The museum’s mission is to celebrate our industrial heritage through preserving, collecting, and educating the public, with emphasis on Franklin County and Athol, Massachusetts. At the heart of it is the story—the people who created and lived this history, and how their work and lives can inform ours today.

The museum was founded by local resident, Leon Weeks, and incorporated in 1998 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The board and dedicated volunteers have been hard at work preserving, collecting, and documenting artifacts and related archival material—from the smallest tap and die to the large 19th century machines made right at our own site.