Hinds, Charles B. Collection

SummaryThe Charles B. Hinds Collection consists of 123 reels of 16 mm. film recording the family life, business, travel, and a philanthropic interests of the Hinds family of Portland, Maine. A.S. Hinds founded the A.S. Hinds Company, manufacturer of a widely advertised honey and almond hand cream. The founder, employees and manufacturing process--including assembly line, inspection, and hand packing-- are covered in Reel 10 of the collection. Family activities, winter and summer, were filmed primarily by Charles B. Hinds, who had four sons. In 1927 the family created the William Hinds Camp at Raymond, Maine, a Boy Scout camp, which continues in operation. Campers and counselors are filmed in water and other activities. The camp commemorates son Billy Hinds (1918-1925), who died in a street accident. Scouting coverage also includes a 1927 event in Washington, D.C. showing Boy Scouts and leaders gathered at the White House and dignitaries including closeups of Olave and Robert Baden-Powell, founders of the scouting movement. There is also footage of a 1930 parade of Maine Boy Scout troops down Portland's Congress Street past Keith's Theatre. The collection includes a Portland, Maine, waterfront fire, burning the Brown Co. lumber warehouse and adjacent dock and the next day's aftermath. (Believed to take place in December 1934.) Other Portland scenes include a Kiwanis baseball game and its fans. The collection includes several cruises to Mexico, Cuba, and Curacao, and there are 11 reels of a family trip in Europe in 1928. The Hinds Collection has several purchased films including reels of the U.S. Army Signal Corps production, "America Goes Over" about World War I, released on 16 mm. for home showing.

Biographical/Historical NotesThe A.S. Hinds company opened in 1875 and operated in Portland, Maine. A.S. Hinds Laboratory was built in 1920 at 331-337 Forest Avenue. Lehn & Fink (manufacturers of Lysol), bought the company in 1907, although it continued independently and was in business through the 1940s. Camp William Hinds is located on Panther Pond in Raymond, Maine. Family members depicted include the donor, Aurelius B. Hinds II, known as Larry. His father, the creator of the film, Charles B. Hinds, and his mother, Augusta Buckworth Wadsworth Hinds. Also, Larry's brothers, Charles B. Hinds, Jr., and Wadsworth L. Hinds. Aurelius B. Hinds (Sr.) born 1884, is shown in the A.S. Hinds factory film. From The History and Genealogy of the Hinds Family, by Albert Henry Hinds (1899), WorldCat pages 200-201: Aurelius Stone Hinds, son of Albert Galatin and Mary Estella (Benjamin) Hinds, born in Livermore, Me, June 30, 1844; married in Portland, Me., June 3, 1872, Ellen Elizabeth Noyes, daughter of Henry Crafts and Mercy Merritt (Goding) Noyes. She was born in Jay, Me., Aug. 16, 1849. He moved to Winthrop, Me., with his parents, at an early age, then back to Livermore for one year. He then removed to Dixfield, and at the age of eighteen, went to Portland. There he was engaged as clerk in the drug store of H. H. Hay & Co., where he remained until 1864. He then went back to his home and worked with his father for one year, returning to Portland in the employ of Thomas G. Loring, as drug clerk. Here he remained until 1870, when he purchased a drug store of his own in the business part of the city, remaining there until 1880. Later, he fitted up a drug store in the residential part of the city, and continued doing business for many years, meeting with much success. While in his downtown store, he started the preparation which is widely known throughout the world, and which has made his name famous, "Honey and Almond Cream." Commencing upon a small scale, it went through the experimental stages for ten years, before being put on the market. It then received a ready sale and has grown to its present immense proportions. The sale annually reaches every state in the Union, as well as South American countries, Australia, the Sandwich Islands, England, France, Russia, India, and many other countries too numerous to mention. Agencies have been established in Australia, the Sandwich Islands, and London, and in Montreal, P.Q., he has a branch laboratory, where he goes twice a year, and puts up a supply which furnishes the Canadian trade. The goods are put up for both the English and the Spanish trade, nearly all of the work pertaining to the business being done in his laboratory in Portland. Children, born in Portland: i. Albert Henry (9), b. Dec. 12, 1874 ii. Walter Dewitt (9), b. March 12, 1876 iii. Charles Benjamin (9), b. July 3, 1881 [creator of Charles B. Hinds film] iv. Ethel May (9), b. May 8 1891

RepositoryNortheast Historic Film

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