About Amesbury Things

by John Mayer
ACM Executive Director

Moses Dennett carriage, made ca. 1893. Unrestored condition.

The Amesbury Carriage Museum has a small collection of historic materials that support our mission to “champion the history of Amesbury industry and people.” A very small selection of our objects are available on the Collections page of the ACM website. The collection includes carriages, accessories and a number of other very select artifacts. We are not able to collect in the same way as larger museums – we just don’t have the staff or space. But we can collect things that align with our mission and that we are able to care for.

Here are a few of our recent acquisitions:

Photograph, Merrimac Hat Company, made ca. 1944.

Our Moses Dennett carriage presents a wonderful opportunity to dive deeply into a period when Amesbury was known as the “Carriage Capital of America.” (Some even say “the World!”) The vehicle was owned by Moses Dennett (b. 1841, d. 1930), a carriage maker who operated a shop on carriage hill from 1881 to 1893. Dennett’s was one of the factories lost in the fire of 1888. He rebuilt, and continued operations until around 1893. This vehicle was owned by Dennett and passed through his family until it was donated to the museum last month. The carriage presents a historical challenge to us – it has maker’s labels from both Dennett and the S.R. Bailey Co. And it appears to be an early version of the Whalebone Road Wagon – a vehicle that became a signature carriage from the Bailey Company. The personal connection to Dennett is what makes this object so unique. We are thrilled to add this to the collection and look forward to learning more about it.

Visit the ACM “Digital Library” on our website to see the M. Dennett Carriage Company trade catalog.

Merrimac Hat Factory photograph collection was purchased by the ACM, thanks to the generous support of Suzanne Cote and Maris Ditolla. This collection contains about 40 photographs of workers at the Merrimac Hat Company. The images were used in a promotional catalog, Making the Headlines, published in 1944. The images offer a look into the process of hat making and capture the faces of many Amesbury workers who were part of the company. The history of Amesbury hat making goes back to the 1700s. And there is not a history of this important industry – yet. It will be a very interesting process to develop a full narrative of hat making in the region.

Amesbury brick, mid-19th century. Not really part of the collection – but a teaching object found recently in the Powow River.

An Amesbury-made brick was recently found in the Powow River near tidewater. Brickmaking in Amesbury dates back to the 1600s and was an essential local industry. Skilled workers excavated clay from deposits found near the river, processed and molded the clay into bricks, and then fired the bricks in kilns on site. A walk around downtown, carriage hill, or nearby neighborhoods reveals how important bricks were to local builder. This is another area without a local history – and we look forward to exploring it.

For more about brick-making history, visit brickcollecting.com.

Metal Shop, No. 4 Building. Two operations are illustrated here. In the foreground, Albert Hamel is “fixing” a rothschild after the forming of the panel, and at the right, Harry Perkins is bumping a back seat panel. (Image and caption from the Mutual Tattler, a Biddle & Smart publication.)

Audio recording of Edward Hamel, Biddle and Smart worker, was recorded 1989. The automobile-body making industry played an enormous role in the early history of 20th century Amesbury. Two companies – Biddle & Smart, and the Walker Body Company employed over 5,000 workers and made over 40,000 bodies in one year alone (1926). This rare audio recording was made by historian Sinclair Powell for his 1999 history the Franklin Automobile Company. The story of people brings history alive. For all of us, there is so much to learn. Link to the audio recording (approx. 55 minutes).

Learning more. Are you interested in learning more about the ACM collections? The museum field can offer many interesting and helpful resources. You can begin by visiting websites of the American Alliance of Museum (aam-us.org) or the American Association for State and Local History (aaslh.org). Perhaps you would like to volunteer and help with our research or cataloging? Please contact me (jmayer@amesburycarriagemuseum.com).