Collections record Beta

Portfolio

1971-15-42

Portfolio - now broken into two pieces. Backside plain black paper. Front side has painted bouquet of red and blue anemones with mother of pearl accents. The corners of the portfolio have small pieces of mother of pearl and the whole is painted and varnished with colors. Interior lined with printed paper.

The Litchfield Manufacturing Company was founded in 1850 by Dr. Josiah G. Beckwith, a local physician and druggist who operated a medical practice and pharmacy on South Street in the building currently occupied by the Post Office. After founding the company Beckwith acquired the property on South Street along the Bantam River that a decade earlier had been used first by Wadsworth, Lounsbury, and Turner, and later by Julius Peck & Co., to manufacture shelf clocks. At the time Beckwith acquired the building it measured 80 feet by 50 feet and was three stories high. In 1851 the Litchfield Manufacturing Company was incorporated and several investors, including circus owner P.T. Barnum, joined the Board of Directors. The company manufactured papier-mache goods such as small tables, card cases, fire screens, portfolios, small boxes, vases and clock cases as well as metal nails, ornamental hinges and clasps for everything from trunks to daguerreotype cases. Trained papier-mache workers from England and Germany were brought to Litchfield to work for the Company and train local men and women in the technique. At its peak, the factory employed over 50 people. The success was short lived however. In 1854, P.T. Barnum persuaded the board to move the factory to East Bridgeport. A year later, due to financial difficulties, the factory closed.

Payne Kenyon Kilbourn used this portfolio as a binding for manuscripts, letters, drawings and engravings for the Kilbourn genealogy

• Litchfield Manufacturing Co.

ca. 1850-1855

12" long x 9" wide

• papier mache
• mother of pearl
• paint