Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • CEO Issue
    • Diversity
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2022 winners
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
November 24, 2008 01:00 AM

Historic hall heads to N.Y

Bill Bregar
Senior Staff Reporter
Frank Antosiewicz
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    Leominster, Mass., is losing the National Plastics Center, which is moving to Syracuse University in New York.

    Its new name: the National Plastics Center at Syracuse University, where it will be housed at the campus library.

    Historical documents and artifacts — including a major collection of early celluloid artifacts and a vintage set of Tupperware — will be shipped to the library, which has expertise in housing special historical collections.

    The National Plastics Center, which includes a museum and the Plastics Hall of Fame exhibit, opened in 1992 in Leominster, considered the birthplace of the modern plastics industry. The city sold the former schoolhouse building to the center for $1.

    But too few people made the trip to Leominster to visit the museum, officials said.

    ``The average attendance over the last four or five years wasn't enough to cover the operating costs of the building, and thus it caused a severe operating drain on the other programs at the center,'' said Jay Gardiner, who serves on the NPC board of directors. ``We couldn't support that center. It wasn't enough traffic.'' Gardiner also is president of the Plastics Academy, which administers the Plastics Hall of Fame.

    Attendance dipped below 1,000 for all of 2007, according to several NPC officials. ``We didn't draw flies up there,'' said Plastics Academy Chairman John Kretzschmar.

    The center announced the move Nov. 20. ``Unfortunately, the board has come to realize over the last several years that the Leominster facility can no longer be supported financially,'' said G. Watts Humphrey Jr., who chairs the NPC board.

    The traveling PlastiVan remains in operation, said Bill Carteaux, president and chief executive officer of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. SPI manages day-to-day operations of the National Plastics Center, but the NPC board makes the final decisions, he said.

    SPI gets Hall of Fame

    The Plastics Hall of Fame will move to the SPI's headquarters in Washington. Carteaux said the display will include plasma screens and artifacts, and will be prominently positioned in the building. The plasma screens also will be part of a major showing at NPE 2009 next June in Chicago.

    The news hit hard in Leominster, a blue-collar town that has lost several major housewares makers and other plastics companies in the past last decade.

    Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said the center was a source of pride for the city of 45,000 people. He is saddened by its closure, but said he does not fault the National Plastics Center. ``They did a beautiful job'' creating a museum out of a dilapidated school, he said.

    He said the troubles at the center are symbolic of what is happening to manufacturing in this country — and in the news right now, thanks to the debate over bailouts to banks and the automakers.

    ``The plastics industry has been struggling for 20 years — why don't they bail them out? I don't hear anyone talking about it,'' Mazzarella said.

    Leominster's loss is Syracuse's gain.

    ``We're very, very excited about having the collection,'' said Suzanne Thorin, dean of libraries at Syracuse University. ``It'll be a living collection because we'll continue to grow it. I think the people who believed in this collection will find that the context is the right one.''

    Thorin visited the National Plastics Center about five months ago to meet with NPC and SPI leaders. A team from Syracuse University will visit Leominster in December and begin to prepare documents for shipment. They will take digital photographs of every item — part of a plan to create an easy-to-use online database of the entire collection, she said. The searchable catalog also will let users to see what documents and books are available at the library.

    The library at Syracuse University knows how to care for special collections, Thorin said. ``We have enormously large collections of rare books and archives,'' as well as about 400,000 vintage 78-rpm records, she said.

    Thorin said the university has strong programs in chemistry, chemical engineering, industrial design, fashion design and jewelry — all a good fit with a major historical collection of plastics.

    The doors are already closed at the National Plastics Center in Leominster. The artifacts should be moved out by the end of the year, said local curator Marianne Chalifoux Zephir.

    Kretzschmar said several weeks ago the center sent letters to people who have donated artifacts over the years. They will be allowed to take the pieces back if they want, he said.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Two plastic container companies cut jobs
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    FRX Polymers going public through reverse takeover
    2
    More resins see April price hikes, but not polyethylene
    3
    Metro Plastics Technologies sold to NY investment firm
    4
    Plastics Pioneers inducts seven members
    5
    Connecticut-based Inline Plastics buys Michigan-based Cam Packaging, opening first Midwest plant
    SIGN UP FOR TO RECEIVE THESE EMAILS AND ENEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Diversity
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2022 winners
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
        • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified