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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. The company by then employed more than fifty workers, both men and women. Their reputation for fine workmanship in the manufacture of all kinds of pocket-books (wallets), billbooks, letter books, card cases, etc, was known throughout the country. Fire destroyed the factory building in the summer of 1889; the owners erected this new structure on the same site. Note the shutters and clapboards that give the building the appearance of a residence rather than a manufactory.

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