When this photograph was taken in 1889, the Arms Manufacturing Company in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was the second-oldest manufacturing concern in Franklin County. Founded by Dennis Arms in 1845, it initially consisted of two or three employees. Forty years later the business became an incorporated body whose members were largely descendants of Mr. Arms, and the company employed more than fifty workers- including many women, as the photo shows. The company was known for its fine workmanship in the manufacture of all kinds of pocket-books (wallets), billbooks, letter books, card cases, etc. Fire destroyed the first building in the summer of 1889 and the owners erected the structure shown here on the same site. The shutters and clapboards were intended to give the building the appearance of a residence rather than a factory.