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Silk Manufacturing in Westbrook

Haskell Silk Company puzzle, ca. 1900

Haskell Silk Company puzzle, ca. 1900

Item 18730 info
Maine Historical Society

This jigsaw puzzle is a promotional item from Haskell's heyday.

In the 1920s Haskell and the entire America silk industry declined rapidly due to unstable raw silk prices, industry overproduction and growing competition from the first man-made fiber — artificial silk — now called rayon.

Haskell went bankrupt and ceased business in 1930, the year Edwin died.

A local attempt to save the mill with help from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation failed. Unknown individuals leased the factory, operated as Westbrook Weaving Mills, advertised throwing and rayon weaving, and vanished from the record by 1935.