Specialty paper making has been a keystone industry in the Berkshires since the Crane family secured its first contract to make US national currency in the 1870s, although the Crane family had been making paper in Massachusetts and the Berkshires since the 1770s. 

Wednesday, September 18 - The Rise and Fall of Lee Paper Industry
Lecture at Berkshire Community College.

The economy of Lee was born out of the paper industry. Many inventive advances lead to Lee being the largest paper maker in the United States by the 1870's. Course will discuss the mill owners, the rise and fall of the industry in Lee.

Francis Stone is a graduate UC Long Beach. He worked at GE/General Dynamics as technical writer and Contract management. He was a member of Town Players and several choral groups. Susan Stone graduated from Miss Hall's School and the University of Massachusetts and worked in the Dialysis Unit of BMC as a nurse. Residents of Lee for over 50 years, Susan has been member of Lee Historical Commission for past 12 years.

Wednesday, September 25 - History of Crane and Currency Paper
Lecture, demonstration and hands on workshop taking place at Arrowhead, Pittsfield. 

Dennis Croughwell will offer a talk on the history of Crane paper and papermaking in the Berkshires and currency paper, followed by a hands on papermaking workshop with Jenna Ware.

Dennis Croughwell has been a Crane Museum docent since 2019. Prior to coming to the museum, he worked at Crane for 40 years as a papermaker (i.e. machine tender) at the Bay State Mill, in the Engineering Group as an electrical project manager, and as manager of Central Maintenance and Facilities Services, both with company-wide responsibilities. He is a third generation Crane employee, following his father and paternal grandfather. As an amateur historian, Dennis enjoys collecting information and artifacts related to Town of Dalton, and the Berkshires in general, in addition to the Crane family and organization.

Jenna Ware, Museum Director at the Crane Museum  joined a team of experienced and delightful curators as the museum’s first director in 2019. She has worked in arts management and arts education for the last 30 years in the Berkshires.

Wednesday, October 2 - Lower Carroll Mill ruin in New Marlborough Site Tour
This tour includes a short hike on uneven ground (.5 mi round trip to the site).

This will be a guided visit to the Lower Carroll Paper Mill site in Mill River. Participants will see mill ruins, but with sufficient material surviving to figure out how the process was powered, how it was likely carried out. The site includes the ruins of an original beater vat in situ, also part of a Fourdrinier machine, removed from the building area but easily examined. The dam and flume system are also evident, also abutments to the original bridge access across the Konkapot River.

The property is open to the public, reached behind Mill River Cemetery by a woods walk downhill to the river. The program, including the walk will be about 90 minutes.

Bernard A. Drew has been a weekly newspaper reporter, editor and page designer, most recently for The Lakville Journal. He has written Our Berkshires columns for The Berkshire Eagle since 1996. He has written 58 books in the fields of popular literature reference and local Berkshire County history. The most recent is Runway 29: A History of Walter J. Koladza Airport in Great Barrington.

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