People’s United Bank recently awarded the American Precision Museum $2,000, which will fund, in part, the museum’s new exhibit, Arming the Union: Gunmakers in Windsor, Vermont. This exhibit along with a second one, Full Duty: The Civil War Collection of Howard Coffin, will mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Arming the Union tells the story of the firm Lamson, Goodnow & Yale (LG&Y), who operated in the 1846 Robbins & Lawrence Armory in Windsor, now home to the American Precision Museum. As soon as gas lights were installed in 1861, LG&Y was able to run three shifts a day, achieving production of 1,000 US Model 1861 rifled muskets each week. What was even more significant was the gun making machinery that LG&Y designed, made and then sold to other Union arms makers, including Remington, Colt, Smith & Wesson, and the Springfield Armory. New research shows that the majority of the 1.5 million rifles made for the war effort were made using machinery designed and produced in Windsor, Vermont. Arming the Union is a prototype for a larger exhibit Shaping America: Machines and Machinists at Work that will open in 2014.
‘We thank People’s United Bank for helping launch Arming the Union and our fundraising for Shaping America,’ said Ann Lawless, the museum’s Executive Director. ‘Shaping America, funded in part by a major grant of $340,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, will enable the museum to showcase its unparalleled collection of historic precision machine tools and to tell the story of Windsor as an important incubator of the machine tool industry.’
‘We are proud to support the American Precision Museum as they bring another wonderful exhibit to Windsor,’ said Alice Baird, Financial Services Manager for People’s United Bank in Windsor. ‘There is so much history in Windsor and throughout Vermont, our support of the American Precision Museum helps to bring the history to life.’
People’s United Bank is a subsidiary of People's United Financial, Inc., a diversified financial services company with approximately $25 billion in assets. Peoples United Bank, founded in 1842, provides consumer, commercial and wealth management services through nearly 340 branches in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and in Westchester County and Long Island, New York. Through additional subsidiaries, People's United provides equipment financing, asset management, brokerage and financial advisory services, and insurance services.
Windsor, Vermont
[Photo cutline: Ann Lawless, Executive Director at American Precision Museum receives a $2,000 check from Christina Dillingham, Senior Financial Services Associate with People’s United Bank.]