(uptempo inspirational music) - [Narrator] There's an old toolbox here that was once included with the purchase of new Ford automobiles.

Discover the ties that the World Series Trophy has with a local manufacturer.

And later, we'll visit an old house museum where the eclectic collections represent all corners of Rhode Island history.

This is "Treasures Inside the Museum".

(uptempo inspirational music continues) (uptempo inspirational music continues) (mid tempo gentle music) There's an old building in Attleboro that's become a time capsule for the city's industrial past.

It's a place that celebrates the innovations and inventors who change the way we work.

This old foundry is now home to the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum.

- The museum tries to tell a story of Attleboro's industry.

- It's a place where people can come and they can learn.

The single thing that Attleboro is really noted for, it's the jewelry center.

- Jewelry was a very large and significant industry, but it wasn't The very first successful industry, button making was.

There were textiles.

Attleboro had eight mills in the area.

They made cost for the textile industry.

- [Narrator] At the museum, they chronicle the industrial history of the region.

The landscape of this area was once defined by the wooden mills and factories that were built here, but that landscape would be redefined when the great fire of 1898 destroyed the industrial heart of the city.

- It was a fast moving fire and it wiped out the area in two and a half hours.

- [Narrator] By the time the smoke had cleared, even one of the city's firehouses was destroyed.

Today, an antique hand pumper wagon sits in the center of the museum.

It tells the story of not only the fire, but of a city's resilience.

(uptempo music) - So this is the Fire Queen.

The Fire Queen was a pumper.

It was made in Pawtucket Rhode Island by the Jeffers Company and it was used by the Attleboro Fire Department.

And it would be pulled to a fire.

It was the source of water basically.

It didn't have a tank on it.

It has a pump in the back, and it has a feed hose, so it would be put into a source of water, a pond, or a stream deep enough.

You notice on the end, there's this metal grate that would keep the frogs from getting into the water or whatever else was there.

And then the large handles would be dropped down perpendicular.

You'd get 10 men on either side.

It would prime up the pump and build the pressure.

You'd put your hoses here and you'd fight the fire.

They said between 50 and 100 feet of stream could be pumped out to fight a fire.

It was pulled to the fire.

It wasn't attached to a horse or horse drawn.

It was pulled by the individuals who were gonna pump it.

The fire of 1898 decimated this area, which was the jewelry manufacturing area.

And most of the buildings were built of wood and they were four stories high with a lot of glass, a lot of solvents, a lot of flammable materials were used in these buildings.

And the 1898 fire put 20 businesses out of homes.

But they were able to with the good heartedness of the other businesses, believe it or not, could find space and find machines.

So they were able to put out their spring and fall lines and winter lines and then were able to rebuild.

Within a year, 18 out of the 20 companies were rebuilt.

- [Narrator] Those companies rebuilt using brick rather than wood, creating much of the landscape that still exists today.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) Exhibits here are like a walkthrough time, reflecting a changing American workplace.

People who once labored on farms were now punching a time clock to record their hours in a factory.

(clock chiming) Artifacts here include a lot of the tools used by workers as well as pieces that shed light on the innovative industrialists who are leading the way.

- Frank Mossberg came to the area through the Providence area actually and settled here in Attleboro and created the company called Apco Mossberg.

He loved to invent, I think more than actually getting into production.

One of the things he did a lot of was the socket wrench.

I think he invented the first socket wrench set, and there was a socket wrench set that went with every Model A and Model T that Henry Ford made.

I've heard that Henry Ford was in Attleboro quite a bit working with Mr. Mossberg because Mr. Mossberg also invented the roller bearing, which was very key for making wheels go around without just a hole with a piece of metal going through it.

And then he invented several other things.

You'll see a pencil sharpener that he made, a whistle that he made.

He was very involved with the making of the reels that wire was wound on.

And also in this area, the drawing and thinning down of the wire for telephone wires and electric wires was all done between here and Providence.

