Art
In 1891, the Brunswick Balke Collender Company—America's largest maker of billiard tables—built a state-of-the-art factory in Chicago. These detailed architectural plans show how thousands of workers organized their labor across multiple floors to produce the leisure equipment that filled American homes, saloons, and halls.
Art · Full story
You step into the basement level where lumber arrives and machinery rumbles. Upstairs, craftsmen bend wood, shape felt, and assemble the intricate mechanisms that make a billiard table work. By day's end, another finished table rolls out—destined for a saloon on Main Street or a family's parlor across town.
Reflect
What everyday products made in factories near you shape how people spend their free time today?