Collins Room

In the Collins room you will notice a large bookkeeper's desk, ink wells, pens, and sand shakers for blotting ink. The woven cuff protectors kept ink from the starched, white cuffs of the all male secretarial force in the early days.
The diorama and the picture above it represent the Collins Company buildings in the Company's heyday (about 1919). Over a third of the buildings were lost in the 1955 flood of the Farmington River. The stone building at the front is the oldest stone factory building in Connecticut
Featured here is a scale model of the Collins Company complex and a vast collection of the world famous axes, machetes and other edge tools manufactured from 1826-1966, as well as some of the original furnishings, catalogs, and company documents

At one time the Collins Company made 90% of the machetes used in Central and South America; over 400 patterns can be found in their catalogs and some 1300 different styles were manufactured over the years. After World War II branch factories in Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and Columbia produced most of the machetes. In 1966 the Stanley Works of New Britain bought the machete business and recently sold it to a Central American firm.