This collection of business records for Porter Machine Works, starting in 1882, renamed the Porter & McLeod Machine Shop, took a long time and a lot of saviors to get where it is today — inventoried, rehoused into acid-free folders and boxes, and studied by a scholar of local precision manufacturing (thanks to a grant from Mass Humanities!) Our scholar was UMass Lowell history professor Robert Forrant, himself a former machinist.

To get an idea of what that involved, including the nitty-gritty behind-the-scenes work and the grants* that made it possible, check out the post from the curator’s blog HERE.

*It was only three grants at the time of that blog, before the fourth was awarded. They were: 1) a Research Inventory Grant from Mass Humanities, 2) a Supplies Regrant from the Mass. State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB), 3) a Town of Hatfield Community Preservation Act (CPA) grant; and 4) a Scholar in Residence grant from Mass Humanities.

The physical collection is now part of the Hatfield Historical Museum, owned by the Town of Hatfield and managed by the Hatfield Historical Society. You can explore the inventory HERE, and if we can easily answer your questions, we will. As neither the Historical Society nor the Hatfield Historical Museum has a phone, you can reach the museum’s curator at: hatfieldhistoricalsociety@gmail.com

Jonathan E. Porter founded Porter Machine Works in 1882. Its initial location was on one floor of the mill building on the north side of the river, which housed the Shattuck Gun Shop, rebuilt by C.S. Shattuck after the 1881 fire.  Porter then relocated directly across the river (at the falls), and built the shop that still stands today. In 1898, Porter’s shop foreman and son-in-law Hugh McLeod purchased the business for $10,000. Sometime after, the business was renamed the Porter & McLeod Machine Shop. The shop did business across the country and abroad, and closed its doors in 1970.

How did this modest machine shop, tucked away in a small farming town, manage to attract skilled machinists and produce such a thriving business with an international reach for so many years (nearly 90)?

That’s what our Scholar in Residence grant from Mass Humanities (grant #4) addressed.