The doors to the Peabody Leatherworkers Museum have been shut for more than three years, following a COVID-19-imposed closure in 2020 and its brief tenure as the home of the North Shore Children’s Museum. But, that is set to change on Saturday, when the public is welcomed into the museum for a grand reopening ceremony.
The ceremony kicks off at 10 a.m. and will run until 3 p.m., with refreshments served. Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. is set to speak at the event, as is former Mayor Michael Bonfanti, who oversaw the opening of the Leatherworkers Museum, which sits directly adjacent to the George Peabody House Museum.
In addition to the pair of mayors, International Operations Program Manager Matt Allan for the Leather and Hide Council of America will also deliver remarks, according to Peabody Historical Society Vice President Dick St. Pierre, who has served as the lead organizer behind the event. Both Bettencourt and Bonfanti have been tremendous supporters of the museum, St. Pierre said.
“We don’t plan to bring the leather industry back to Peabody, but we are hoping two things, one we’re working on a curriculum for the fifth grade so the kids from now on in Peabody will be exposed to the history of leather … but also in addition to say that maybe we could see this as a resource center years from now,” St. Pierre, a retired history teacher and a resident of the city for four decades, said in an interview.
At Saturday’s event, St. Pierre is hoping to not just raise the profile of the Leatherworkers Museum but also of the George Peabody House, literally the birthplace of the man for whom the city is named.
St. Pierre said he feared the city’s history as the once-epicenter of the leather industry could die off if it isn’t incorporated into school curriculum.
“We have here in Peabody, leather and George Peabody, those are our claims to fame, if you will,” he said. “These are the main two messages we want to send to the people.”
The leather industry reached its apex in the city in 1919, when a whopping 8,676 people were employed working in leather, according to the society. At the time, A.C. Lawrence, the one-time “kingpin” of the leather industry in the city, annually produced 2 million hides, 2.5 million calf skins, and 4.5 million sheep and lamb hides; product valued at almost $53 million.
But, the industry faded over time, with just one active tannery left, compared to 107 tanneries in 1960. St. Pierre attributed the decline to two primary factors — the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, which began regulating the disposal of solid waste, and the rise of unions that sought greater workplace regulations and higher wages.
Inside the museum, that history is on full display, with actual pieces of leather and machines used in the manufacturing process accompanying a variety of other objects, including fliers, advertisements, and photographs. Among those machines, donated by long-since shuttered tanneries, is a Belly Staking Machine, which worked to soften a piece of leather and make it easier to handle, and a Korrect Measuring Machine, into which workers could feed a piece of hide and get an accurate reading of its dimensions.
St. Pierre said much of the museum’s collection was constructed simply by word-of-mouth, with old artifacts found in basements, attics, or in the possessions of relatives who passed away.
“People walk in and they have a bag or they have a big sack and they say, ‘these are things I found in my attic,'” he said. “It’s mostly people.”
St. Pierre summed up the mission of the museum simply: “show and tell.”
“I don’t see them ever making a comeback, but we can maintain the history,” he said.
