Hammond, Knowlton and Company were silk manufacturers prior to 1892. Key figures in the development of the company were Charles Clark Knowlton and his cousin, George Asahel Hammond . G.A. Hammond served as a member of the Connecticut commission at the 1892 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where the company silks were the official silks of the Exposition. The company was awarded a bronze medallion from the Exposition. The collection includes two letters, one from 1894 and the other from 1897, to C.C. Knowlton from G.A. Hammond . In the 1897 letter Hammond refutes questions that have arisen as to his character.
C. C. Knowlton adopted his cousin Clarence Asahel Hammond-Knowlton . C. A. Hammond-Knowlton was also involved with the silk company, and received a patent in 1912 for a “Method of Producing a Filled Bobbin.” By 1921, C. A. Hammond-Knowlton was the treasurer of the H.K.H. Silk Company, the new name for the company having been adopted after some acquisitions around 1918. It appears that the company changed its name to the Heminway Silk Corporation in 1925 to reflect the major brand name of the silk articles being produced by the company.
From the guide to the H.K.H. Silk Company Records., 1892-1924., (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center .)
