3. Minutes, 1965

Box 2, folder 4. Minutes, 1966

Box 2, folder 5. Minutes, 1967

Box 2, folder 6. Minutes, 1968

Box 2, folder 7. Minutes, 1969

Box 2, folder 8. Minutes, 1970

Box 2, folder 9. Minutes, 1971

Box 2, folder 10. Minutes, 1972

Box 2, folder 11. Minutes, 1973

Box 2, folder 12. Minutes, 1974

Box 2, folder 13. Minutes, 1975

Box 2, folder 14. Minutes, 1976

Box 1, folder 20. Two year plan, 1981-1982

Series 3: Financial records

Box 3, folder 1. Budget file, 1974

Box 3, folder 2. Budget file, 1977

Box 1, folder 21. Financial statements, 1965

Series 4: Plant records

Box 3, folder 3. Capital expenditures, 1977

Box 3, folder 4. Capital expenditures, 1978

Box 3, folder 5. Capital expenditures, 1979

Box 1, folder 22. Correspondence, etc., re sale of Morissey land, 1965-1969

Box 1, folder 14. Real estate appraisals, 1971, 1972

Box 1, folder 23. Waste water / river polllution memoranda and notes, 1970-1972

Box 2, folder 15. Waste water report and correspondence, 1971-1973

Series 5: Production records

Box 3, folder 6. Coater Training Committee minutes and checklist, 1994-1995

Box 1, folder 11. Cost reduction program, 1971

Box 2, folder 16. Equipment inventory, 1968

Box 1, folder 13. Production notebooks, 1929-1942 (lists some employees)

Box 1, folder 24. Production notebooks, 1933-1939 and 1938-1943

Box 2, folder 17. Production manual, 1972

Box 2, folder 18. Production manual, 1972

Box 2, folder 19. Production notes, 1946

Box 1, folder 25. TWT Labs memoranda, 1973-1979

Box 3, folder 7. Uptime Committee minutes, 1994-1995

Series 6: Personnel records

Box 1, folder 5. Accident reports, 1937, 1940

Box 1, folder 6. Accident reports, 1965, 1974, 1996

Box 2, folder 20. Attendance policy (survey of local companies), 1990

Box 2, folder 21. Attitude survey, 1989

Box 2, folder 22. Benefits, 1990-2000 (health, life insurance, 401-k)

Box 2, folder 23. Breaks policy (survey of local companies), 1989

Box 2, folder 26. Employee suggestions, 1988

Box 1, folder 32. Lay-off correspondence, 1970-1984

Box 3, folder 8. Lay-off correspondence, 2001-2002

Box 1, folder 34. Lists of employees, union officers, etc., 1963-1996

Box 2, folder 27. Lists of employees, union officers, etc., 1969-1989

Box 1, folder 12. Notices to employees, 1975-1998

Box 2, folder 28. Obituaries and retirements, 1953-2001

Box 1, folder 36. Payroll, 1964

Box 2, folder 24. Safety and accident correspondence, 1980-2001

Box 1, folder 37. Salary survey data, 1968, 1979

Box 2, folder 29. Schedule, 1892-1893

Box 2, folder 25. Scholarship fund, 1995-2001

Box 1, folder 38. Security guard service, 1967-1974

Box 1, folder 39. Shooting incident, 1969-1972

Box 1, folder 40. Strike, 1988

Box 3, folder 9. Sunshine Committee minutes, 1991

Box 1, folder 41. Tank rupture reports, 1979

Box 2, folder 30. Technician's union, 1981-1987

Box 2, folder 32. Union contract negotiations, 1972-1995

Box 1, folder 44 . Union contract negotiations, 1971 (Jahoda file)

Box 1, folder 16. Union contract negotiations, 1971 (Wenscowicz file)

Box 1, folder 17. Union contract negotiations, 1974

Box 1, folder 45. Union contract negotiations, 1982

Box 1, folder 46. Union correspondence, 1968-1996

Box 2, folder 31. Union correspondence, 1970-1988

Box 1, folder 47. Union jurisdictional dispute with Teamsters Local #64, 1968

Box 2, folder 33. Uniforms policy (survey of local companies), 1989

Box 1, folder 48. Wage scales, 1967, 1968, 1971

Box 2, folder 49. Miscellaneous records on individual employees

Box 2, folder 34. Miscellaneous, 1980-1996

Series 7: Sales records

Box 2, folder 35. Price list, 1973

Box 1, folder 50. Pricing information, 1985-1990

Box 1, folder 51. Reprographics catalog, 1980

Box 1, folder 52. Sales brochures and memoranda, 1974-1977

Box 1, folder 15. Sales training manual, undated

Box 2, folder 36. Sample books, 1971

Series 8: Historical notes

Box 1, folder 57. Interview with Norman Rawlinson, 1991

Box 2, folder 37. Newspaper articles (copies), 1919-1953

Box 2, folder 38. Newspaper articles (copies), 1960-2000

Box 2, folder 39. Historical notes, compiled by Richard Rupp

Unprocessed material:

Box 4. Approximately 0.25 linear feet of material, including the company's 1980 five-year plan and other miscellaneous papers, 1975-2000.

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Subjects:

Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, Local 1554-T.

Arkwright, Inc.

Blizzards - Rhode Island, 1978.

Coventry ( R.I.) - Commerce.

Interlaken, Inc.

Labor unions - Textile workers - Rhode Island - Coventry.

Paper coatings.

Photography - Films.

Textile fabrics - Sample books.

Textile industry - Rhode Island - Coventry.

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RIHS1822