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Belding Brothers & Company
| Name: | Belding Brothers & Company |
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| Dates: |
1860 - 1925 (Life/Active Dates)
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| Biography/History: | In 1858 Hiram and Alvah Belding left their hometown of Ashfield, Massachusetts and settled in Belding, Michigan. In 1860, they began selling silk from their new home; their brother Milo, who had remained in Ashfield, purchased the silk for them to sell. By 1866, Belding Brothers began manufacturing silk thread in Rockville, Connecticut, and in 1872 built an additional mill in Northampton, Mass, where they manufactured various “broad” goods and embroidery silks of every description. Belding Bros. expanded again in 1890, building a mill in Belding, Michigan. The company published numerous booklets, many issued annually on January 1st; these booklets and ads ranging from 1890 to 1930 can be found on Amazon, Google, and in Smithsonian Collections. In 1925, Belding Bros. & Co. merged with Heminway Silk Co. to become Belding-Heminway Co., and “soon after” was acquired by Corticelli Silk Co. as Belding-Heminway-Corticelli. In 1932 the last Belding-Heminway-Corticelli mill in Belding, Michigan closed. However, a Belding Corticelli Thread Co. operated at least through the 1990s, producing Kevlar, Nomex and polyester sewing threads [Smithsonian Collection: National Museum of American History]. |
| Related Objects: |
2988.1 (Dress, Meta Dodson's Embroidered Waterlily Dress, 1900-1910)
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