Papers related to the Litchfield families of Beach, Webster, and Dickinson. In 1916, Bessie Rachel Beach (1893-1976) married Leonard Dickinson (1895-1946). The parents of Bessie were Milo D. Beach (1861-1959) and Louisa Webster Beach (1862-1951). The papers relate to these three family lines.
Business records related to B/E Aerospace, which had operated facilities manufacturing aircraft seating and related interior components in Bantam and Litchfield. The company first came to Connecticut when the Warren McArthur Corporation relocated its factory from Rome, N.Y. to the borough of Bantam in 1938, manufacturing at that time a very distinctive style of anodized aluminum furniture particularly popular in Hollywood. With the onset of World War II, the firm shifted its manufacturing output to aircraft seating. After the war, the Warren McArthur Corp. was unable to readjust and declared bankruptcy in 1948. Emerging as the Aerotherm Corp. in 1950, the company continued to produce aircraft seating. The line expanded to include other interior aircraft components as the company was acquired and renamed a number of times over the next 42 years, including Aerotec Industries, UOP Aerospace Division, PTC Aerospace, and finally, in 1992, B/E Aerospace. In 2002, following a major downturn in aircraft manufacturing in the months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, B/E Aerospace permanently closed the Litchfield and Bantam facilities and shifted their operations to facilities in Ireland and North Carolina.
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