(gentle music continues) He made what I think is one of the first electric cars that was made, and these cars were made in the late 1800's.

This is a picture of one of his electric cars.

There's probably eight people in this little car.

And it's probably just a little bit bigger than a Volkswagen in size.

But sitting in the front seat in the driver's seat, which is right here, is Frank Mossberg.

And sitting next to him is my grandfather Larson.

And in the very back seat, there is a guy sitting way back there, happens to be the grandfather of my wife.

And this is something that we found later in years by coincidence.

- [Carleton] Frank Mossberg created because he loved doing it.

He had 200 patents, but he was one of those guys who had companies galore, but he would get into something else quickly because he had that drive to create things, to see things be better than what they were.

(register dings) (mid tempo gentle music) - [Narrator] A lot of the objects on display are still in working order.

Visitors can watch as museum staff transform a simple disc right before their eyes.

Another machine demonstrates how chains are made.

It starts with a simple spool of wire, and with some well-engineered twisting and turning, a chain comes out the other end.

In one exhibit space, it looks as if the workers just stepped away from a break and never returned.

Elsewhere, the story of jewelry manufacturing wouldn't be complete without paying tribute to those who worked on the assembly line.

- So this is your basic jewelry manufacturing assembly line.

So these ladies are classic examples of jewelry assemblers, and you'd have 100 of them in a long row in one of the jewelry manufacturing buildings, four stories of them.

These women would go to an inventory station, they'd get an order written up, then they'd need to make 50 earrings.

So they'd go to the inventory station, they would tell them how many parts of item number A, B, C, D, one, two, and then A, B, C, D, three, four, and so on.

They'd get those 50 pieces out, they put them in a box in front of 'em and they'd assemble 'em.

And of course, they had the foreman overseeing.

- [Narrator] The end result was quality products that customers would value oftentimes for generations.

One of these treasures is the focus of an exhibit that highlights one local company's influence on fashion for over 100 years.

The Whiting and Davis Company automated the manufacturing of mesh handbags, regularly adding new designs and eventually, accessories and apparel.

- Anywhere from ladies pocketbooks to clothing that was made out of metal, to all the different jewelry, so all of this stuff was made here in town.

- [Narrator] Another local company with a reputation that spread far and wide was Balfour.

- The Balfour Company is one of those pillars of our industrial history here in Attleboro.

People will come in and say, "Oh, my grandmother worked there.

"My uncle worked there, my father worked there.

"My father was a stone setter.

"He was a hub and die maker."

(lighthearted music) L.G.

Balfour started a jewelry company basically with fraternity and sorority pins.

He was a salesman for other companies with fraternity and sorority pins.

He hated the fact that they were poor quality.

He inquired about where were the best craftsmen.

He found out they were in the Providence Attleboro area.

He moved up in 1913, rented a space, had eight people in his company.

- [Narrator] The company quickly developed a reputation for quality and leveraged that status to expand their workforce and their product line.

- Balfour had a tagline, "Jewelry's finest craftsmen".

And that was what they were known for.

So they were known for doing class rings.

They were known for high school rings and college rings.

- [Narrator] The business of class rings made Balfour a household name, but it was another product they created that opened up the professional sports market.

- This is the World Series trophy.

Major League Baseball didn't have a World Series trophy, and Don Jackman was the manager of the trophy, a department at Balfour in 1966, '67.

He came to Major League baseball and said, "Hey, why don't you have a trophy?"

And they said, "We do have some trophies."

He said, "But you don't have one particular trophy "for the World Series."

So that major league baseball said, "Okay, go with it, "run with it."

They designed it, they made it.

It was the year that the Red Sox played the St. Louis Cardinals and lost.

And Mr. Jackman got the privilege of taking the trophy, which was four times this size, about two and a half three feet high with him on the plane to St. Louis to hand it out on the field.

And Balfour had that contract, the World Series Trophy Commissioner's trophy contract for 30 years after that.

