A sleeping room was available for use by the visitors to the Rumford mills, and was located in the Mechanics Institute, planned and funded by Hugh J. Chisholm, owner of the Oxford Paper Company. He created the Institute to ensure that there was a place for recreation, education, and leisure for the people of the community.

The photograph was published in a "Mechanics Institute, Rumford, Maine" booklet handed out at the building's ribbon cutting on November 9, 1911. It was published by University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.