![](WalterHubbard.jpg)
Walter
Hubbard
(1828-1911)
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Rushlight Club
The Historical Lighting
Society of Canada
The Aladdin Knights of the
Mystic Light
The Victorian Society in America
Society for the Preservation of New
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Connecticut Historical Society
Meriden, Connecticut
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Marks
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A
Brief Company History
1852-1940
The partnership
of Nathaniel and William L. Bradley, Walter Hubbard, and Orson and
Chitten Hatch began in Meriden, Connecticut in1852 as Bradley,
Hatch & Company. Clocks were the sole product of the newly
formed company.
When the Hatch
brothers sold their interests in the firm two years later, Nathaniel
Bradley, William Bradley and Walter Hubbard formed a company which
they named simply Bradley and Hubbard. By 1856, they were
producing call bells and sewing machines, but clocks continued to
be the main line of production throughout the 1850's and 1860's.
Many northern
manufacturers prospered immensely during the Civil War due to the
expanded market west of the Mississippi and increased foreign exports.
Bradley and Hubbard was no exception, adding the production
of flags, hoop skirts, spring measuring tapes and match safes during
the war years.
The discovery
of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 also had a great impact on the product
line of Bradley & Hubbard with the decision to begin production
of kerosene burning lamps. By 1871, kerosene virtually replaced
whale oil for heating and illumination and new ways of burning it
more efficiently were needed. Between 1868 and 1875, Bradley and
Hubbard secured 33 patents relating to the design and mechanics
of oil burning lamps (in all, the company would eventually patent
a total of 238 designs and mechanical devices). The company was
again reorganized in 1875, this time as a joint stock company renamed
The Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company.
![](bhfactory1880.jpg)
The
Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company factory complex, ca1880.
Growing rapidly
throughout the 1880's, the company added new products such as architectural
grilles, railings, fences, window guards, and elevator enclosures.
By the 1890's, the Bradley and Hubbard name was synonymous with
high quality and artistic merit. Their products were marketed not
only in their own showrooms in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia,
but also by a force of salesmen traveling throughout the country
and by the large retail firms of Marshall Field & Company, Sears
and Roebuck & Company, and Montgomery Ward & Company.
The Bradley and
Hubbard Manufacturing Company survived the Great Depression, but
after 88 years in business, it was sold in 1940 to the Charles
Parker Company, also of Meriden. Famous for its Parker sporting
shotgun, the company also made household items such as coffee mills,
waffle irons, lamps, locks, and door knockers. Upon the acquisition
of the Bradley and Hubbard factories, the Parker Company instituted
its Bradley and Hubbard Division with the stated intent of
carrying on production of some products of the former company such
as bathroom accessories, lighting fixtures, architectural bronzes
and brass work. Within a year and a half after the purchase, the
United States entered into WWII and the Parker Company turned its
attention to the war effort. As the war escalated, all metal production
was diverted to war related goods, making it unlikely that much,
if anything, from the Bradley and Hubbard line was produced, unless
for military use. By 1950, all references to a Bradley and Hubbard
Division of the Parker Company had been dropped from the company's
literature.
Finally, in 1976,
a spectacular blaze totally destroyed the long abandoned Bradley
and Hubbard factory buildings. Any records of the old Bradley and
Hubbard Manufacturing Company that were still in the building at
the time were either burned or lost in the rubble when the shell
was afterwards demolished.
Created by Richard
E. Stamm
© Smithsonian Institution
|
Nathaniel Bradley
(1829-1915)
View
the Collection
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![](Firetools.jpg)
Fire
Tools and Andirons
![](inkwells.jpg)
Desk
Accessories
![](lamps.jpg)
Lamps & Chandeliers
![](Bookends.jpg)
Bookends
![](matchsafegroup.jpg)
Match
Safes, Match box Holders,
& Smoking Gear
![](Candlesticks2006034ab.jpg)
Candlesticks
and Candelabrum
![](vasegroup.JPG)
Vases
and Ewers
![](miscobjects.JPG)
Miscellaneous
Objects
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on image title to go to objects page |