- [Narrator] While the World Series Trophy is a source of local pride, another treasure at the museum recognizes the individuals who collectively contributed to the company's success.

- What you see here are how Mr. Balfour validated and cared for and rewarded his employees.

He gave them service jewelry, five year, 10 year, 15 year, 20 year, 25 year.

These cuff links were 25 year diamond chips for 10 carat gold.

These were 30, 35, 40, 45 year rings, 10 carat gold, some really nice enameling with the Balfour symbol in the middle diamond chips around and some different kinds of jewels.

And the last one has a lovely bunch of sapphires and red rubies.

- [Narrator] Throughout the museum, there are exhibits that give visitors a glimpse into the manufacturing world that once dominated this region.

A lot of the tools here look like they were just put down by the men and women who once filled the local factories.

The collection also includes the complete workshop of one man who usually worked alone.

This is the complete studio of Philip Kraczkowski.

(lighthearted music) - He was an Attleboro resident, graduated in 1938 from high school.

I think one of his line was something like, "You can have a little fun while you're working too," which was clearly part of the way he loved life.

And he went to RISD.

He was working on an art degree, but his family owned a dairy farm on Lindsey Street here in Attleboro.

Their hired hand got sick, he had to go home and work on the farm, but he had finished three years at RISD.

He came back to the farm.

He built a studio in the barn and he continued with his art.

And somebody asked him, I think it was an American artist, they did a article on him in the '60s and they asked him, "Well, do you feel bad that you didn't graduate?"

And he goes, "No."

He said, "I didn't need a college degree "I just needed talent."

- Phil Kraczkowski would get commissions, but most of his work was independently conceived.

He liked caricatures, he loved doing caricature art.

And he had a routine project like this "Western Horseman" magazine in which he'd develop western caricature scenes, and they would publish it as a cover on one of their issues.

Most all these, particularly the ones that are painted are the ones that were doing the cover art.

Looks like he did one for "Golfing Magazine" with a caricature golfer over there.

(lighthearted music) - You see how he worked, that's his workshop.

You can see some of the different medium he worked in.

He liked to work in in clay initially, and then worked with acrylics.

One of his big projects was making these Native American Western motif 12 inch figures.

- [Narrator] A lot of those bronze figures are on display here, alongside the tools that Kraczkowski used to make and assemble them.

His works included a bust of President Kennedy, and creating the iconic GI Joe for the Hasbro Toy company down the street.

He also used these tools to design medals awarded to presidents and the Pope.

- He was very prolific back in the early 1960's.

He had a number of sculpting projects underway.

One of the things I don't think I've ever seen and I don't see any evidence of it here is sketching of his ideas.

I don't know how he originated and formed the idea before he actually started creating it.

- [Narrator] From this simple one person studio workshop, to a jewelry manufacturer with a global reach, this area's industrial history is all on exhibit in this museum.

(uptempo music) (gentle music) Just off the main road in Coventry, Rhode Island is an old house that has had a myriad of different uses in its lifetime.

Today, it's a museum with a collection as eclectic as the buildings passed.

- It's called the Paine House Museum.

It's because that the Payne family was the longest living residents of the house.

They were here 85 years and then the house was donated to us in memory of Orvilla and Herbert Payne, and Herbert Payne was the last resident here.

- [Narrator] Inside the museum, exhibits include colonial era furniture, children's toys and a collection of everyday household items.

But one of the most telling pieces is this old sign.

- It says, "Entertainment for travelers, "good stabling for horses by A.

Holden."

The sign is very rare.

It would've been for the tavern at the time.

And this street, actually Holden Street was named after Holden Tavern when it was here.

Taverns were very significant back then.

Actually, it was originally a tavern by Samuel Bennett was the first licensed tavern here.

It wouldn't have been in this room, it would've been in the adjacent room because this was added on by the Braytons.

But you had to have a license to run a tavern in order to hold any type of town meeting.

A tavern was actually a hub for the community.

