This wallet was made by Alice Veronica Merrick, an employee at the Arms Manufacturing Company in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. By 1930, the year she began working for the company, it operated two plants, one in South Deerfield, and another in Malden, Massachusetts. Together they employed 150 workers. The company began when Dennis Arms began making pocketbooks (wallets) for the New York market in the early 1840s. By 1845, he had two employees. On his death, his three sons formed the Arms Brothers Company and were soon operating facilities in Boston and New York. In 1861, two sons left and Charles Arms continued operating in South Deerfield as the Arms Manufacturing Company. By 1930, Arms Manufacturing had diversified beyond pocketbooks to other leather items such as writing cases. The company continued through World War II, but ended its South Deerfield operations around 1949.
Arms Manufacturing Company. Wallet. ca. 1930. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/1986-25-01/. Accessed on December 6, 2024.
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