Southworth Products Corps.

The origins of the modern Southworth International Group can be traced to the 1870s in the seaside city of Portland, Maine. The Reverend Francis B. Southworth was the pastor of the Seamen’s Bethel Church on Fore Street in Portland, which provided a church and a place of fellowship for merchant seaman. Keen to provide his flock with a productive way of passing the time while at sea and in foreign ports, Southworth developed and began to produce Bethel library cases. Each of the neat, but inexpensive cases contained a Bible and an assortment of other general reading materials.