G&B Wire Mill Collection

04/06/2026

William J. Gilbert, traveling salesman for Gilbert & Bennett Co., was less than pleased with his Georgetown-based colleagues in February 1853. Writing from New York he raked them over the coals, complaining “the riddles [heavy sieves] you sent . . . have come to hand and [a] bigger botched mess of good stock I never saw, how it makes my heart ache to see good stocks put into such a shape. I should rather have the wire cloth today [that they were made out of] than to have the riddles for 30% [on the dollar].” He declared himself too “shamed to show them to my customers” and calculated them “a dead loss.” Wondering how such poor product had been turned out, he speculated that the man in charge “must have been asleep.” Subsequent letters make no mention of the defective riddles and, one suspects, better quality prevailed in the future.

03/26/2026

This photo shows the Gilbert & Bennett Mfg. Co.’s mill in the early 1900s, following construction of their turreted Main Office (1906) and before breaking ground on Weaving Building No. 6 (1908). The Gilbert Memorial Church, built through the munificence of company president Edwin Gilbert, can be seen on the far left. The long building with a two-tone roof is Weaving Buildings No. 4 and No. 5, also known as the Girls’ Building. Employee records show that women worked here well before Rosie the Riveter became a thing during the Second World War. In fact, women worked for the G&B Mfg. Co. from 1818 onwards, though up through the late 1800s they were primarily binding and weaving sieve bottoms from home rather than operating weaving machines at the factory.

03/09/2026

A bit difficult to read but worth the effort! This early 1900s ditty about Edward F. Jones spoofed his questionably ethical performance as an over-achieving salesman for the Gilbert & Bennett Mfg. Co. Read somewhat figuratively (surely a literal take was not intended) he was robbing G&B's clients (almost) blind! Whatever he was doing, company executives seem to have approved. While he started as a salesman in 1887, he was 2nd Vice President by 1918.

10/02/2025

It seems there were a few too many mice running around the Gilbert & Bennett Mfg. Co.’s buildings in the spring of 1878. That May, the company ordered two Delusion Mouse Traps. Built according to patents filed by Nebraskan John Morris in 1876 and 1877, the traps were mass produced beginning in the fall of 1877 by the Smith & Egge Mfg. Co. of Bridgeport, Conn., which quickly churned out 10,000 of them and accepted an order to produce 2 million more in early 1878. Designing a multi-mouse catching device had long been an ambition of the pest control industry. According to author David Drummond, “250 patents for multi-catch traps [were] registered in the United States prior to 1876, [but] only three resulted in the production of mouse traps and . . . none of these was particularly successful.” The “Delusion,” however, was made of sterner stuff and featured an automatic reset after each mouse, and an ingenious pair of one-way doors (involving hinges, a lever, and a counterweight) that allowed multiple mice to enter, while ensuring that none could exit. Perhaps the only drawback of the “Delusion” from the nineteenth century user's point of view was that it was not lethal. Killing the mice required a separate step. Instructions accompanying the device suggested dumping the rodents into a pail of water to drown. No further orders for “Delusion” traps have yet been found in the invoice ledgers of the Gilbert & Bennett Mfg. Co., but the company assuredly kept after its pest problem. Multiple orders, for example, were lodged for something called a Cupid Catcher. This may have been another mouse trap, but so far no information about it has been found.

09/18/2025

Exhibit of 1980s Gilbert & Bennett Mfg. Co. photographs by local photographers Bruce Ando and Elyse Shapiro is opening soon at the Wilton Library! The G&B Wire Mill Collection helped identify the scenes and write captions, as well as providing materials for a (very) small historical exhibit to accompany the photographs.

Discover the 'Rust and Resolve' art exhibition at Wilton Library, showcasing hauntingly beautiful photos of the Gilbert & Bennett Wire Mill.

09/05/2025

Designed in 1922 by Greenwood & Noerr, the Gilbert & Bennett Mfg. Co.’s Weaving Building No. 7 still stands in Georgetown, Conn. An addition to Weaving Building No. 6 (1909) – which tends to steal the spotlight due to its sheer size and visibility from nearby Route 107 – Weaving No. 7 is a three story brick structure with steel framed-floors covered in “heavy plank and maple.” The building was heated using steam from G&B’s Central Heating Plant and it boasted a freight elevator, sprinkler system, and “fireproof” stairs. It is oddly difficult to find a good photograph of Weaving No. 7; this 1980s snapshot is one of the few where No. 7 (flat roofed) is not overshadowed by No. 6 (gable roofed). More detail can be seen in the original blueprints.

08/25/2025

G&B’s best known product was probably Pearl Wire Cloth, a steel mesh with a "metallic finish" used for window and door screens. The company marketed Pearl in the early 1900s as a more attractive, rust-proof, and durable alternative to old-fashioned painted screens. Other apparent selling points included keeping baby from scratching herself on rose thorns or falling off the porch, so that mommy could read her magazines; keeping young girls from coming to harm while teasing dogs with biscuits (you’ll need to zoom in to see this one); and allowing dapper men in straw boaters to show off their discerning powers of hardware appreciation.

07/31/2025

G&B’s old stone office dates to 1906. Nowadays it strikes the eye as charming and old-timey, but in its heyday it was a happy marriage of classicism (the porch features Grecian columns) and fashion-forward modernity (the then-popular fieldstone construction and nods to the Craftsman aesthetic, now less obvious with the loss of original details on the roof, as seen on an early postcard). But did you know that the G&B company in 1952 considered refacing the building with brick veneer and flattening its iconic roofline? New Canaan architect Milton P. Tilley, who was responsible for nearly all building plans at the G&B site between the 1940s and the 1970s, made the blueprints, which would have revived the old stone office’s modernist credentials for a new age – while retaining the same footprint, a constraint resulting in the odd detail (surely a rarity in early mid-century modern architecture) of a turrett-turned open porch.