New England

Learn more about the Father of the Franchise Industry in this illuminating history about the Howard Johnson restaurant franchise and the man behind it all.

Howard Johnson created an orange-roofed empire of ice cream stands and restaurants that stretched from Maine to Florida, and all the way to the West Coast. With a reputation for good food at affordable prices, hungry customers would regularly return for more. The attractive white Colonial Revival restaurants, with eye-catching porcelain tile roofs, illuminated cupolas and sea blue shutters, were described in Reader's Digest in 1949 as the epitome of eating places that look like New England town meeting houses dressed up for Sunday. Highlighted in television shows such as Mad Men and films Netflix's 2019 The Irishman, it's obvious that Howard Johnson's occupies an indelible and pleasant place popular culture. Boston historian and author Anthony M. Sammarco recounts how Howard Johnson introduced twenty-eight flavors of ice cream, the Tendersweet clam strips, grilled frankforts and a menu of delicious and traditional foods that families eagerly enjoyed when they traveled.

The most respected of firearm companies, Smith & Wesson explores the guns and company history from 1852 to to 1965. Rarely seen historical photographs, advertisements, and company documents culled from the company archives, museums collections, and the private collections of Smith & Wesson collectors make this a must for every gun collector and admirer.

Horace Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson shared a dream of manufacturing a firearm that could fire repeatedly, using a new and self-contained cartridge. In 1852, the dream became a reality with the founding of Smith & Wesson Firearms Company. Over the next 154 years, the company grew to be one of the most innovative and respected firearms manufacturers in the world. The story of Smith & Wesson is not only about two knowledgeable and enterprising men but also the story of generations of creative and dedicated men and women. The spirit of innovation generated by the partners has long outlived them. Today Smith & Wesson is synonymous with quality, performance, and durability. Smith & Wesson explores the company history, its people, and significant products from the partners' first venture in 1852 to the sale of the Wesson family business in 1965. This book features rarely seen historical photographs, advertisements, and company documents culled from the company archives, museums collections, and the private collections of Smith & Wesson collectors.

The world’s one-and-only PEZ historian dispenses fun facts on the candy’s evolution from smoking substitute to childhood treat to pop culture collectible.

PEZ is an American classic and a staple of many childhood memories. Yet it originated in Austria, where PEZ began in 1927 as compressed peppermint tablets marketed as an alternative to smoking. Upon arrival in the United States in 1952, PEZ quickly took a new direction, adding fruit flavors and three-dimensional character heads to top the dispensers. Now produced in Orange, Connecticut, the iconic PEZ brand is available in over eighty countries, selling more than sixty-five million dispensers annually and inspiring collectors and fans worldwide.

Join the official PEZ historian, Shawn Peterson, on a journey of sweet proportions for an inside look at the world’s most cherished interactive candy.

How this roadside attraction became a BEAR-y big hit and turned into a must-see New Hampshire destination that still exists today!

In 1928, Edward and Florence Clark opened a roadside attraction in Lincoln, New Hampshire, for visitors to the White Mountains. Ed Clark's Eskimo Sled Dog Ranch featured guided tours with its purebred Eskimo sled dogs and artifacts from Labrador, Canada. The Stand offered souvenirs, tonic, and maple products to motorists. Three black bears, Soggle, Toggle and Woggle, joined the family in 1935, and the bears acted as the perfect visual attraction, gaining the attention of curious passersby.

In 1949, Ed and Murray, sons of Florence and Edward, began training black bears for show work. The Clark brothers and their bears delighted guests with humor and hospitality as they entertained and educated the audience. Generations later, that philosophy lives on as the Clarks offer bear shows, rides on the White Mountain Central Railroad, family entertainment, and good, honest fun to visitors. There are up to 20 family members working at Clark's Trading Post on any given day, including fifth-generation descendants.

When Torrington's first English settlers, Ebenezer Lyman Jr. and his wife, Sarah, arrived in the hills of northwest Connecticut in 1737, they found little more than a lonely wilderness.

