Based upon information available from New York City based publisher The Scientific American, Washington, D.C. based Weekly National Intelligencer, and other research, Albert G. Bagley was one of the workers trained at Simeon Hyde's gold pen factory alongside Levi Brown, initially trained by Aaron Cleveland in 1836.
In 1838, Mr. Bagley had left the Hyde/Brown factory, continuing his developmental experimentation while engaging in the manufacture of Gold Pen nibs.
Thorough research and documentation are needed to understand the beginnings of the American Writing Revolution. This includes studying the key players, timeline of events, and various trade partnerships, copartnerships, and marketing promotions that led to a shift from quill pens to Gold Pen nibs.
Levi Brown, Albert G. Bagley, and Josiah Hayden were significant early innovators in the United States, with Levi Brown recognized as being the first trained in Hawkins' iridium tipping method by Cleveland and credited with initiating the revolution in America.
Albert G. Bagley's Gold Pen business dominated the market for decades and he made a fortune by creating unique patented products and selling them to the public as well as wholesaling to his peers.
Josiah Hayden also played a role in the Gold Pen nib business, selling his business to Rollin L. Dawson's enterprise to pursue his fortune in other business. He partnered with Mr.Dawson who then founded Dawson, Warren, and Hyde which became a significant early Gold Pen nib producer early in the revolution.
The Bard brothers were another early Gold Pen maker. Research is underway to sort fact from self-promotion.
John Mabie started as a pencil case maker, becoming a Gold Pen nib maker as Mabie, Todd & Co. in the 1860s and experiencing significant growth with the arrival of the fountain pen revolution in the 1880s.
Leroy Fairchild leveraged an early partnership with John Rendell, which gained momentum in the 1880s when he embraced to-the-trade concepts started by Bagley in the 1840s.
This website serves as a fact-finding project as it shares the John B. Minor Collection of Early Writing Instruments.