money 'It's amazing; a special piece.' Canton factory photo album lands at McKinley museum
CANTON – The workforce from the old Republic Stamping and Enameling plant is back home again — at least in spirit.
A crocodile leatherette-covered collection of more than 1,400 candid images of factory employees during the 1940s and 1950s will be a focal point of an upcoming exhibit at the Keller Gallery inside the Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum.
"It's amazing; a special piece," said Kim Kenney, the museum's executive director and a local history author.
Most featured in the photos are likely dead by now, but relatives may still be in the area. Kenney would love to hear from them, if they can provide insight or artifacts to help with the exhibit.
Republic Stamping and Enameling: Photo mystery solved: 1,400-image album documents life at Republic Stamping and Enameling
The album is unique, she said, because the photos are not typical official company publicity shots, or images created for a newspaper. Rather, all the photos were taken and scrapbooked by an employee over a number of years. Together, they tell a story of the people and jobs at the plant, along with company picnics, parties and sports leagues.
"It's a little miracle that album has survived this long," said Michael Sponhour, of Columbus, who purchased it from a Brooklyn, New York, collector, then donated it to the museum last year.
McKinley Presidential Library & Museum: Museum needs your help with relics and oral history
The gift of history
Sponhour, who'd also lived in Columbia, South Carolina, for a couple decades, still loves his Canton roots. His dad, Thomas, worked at the Timken Co. for 33 years; his mom, Sari, is a local pottery artist.
"That album has to be in Canton; it is an unreplaceable part of history," Sponhour said.
He said he was inspired to buy the album after reading a Canton Repository story about it, published on Oct. 26, 2020. The story detailed how the twin-bolt-bound collection had been for sale at a New York auction house, and remained in the hands of Oliver Lott, a Brooklyn collector.
"This is really kind of cool because clearly here's a guy who brought his camera to work every day," Lott said for that story. "The idea of obsessive photography ... it sort of was the appeal here."
Lott said he'd purchased the album a few years prior; he didn't know the identity of the photographer.
After all, the anthology of images contained no index, nor credits and only brief captions. Lott had shipped the album to The Canton Repository to review as a resource for the 2020 story.
The newspaper was able to piece together clues uncovered inside the album to identify the photographer as Charles Doyne Reese.
An an only child who grew up on Clarendon Avenue SW a couple blocks from the Republic Stamping and Enameling plant, Reese was a lifelong bachelor. He later inherited his parents home after they died; he lived there until he died in 1987 at the age of 65.
Linda Anthony, a cousin of Reese's, had confirmed the photos labeled "me" and "myself" in the album were in fact Reese, though she knew him only as Doyne. Anthony described her cousin as a loner, who family had always considered to be a bit strange.
Sponhour, who holds a master's degree in history, was so intrigued by the story that he immediately reached out to Lott. Sponhour said he bought the album from Lott for about $1,500 with the intention of donating it to the museum as soon as he leafed through it and created an index of names from photos which did have an identifying caption.
Republic history; info requested
Republic Stamping and Enameling employed 300 people when it opened in 1907 in a newly-built plant at Harrison Avenue SW and Navarre Road. Soon, new houses in the Grandview Heights allotment were marketed as being within walking distance of the new plant and other nearby factories.
By the 1920s, the company was making 160,000 kitchen pieces a day, everything from utensils to pots and pans.
The company later introduced such products as steel roofing and siding. By 1952, its sprawling 400,000-square-foot complex — much of which stands to this day — had extended west to Bedford Avenue.
It was a different era. At that time, Canton's population was 116,312, compared to less than 70,000 now. In the 1950s, 1 in 3 Ohio jobs was in manufacturing; today it's about 1 in 9.
Reese abruptly stopped shooting photos in 1952.
Perhaps is was because early in that year, company leaders had held off a takeover bid by Cleveland and Cincinnati industrialists Harold and Joseph Schott. However, in May, stockholders of Republic Stamping and Enameling accepted an offer from Ekco Products of Chicago.
Ekco, which also had a plant in Massillon, continued to operate its Canton facility until 1986.
In preparing for the exhibit, Kenney has been trying to collect oral histories, as well as samples of Republic products.
She was to meet with Ralph Schreiber last week to discuss what he knew about the company. His grandfather, Ralph Fawcett, was the last president of Republic before it was sold.
"At one time, they employed more than 1,500 people," Schreiber said.
Kenney said anyone with information, or pieces, which could be relevant to the exhibit can contact her at: kkenney@mckinleymuseum.org
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Republic Stamping and Enameling album will star in museum exhibit