Although the town grew steadily, it was only in 1813, when Frederick Wolcott built his woolen mill on the banks of the Naugatuck River, that Torrington was set on the path to becoming a significant manufacturing center. A railroad line completed in 1849 linked the town with larger population centers and further stimulated industrial growth. For the next 100 years, Torrington supplied the world with needles, woolen cloth, hardware, tools, sheet and rolled brass, bicycles, skates, golf shafts, ball bearings, and other manufactured products. Together, Torrington's farmers, laborers, builders, artists, and entrepreneurs created a dynamic and progressive community in the hills of Litchfield County.

Reading about Reading's long history and influence in industry.

The town that began its life as Lynn Village in 1639, Reading has seen many changes during its 375-year history. Its initial settlement in the woods, Wood End, became a village of farms with countless stone walls.  On April 19, 1775, Readingites marched to Meriam's Corner and helped drive the British back to Charlestown. Beginning in the late 18th century, the town saw the development of widespread industry with the manufacturing of shoes, clocks, neckties, organ pipes, and more, led by prominent residents such as Everett Richardson, Daniel Pratt Jr., and numerous other illustrious families. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Reading has further evolved into a suburban community of homes and light industry, only a half-hour away from the area's largest metropolis, Boston.

Possessed with a spirit of optimism and an innate gift for retailing savvy, entrepreneur William T. Grant revolutionized the nation’s retailing industry with the 1906 debut of his W.T. Grant Company department store in Lynn, Massachusetts. Taking aim at the lucrative yet untapped middle ground between the discount five-and-dime variety stores and traditional department stores of the era, he built a well-deserved reputation as the store “Known for Values.” Grants quickly became one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most beloved department store chains, encompassing 1,238 stores in forty-six states at its height in 1972. While the Grants stores are now just a fond memory, the legacy of William T. Grant continues to be remembered today, along with the vibrant philanthropic nonprofit William T. Grant Foundation, which he started in 1936.

The Worcester Lunch Car Company monopolized the thriving New England market with its colorful diners.

Although Worcester sent a smattering of diners as far as Florida and Michigan, the cars were most popular in their home territory. From 1906 to 1961, the company built six hundred fifty-one diners, with as few as ten or as many as seventy seats. Known for their small size, solid construction, and old-fashioned styling, the cars featured oak and mahogany woodwork, intricate ceramic tile patterns, and a backbar of stainless steel. Their distinctive porcelain enamel exteriors with names emblazoned on them proudly proclaimed their presence along the roadside. Day and night, these diners fed generations of New England's working class; today, fewer than one hundred lunch cars still operate.

Possessed with a spirit of optimism and an innate gift for retailing savvy, entrepreneur William T. Grant revolutionized the nation’s retailing industry with the 1906 debut of his W.T. Grant Company department store in Lynn, Massachusetts. Taking aim at the lucrative yet untapped middle ground between the discount five-and-dime variety stores and traditional department stores of the era, he built a well-deserved reputation as the store “Known for Values.” Grants quickly became one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most beloved department store chains, encompassing 1,238 stores in forty-six states at its height in 1972. While the Grants stores are now just a fond memory, the legacy of William T. Grant continues to be remembered today, along with the vibrant philanthropic nonprofit William T. Grant Foundation, which he started in 1936.

The Portland Company manufactured a total of six hundred thirty steam locomotives, starting in 1848, along with hundreds of railroad cars, boilers, marine engines, ships, steam fire engines, elevators, and paper and textile mill equipment. Locomotives, ships, and cannons were built for the Civil War, and munitions were manufactured for both world wars. Later, the Portland Company produced snowplows, nuclear plant components, and common castings from manhole covers to streetlights. In the early 1900s, the company sold five makes of new automobiles and trucks. In this rich photographic history, the Portland Company and the city of Portland, with its great waterfront and industrial heritage, come to life.