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STEREOVIEW IMAGE Of The MEGARGEE WISSAHICKON PAPER MILL. "Beauties of the Wissahickon" [Caption title]. Philadelphia Views [series title]

STEREOVIEW IMAGE Of The MEGARGEE WISSAHICKON PAPER MILL. “Beauties of the Wissahickon” [Caption title]. Philadelphia Views [series title]

[History of US Papermaking] Green mount, rounded corners, publisher imprint to left, series title to right, image caption under right photograph. Verso blank. Two separate square b/w albumen images. 3-3/8" x 6-15/16" "Demand for paper grew dramatically in the antebellum period [of the United States], as America’s printing and publishing houses, many based in Philadelphia, produced an increasing number of newspapers, magazines, and books. Paper mills were established throughout the greater Delaware Valley to meet the demand. The Roxborough-Manayunk area became an especially important papermaking center in this period. This part of the city saw dramatic industrialization in the early nineteenth century, with the Schuylkill River and Manayunk Canal powering textile, paper, and other mills that were later converted to steam-production. Among the major paper producers in this area were the Flat Rock Paper Mill, owned by the Nixon family (descendants of William Rittenhouse); the Wissahickon Paper Mill, owned by the Megargee family; and the McDowell Paper Mills. All were family-run operations that were established in the 1820s through 1840s and continued in various capacities into the early twentieth century. Family members built new mills or established partnerships with other mills in the region over the years, resulting in a web of interrelated family-run paper businesses throughout the greater Philadelphia area." [McCarthy, Paper & Papermaking, Encylopedia of Greater Philadelphia]. Minor extremity wear, so modest soiling to verso. Captioned by a prior owner on the verso. A VG example. Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve
  • $160