By Laura Stagliola, Administrative Assistant
November 12, 2014
It all began in a small house in Brunswick, Maine in 1844. Aaron Dennison, a Boston watchmaker and jeweler, was frustrated with the poor quality of European jewelry boxes, and decided to craft a sturdy yet elegant jewelry box. While Aaron often made what he needed as a jeweler, he traveled to his childhood home in Brunswick to enlist the help of his family. His father, Colonel Andrew Dennison, was a shoemaker and cut the pasteboard supplies into box forms, and his sisters Julia and Matilda put the boxes together and covered each with fancy glazed paper. Later on Aaron’s brother, Eliphalet Whorf (E.W.), was also recruited in the box business as a salesman for his remarkable ability to attract potential customers. The jewelry boxes quickly became very popular and to meet the growing demand Aaron and Andrew hired ten workers and added new machinery in the first year alone.
In the early years of the box business, Aaron sold his product in Boston and shipped supplies to the factory in Brunswick. After a year or so, Aaron only wanted to focus solely on his watchmaking, while Andrew continued working on the boxes. Living in Maine, the Colonel needed an agent to go between the factory and Boston. On October 1, 1849 Aaron made E.W. responsible for managing the box sales and supplies for the company and Aaron soon retired from the box business. E.W. was a gifted salesman and he was always on the lookout for new ideas and products as he traveled across the nation promoting the jewelry boxes. They added items such as “twine, white and pink cotton, and jewelry cards” to broaden their product line. E.W. also introduced new custom boxes for “combs, wedding cakes, needles, flowers and hairpins,” to name a few.[1]
Finally in 1850, E.W. saw the potential to branch out and seek new product opportunities which prompted him to open his first salesroom and office at 203 Washington Street, Boston.
[1] The Dennison Mfg. Co. Archival Collection at the FHC.