Shoutout to the local library's archive for showing me something wild about old paper

I was helping them repair a 1920s city directory, and the archivist pointed out a tiny watermark in the corner of a page. Under a light, it showed the paper mill was in Holyoke, Massachusetts, which apparently supplied over 70% of the country's writing paper at one point. I had no idea a single town had that kind of hold on the market. Has anyone else run into paper from a historically huge mill like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby56112d ago

Okay so that 70% number, is that for all the paper they made or just the fancy cotton rag stuff? I'm trying to picture how one mill could supply that much for the whole country, the logistics would be crazy lol. Did they have a special process or was it just being in the right place with the right resources?

victor_barnes4825d ago

Wait, was that 70% of writing paper or just the fancy rag content paper? I thought their big thing was the cotton rag stock.

abbyk1025d ago

Their cotton rag paper is the premium line, not their whole business.