Starting to capture the history

[AAAndrew]

My latest blog post is looking at the first formation of the steel pen industry in the 1820's. Up to this point the making of steel pens had been a one-off, craftsman-style product. It was in the 1820's that the Birmingham lads first started to figure out how to crank out lots of pens at a higher level of quality and a cheaper price. Many of the names should be familiar: Perry, Mitchell (John and William), Mason and Gillott. What's not always so well-known is just how intertwined they were. Josiah Mason made Perry's pens from 1828 until almost 1870, before branching out with his own line of pens. William Mitchell worked for his brother John for a few years before starting his own factory, and their sister Maria married a young mechanic by the name of Joseph Gillott, who worked for John Mitchell for a bit before starting to make his own pens in a small workshop.

I hope to finish my write-up of the 1830's before the end of the week or this weekend at the latest. That's when things really start to heat-up, when the British invasion stimulates the Americans to start some pen factories of their own, which led to the 1840's where a "thousand flowers bloomed," and the 1850's where the Americans got serious and started innovating.

So much for thinking steel pens started with Esterbrook. 

https://thesteelpen.com/

[Salman Khattak]

I will be eagerly looking forward to the write up.

[AAAndrew]

The 1830's are now up. Whew! There's a lot there, and it all materializes out of the sources in teeny tiny pieces that have to be put back together again. A huge amount of research went into this one. These posts are not quickly jotted down like I had hoped! I had no idea when I started, but at the same time, it's very rewarding to see it all laid out and at least semi-coherent. I'm sure at some point I'll find more, or wish to expand sections, but I'm using these main posts as a way to lay out a framework for later commentary and more detailed history.

Now maybe someone else may hear about Charles Atwood.

https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/13/pen-history-the-early-years-1830s-the-british-invasion/

I also welcome comments, suggestions and corrections. And definitely welcome further information that can enrich what I've already written.

Andrew

[AAAndrew]

I have now created a table of contents for my blog. I find that since I'm writing topics not always in a specific order, it will help to have a way to organize the posts so you can see what you're interested in.

https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/18/the-steel-pen-table-of-contents/

Thanks!
Andrew

[AAAndrew]

Latest Pen maker post up. Josiah Hayden was an interesting example of early American industrial entrepreneur. He and his brother Joel did all kinds of things including making steel and then gold pens, but they were so much more for their communities, hence Hayden Pens from Haydenville, Massachusetts.

The 1840's were an interesting time for the US. There was much growth and expansion both in size as well as the economy. One of the lost makers was Josiah Hayden, and I've hopefully told a small part of his story in my latest blog post.

https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/21/pen-history-the-1840s-josiah-hayden/

Remember my table of contents is the easiest way to find your way around.
https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/18/the-steel-pen-table-of-contents/

[InkyFingers]

Wonderful stuffs.  Thanks Andrew.

[AAAndrew]

I added C. C. Wright today.
https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/22/pen-history-1840s-c-c-wright-co/

Charles Wright was one of the best engravers and medalists (making medals and medallions) America has ever produced. He had a very interesting life and just so happened to make steel pens for a few years to make enough money so that he could focus on engraving full-time.

Enjoy!

[AAAndrew]

Another stationer making their own pens has been added. Mark Levy & Brothers were selling pens through their Cheap Stationery Warehouse in 1841 when they started to make and sell their own pens.

As a bonus, I have included a picture of an actual Mark Levy pen. It's probably my oldest pen because they stopped making pens in 1845 or 1846.

Enjoy! https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/29/pen-history-1840s-mark-levy-and-brothers/

[AAAndrew]

I cranked out another one today. Myer Phineas is someone I've been looking at for quite a while. While he was the longest-producing US pen maker to come out of the 1840's (over 20 years), there are still so many mysteries. Like Athena he seems to spring to life fully-formed with a complex and disparate pen line. This seems to point toward his starting with someone else's machines, dies, etc... but it's not clear where these could have come from. Except for some odd dates, I would lay odds on C.C. Wright, but their dates overlap by a couple of years. He could have continued making Wright's pens for a year or two under contract while developing his own line, we know Wright was not really into making pens, but that's just pure speculation.

One interesting thing I think I discovered is that he may well have been the inventor of what later became the Double Spring pen in his 1853 patent. (see the Esterbrook 126 Double Spring as a common version, but there were many others) He even called his a Double Spring pen years before Esterbrook even arrived on these shores.

Anyway, one more major 1840's maker down. A few more to go, but we're starting to know less and less about the next couple.

https://thesteelpen.com/2017/11/30/pen-history-1840s-myer-phineas-the-forgotten-success-story/

[AAAndrew]

Added an interesting maker this afternoon. He was a tricky one to track down, but thanks to some help from the lovely Linda at the Birmingham Pen Museum, I think I've nailed down the British connections for Henry Benjamin Herts, known as H. B. Herts & Sons in the 1840's and into the early 1850's in New York City.

Herts was interesting in that he started making pens in Birmingham, and then moved to America in 1843. This is the first confirmed British pen maker moving to the US. It's not clear how the earlier makers learned how to make pens. Some like Atwood just invented their own techniques. It is clear that by the 1850's British pen manufacturing techniques were the norm in American factories.

Of course, it's also not clear if Herts actually made pens here or still made them in Birmingham and just sold them here through his American company. That's part of the mystery behind this relatively unknown pen maker of the 1840's.

https://thesteelpen.com/2017/12/08/pen-history-1840s-h-b-herts-sons-british-makers-in-america/

[AAAndrew]

A couple of more posts have been added.

A short one on Rhodes/Rhoads and Son(s). They were a bit of a mystery, but I think I've solved it. 
https://thesteelpen.com/2017/12/12/pen-history-the-1840s-rhodes-rhoads-mystery-transition-to-the-1850s/

And then I start to look at a very fun article from 1857 on how pens are made. I start with a paragraph from the article describing the history of the American pen industry in the 1840's.  The first time I read this article, I had no idea what they were talking about. Since doing this research I can now identify pretty much everyone referenced with just a few exceptions. It's interesting to see what an author in 1857 thought about the last decade of American pen manufacturing.
https://thesteelpen.com/2017/12/15/pen-history-up-to-the-1840s-from-the-perspective-of-the-1850s/ 

This is also a good segue into the next major pen manufacturer I'm going to look at, the Washington Medallion Pen Company. At this point, the 1850's-60's, we start to find the first, major, long-term and, most importantly, successful American pen manufacturers. We also start to see people coming and going between these major companies, and the vital role imported Birmingham men made in the industry. (Washington Medallion Pen Company, Harrison & Bradford, Esterbrook, Turner & Harrison, Miller Bros. were all founded by or their primary factory managers and tool makers were Birmingham-trained)