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To infinity and beyond brown paper

Wed. Oct. 15 was the opening reception of the “Beyond Brown Paper” exhibition in Karl Drerup gallery located in The Silver Center for the Arts.

“Beyond Brown Paper” is a photographic collection of 11,000 images of the history behind the Brown Company located in Berlin, NH. In 1917 the Berlin Mills Company was bought from William Wentworth Brown and Lewis T. Brown and renamed the Brown Company. Between the 1920s and 1960’s The Brown Co. manufactured a wide variety of paper products, as well as hiring New Hampshire residents and Quebec natives. Victor Beaudoin, a working photographer was given the job of recording every aspect of the industrial and social life. Employed in 1926 and retiring in 1968 Beaudoin used a grafiex for the majority of the work seen, he also made his own aerial camera for his work. In 1984 PSU became the home for the photos, negatives and filmstrips.

The earliest noted photo is that of a Kream Krisp Plant. In 1913 Hugh Moore, chief chemist for Berlin Mills Co., was looking for ways to utilize hydrogen for the production of edible products. He began selling a shortening product, later trade marketed as “Kream Krisp.” The photo galleries order elapses the time from the discovery of the shortening product to the booth located at Portland, M.E. in 1915. There were over 12,000 doughnuts fried at the Kreme in a week. Proctor and Gamble having the competition of Criso at the time had claimed that Kreme Krisp infringed on the patents of their already edible hydrogen product; Crisco. The company having the success of the mill realized that they did not need to produce edible hydrogen as well.

Some of the photos include the equipment used to produce paper. One of which is a largely sized paper roll. The image is titled “Cascade #10,” the photo of the machine was taken in 1966. The brand of the equipment was Miss Nibroc, which was a tissue machine that was located next to Mr. Nibroc. It supplied tissue to be packaged as facial tissue or toilet tissue.

Another photo is one that takes note of the social aspect of the paper mill and it’s employees. It is a photo of the renovations of a social club with a bar where many of Quebec’s stand up comics, singers and bands performed. From 1966-69 the upper level La Cayute was a large room with a stage where some of Quebec’s more notable performed there including Giles Vigneault, Claude Gauthier and Raymond Levesque.

The photos of the past industry allow viewers to get a feel for what the N.H. mill life was like. It provides a view of the Berlin, N.H. history that could not have been read in any textbook. Unfortunately the company was bought and sold several times after having been bought from The North American Dismantling Corporation of Michigan and the company announced on Oct. 3, 2006 they would be demolishing the 121-acre paper mill. Though the mill does not currently exist, its historical value does through photographs, memories and stories. The exhibit, will be on display until Mon. Dec.15, 2008. The Brown Company Photographic Collection, is also located in Lamson’s Michael J. Spinelli Jr. Center for University Archives and Special Collections.