Rag Paper Manufacture in the United States, 1801–1900

Outlining the early history of the U.S. paper industry, this book provides details on paper manufacturing from the early 1800s, when American paper was created almost entirely by hand out of cotton and other plant fibers, to the discovery of wood-pulp paper and the introduction of commercial-grade paper machines during the post–Civil War period. It discusses paper machine manufacturing, major U.S. mills, the papermaking traditions of Dutch and German immigrants, the politics of papermaking, and the eventual expansion of the paper industry from New England to the forests of the Northeast, Midwest, and Northwest. Two appendices provide a census listing of more than 1,100 U.S. paper mills, along with a directory of more than 1,300 mill owners and companies. The book contains around 70 illustrations and diagrams of major mills and relevant manufacturing technologies.

Writer and businessman AJ Valente lives in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.

AJ Valente
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 316
Bibliographic Info: 61 photos, 6 tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5863-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5997-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments viii
Preface      1

Part One: The Cylinder-Wire Machine
1. The Rag Market      3
2. Gilpin vs. Ames      15
3. Pittsfield Progress      26
4. The Paper Trade      38
5. The Growing Empire      60
6. The Demise of Handmade Paper      76

Part Two: The Moving-Wire Machine
7. The Machine Manufacturers      89
8. Ohio and the West      103
9. North and South      109
10. Crane vs. Willcox      119
11. Holyoke, City of Industry      133

Part Three: The Wood Pulp Era
12. The Curtisville Exponent      153
13. A Changing Industry      167
14. West and Northwest      183

Appendix I: Directory of 19th Century Paper Mills      197
Appendix II: Directory of Paper Mill Owners      252
Chapter Notes      295
Bibliography      299
Index      301