American Steel-Pen Manufacturing Begins

In 1860, Richard Esterbrook Sr. and his son Richard Esterbrook Jr. began manufacturing steel pens in the United States. A surviving account of the company's 1866 reorganisation states that the Esterbrooks commenced the business of steel-pen manufacturing in the country in 1860, at a time when the US market was supplied almost entirely by foreign-made pens. ©The Esterbrook Project The manufacturing enterprise was established in Camden, New Jersey. The 1890 Historical and Industrial Review of Camden likewise dates the start of the Esterbrook steel pen factory to 1860, describing the original operation as small and producing ten varieties of pens. A later US Census report provides useful context: although Harrison & Bradford had mechanically manufactured steel pens in New York from 1858, Esterbrook's Camden factory followed in 1860 and became an important early producer in the development of the American steel-pen industry.