Spencer draws on a rich photographic record spanning the late nineteenth century to the present. This visual archive documents Spencer's transformation from a rural manufacturing and farming community of three thousand people to a diverse modern town of over twelve thousand residents. One of the oldest agricultural fairs in the country, the Spencer Fair is shown at its beginning before it attracted thousands to town for an annual Labor Day celebration. Spencer also chronicles the important and groundbreaking inventions of the Howe family, from the spring bed to the lockstitch sewing machine.