POINT LEAMINGTON, N.L. — A five-hour drive from St. John's, N.L., and well off the beaten path, Point Leamington seems an unlikely spot for a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction.
But this is where the owner of an Ontario-based glove manufacturer has opened what is billed as the country's first museum devoted entirely to gloves, hoping to draw visitors to the seaside Newfoundland community of about 575 people.
There are dainty gloves worn by Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn alongside a pair of worn-looking leather mitts that belonged to Elvis Presley. The mere sight of the hand coverings, a museum guide said, has been enough to prompt goosebumps and, in the case of the Elvis mitts, even requests to take a whiff.
"It's just such a beautiful place," Superior Glove president Tony Geng said of Point Leamington in a recent interview.
He said the town feels like a "second home."
"Anything that we can do to keep it more alive and attract other people to it, I think is a cool thing."
Inside the sunny, single-room museum, gloves sit upright in clear plastic cases, looking like they're ready for a high-five. There's a bright blue fishing glove with the tip of its pinky finger missing that belonged to David Suzuki, and a thick white glove with segmented fingers that was worn by astronaut Chris Hadfield as he somersaulted through space.
Presley's mitts were part of his uniform in the late 1950s when he was in the U.S. army. Later, in Graceland, a "freak snowstorm" hit Memphis and he gave them to his private nurse's daughter after he saw her playing in the snow in rubber dishwashing gloves, Geng said.
Marilyn Monroe's tiny white gloves have a single pearl fastener on the wrist. Audrey Hepburn's black leather Ralph Lauren gloves are longer, with three buttons gleaming in succession down the extended cuff.
They came from the collection of Sydney Guilaroff, the famed Hollywood hairstylist who created Vivien Leigh's looks in "Gone With the Wind," Tammy Fudge explained as she provided a tour last month.
The elegant gloves have been particularly popular with female visitors and plant workers, said Fudge, the research and development coordinator at the plant.
“There was one lady who had goosebumps,” she said. “But then again, you'll have a few who will have goosebumps with Elvis Presley's gloves as well.” Nobody has been permitted to smell Presley's gloves, despite several requests.
Most of the items were bought through auctions or were given to Geng by his wife, who knows very well that he's been fascinated by gloves his entire life. His late father, Frank Geng, bought the company in 1961, and Tony Geng began working there when he was just a boy.
Headquartered in Acton, Ont., Superior Glove specializes in industrial gloves and sleeves, built to protect workers from blades, fire and cold. They make a glove for SpaceX. At one point, the company furnished the Canadian Army with trigger mitts like the one worn by Presley, Geng said.
The glove museum is part of the sprawling Point Leamington factory, where machines spin, sew, stamp and sort as employees watch and calibrate. The plant produces more than 3,000 types of gloves and the yarn to make them — enough yarn in one day to go around the world one and a half times, Fudge said.
Some machines spin threads of tungsten steel so thin they're nearly impossible to see. The threads will be combined into yarn and knitted into cut-resistant gloves.
Point Leamington has a library, a post office, a few stores and not much else. Superior Glove began operations in the town hall in 1988, and it now employs nearly a quarter of the community's population.
"We have husbands and wives, we have a mom and two sons, we have a husband and wife and son," Fudge said of some of the plant's employees.
Rural Newfoundland has a long history of young people moving away to mainland Canada for work. The Point Leamington plant is managed by one such person, Frazer Stuckless, who had worked at Superior Glove in Ontario. He planned to move home and start a taxi business, but Frank Geng asked Stuckless to help get a plant up and running in Point Leamington instead, Fudge said.
Since then, many more from the area have been able to return home and find a job at the factory, including Fudge.
The museum has attracted roughly 1,000 visitors since its grand opening in the spring of 2023, and Fudge led many of them on tours through the displays and the massive plant.
"Most people are surprised it's even here," she said. "Why wouldn't we have a glove museum? We make gloves, and we make things that make gloves."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2024.
Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press
