Tired of zooming? Feeling the impact of virtual fatigue? Longing for in-person work meetings, pen and paper? Look no further than this packet of Scholastic and Art Papers manufactured by the former Hennepin Paper Company of Little Falls, Minnesota. Get your fix (yep, a virtual fix) with thoughts of using the fabulously colored sheets of construction paper this packet contains for whatever work or personal project you can dream up.
Produced in the 1990s, this product sample was used to market the company and the many goods it manufactured over its more than a century of existence. Construction paper was one of the company’s popular items.
Established in 1890 by B. (Benjamin) F. Nelson and T. B. (Thomas Barlow) Walker of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the business manufactured popular paper products until closing just over two decades ago, in 1999. Nelson and Barlow founded the company one year before coming to Little Falls with the purchase of their first mill, the Minneapolis Paper Company. Little Falls was selected as the site for a paper and pulp mill because of the plentiful source of water from the Mississippi River, convenient access to rail lines, a ready supply of local labor and pulp wood sources, and the recently built dam and water power canal (built 1888).
After the company closed, the site was put up for sale in the hopes another manufacturer would take advantage of the location. With a lack of interested buyers, it was determined to set the property aside as a public park due to its cultural and environmental significance and Mill Park was dedicated in 2005. A unique cultural landscape along the western banks of the Mississippi River, the park highlights the history of the company and provides community access to an important waterway.
~ Ann Marie Johnson, Preservationist
See also:
Hennepin Paper Company Construction Paper – http://morrisoncountyhistory.org/?page_id=5947
Preservation Perceptions – http://morrisoncountyhistory.org/?page_id=4414