Holyoke Public Library
Parsons Paper Company Collection
Detail from:
Parsons Paper Company payroll ledger
The Parsons Paper Company was founded in 1853 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, by Joseph Clark Parsons. At the time, the Boston-based investors who were financing the planned industrial city of Holyoke were skeptical of Parsons's desire to build a paper mill in the new city. They had imagined Holyoke emerging as a textile-manufacturing center, much like Lowell in eastern Massachusetts. Parsons prevailed, and within a decade the company was the country's largest producer of writing and envelope paper. Colonel Aaron Bagg of West Springfield became its first president, and his descendants ran the company until Edward P. "Terry" Bagg retired in 1977.
Parsons's success spurred the establishment of numerous other paper mills in the city, and by the last decades of the 19th century Holyoke was the country's leading producer of paper. Although it was also home to a wide variety of other manufacturing concerns, Holyoke became known for its papermaking and paper-converting industries. In the 20th century, Parsons rejected the industry trend toward the production of cheap, chemically treated, wood-pulp paper and focused instead on producing ledger and bond paper with a high cotton rag content. The Great Depression of the 1930s nearly closed the company, but taking on the production of invasion currency in World War II gave it a much-needed boost. In 1959, it merged with the New Jersey-based National Vulcanized Fiber Co. and continued to produce high-quality art paper and parchment. MIT and Harvard University ordered their watermarked bond writing paper from Parsons. It supplied museum board (used in mounting and framing) to the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When Parsons closed in 2005, it was the last paper mill of its type in Holyoke. A massive fire in 2008 destroyed most of the company records that had remained in the then-shuttered mill.
The Holyoke History Room at Holyoke Public Library has a small collection of Parsons Paper Company materials that have been inventoried, as well as relevant material among the History Room's prints, books, and photographs.
Parsons's success spurred the establishment of numerous other paper mills in the city, and by the last decades of the 19th century Holyoke was the country's leading producer of paper. Although it was also home to a wide variety of other manufacturing concerns, Holyoke became known for its papermaking and paper-converting industries. In the 20th century, Parsons rejected the industry trend toward the production of cheap, chemically treated, wood-pulp paper and focused instead on producing ledger and bond paper with a high cotton rag content. The Great Depression of the 1930s nearly closed the company, but taking on the production of invasion currency in World War II gave it a much-needed boost. In 1959, it merged with the New Jersey-based National Vulcanized Fiber Co. and continued to produce high-quality art paper and parchment. MIT and Harvard University ordered their watermarked bond writing paper from Parsons. It supplied museum board (used in mounting and framing) to the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When Parsons closed in 2005, it was the last paper mill of its type in Holyoke. A massive fire in 2008 destroyed most of the company records that had remained in the then-shuttered mill.
The Holyoke History Room at Holyoke Public Library has a small collection of Parsons Paper Company materials that have been inventoried, as well as relevant material among the History Room's prints, books, and photographs.