What happened is with Samuel Bennett, they wanted to form the town of Coventry, so he applied for a tavern license, and the first town council meeting and election was actually held right here at Samuel Bennett's Tavern.

Then came along the Braytons in 1742 and they continued to run it as a tavern until it was sold to the Holdens in 1797.

It was originally sold to Charles Holden, but then Anthony ended up taking over and that's where this sign comes in because we know that's Anthony Holden.

(mid tempo gentle music) Back then, the tavern was a meeting place.

They had to have musters to prepare the men for war and battle.

So every Saturday, they would have a muster here.

The town council meetings, it was a sick house, it was anything that was community related.

Whenever there was a meeting, or a special event, or something significant that the government needed to inform the citizens of, the signs would by law have to be posted at the tavern because that was the general gathering place of the community.

So the neatest part about this house is that there are so many rooms, little rooms, big rooms.

And it's just fascinating that every single drawer in this house and every single closet and cabinet all have little trinkets that have a lot of unsolved mysteries.

This has been another mystery piece because we do not know who donated it to us and we do not know who actually wore it.

So we have so many cherished pieces like this that it would be great that if we could track the history and know exactly who wore it, who donated it so we would have all the clues, all the mystery behind some of our artifacts solved.

So that's really important to us.

- [Narrator] In another gallery, there is a Civil War era drum, an assortment of early American muskets, and other military hardware on display.

The real challenge is preserving the textiles in the collection and the stories they tell.

(uptempo music) - Martin Smith came from North Situate who was the second lieutenant in the 14th Rhode Island heavy artillery, black regiment, Rhode Island's only black regiment.

This is Martin's second lieutenant hat.

You can see by the beret on the top that it's an officer's hat.

Unfortunately, it's in pieces, but it's a keeper, it's a keeper.

I'm trying to preserve this for future generations to come to see.

As you can see, this hat right now is caved in.

So what should be done which we're gonna try to do pretty soon, I'm gonna try to make a mount for it around.

So when I put this on here, it stays like the way it's supposed to, so it won't compact down.

And the cloth, that's going to deteriorate, start to split and get worse so we're gonna make a nice little cradle for it, and we put it in the a glass case.

- The environment that collections are stored and displayed in has a direct impact on their long-term condition.

This is almost always a bigger challenge for small museums that are often run primarily by volunteers.

Objects can be adversely affected by light, temperature, humidity, pollution, and of course human touch.

In the case of this old barn loom, saving and restoring it became a passion project.

- This is a two harness loom, two harnesses, and I have over 400 pedals.

Now, I'm going to step on the treadles and change the shift.

And I'm going to take the shuttle stick, and throw it through.

You can also size the yarn, which means spraying before putting it on, before dressing the loom.

Use fabric like spray start or whatever.

But back in the day, they didn't have that.

So now I'm going to change the shed again, step on treadle one, and then push the shuttle through.

I'm using a shuttle stick because it is easier on this loom.

Then I'll step on treadle two.

The shed opens in a different direction.

Up and down, that's all I'm doing.

Changing the shred up and down.

And that's basically what you do.

This loom has a history with the house, and this was discovered in the attic of the Charles A.

Foster barn in the backyard by Dave Westcott with the Rhode Island Spinners Guild.

And we saved it from being thrown out.

We brought the pieces outside, numbered them and brought them in here, and put it together, and brought it back to life.

- [Narrator] Today, the loom serves a dual purpose.

Visitors to the gift shop can purchase towels made here and demonstrations are often put on for visitors.

- Thinning and weaving are my passion, so I enjoy demonstrating and volunteering.

That's why I've joined the Rhode Island Spinners Guild.

My two favorite fibers are flax and cotton.

These settlers back in the day used the barn frame loom to make their own cloth so that they would have their own clothes.

Those that could not afford the imports from Europe, they would make rugs and blankets.

It's just a passion.

- [Narrator] The barn loom lives on.

And together with the rest of the collections and exhibits here, they help to reveal the story of Rhode Island's past.

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