Sketchmaking is the first step in taking an original pattern which was made by an artist in New York City, and transposing it on zinc plates so that it could be copied on on a pantograph machine to rollers, one for each color, to be put into the printing machine.

I began mycareer at the Arnold Print Works in North Adams in 1930 at the age of twenty and worked 48 hours a week for $10.00. At the end of six months a raise brought me to $12.00 and in a year I received $14.40 a week. The required seven years apprenticeship was almost as long as the training to become a doctor. Following the completion of an apprenticeship, the salary was approximately three times of the average worker's salary.

Today if you are asked what did you do all your life and you said sketchmaking you would probably be asked "What's that?" But in the early 1800's it was a highly regarded position in society and I am told that sketchmakers went to work in high silk hats and suitable clothing.

Today, all of the tradesmen's jobs are gone. The printers, sketchmakers,roller men and engravers are no longer here.At the height of the Printer's Period there were only fifty sketchmakers in the world. Sketchmakers were the lifeline of the cloth printing industry. Without rollers there would be no printing.

Cloth is still being printed today in England and in Africa. The Arnold Print Works sold hundreds of rollers to England. I have seen the patterns that I printed in England and in a Pittsfield store. Once you have worked on a pattern, you never forget it. I left Arnold Print Works in 1962 as they began the process the process of closing. I began my employment at the Sprague Electric Company in 1962 and retired in 1973.