 |
 |
|
|
SOHP Home > Research
> The Burlington Industries, Inc. Project
The Burlington Industries, Inc. Project
Burlington Industries Headquarters, Greensboro NC
|
|
The Southern Oral History Program is currently launching
a new interview series focusing on Burlington Industries. The project
represents the first scholarly effort to chronicle the history of the
Greensboro, North Carolina-based textile company in comprehensive fashion.
Burlington Industries was founded in 1923 (as Burlington Mills) by J.
Spencer Love, ranked in a 1999 issue of Business North Carolina
magazine as the most influential business figure in the state's history.
Through shrewd acquisitions and pioneering production of rayon and later
nylon fabrics, Love built Burlington Industries from a single, 200-employee
mill into a company that was the largest textile manufacturer in the world
at the time of his death in 1961. Oral history documentation of the management
strategies, business practices, and inner workings of Burlington Industries,
during both the Love era and subsequent decades, will provide key perspectives
in understanding state, regional, and national economic history in the
20th century. Potential interviewees include not only company officials
and employees but also outside observers, company advisers, industry experts,
and executives from competing or acquired firms.
Intended as a follow-on series to the SOHP's ongoing North
Carolina Business History initiative, the Burlington Industries Project
is scheduled to commence late this year with a dozen preliminary interviews
to be conducted by SOHP/Center for the Study of the American South associate
director Joe Mosnier. The SOHP is also working with UNC-CH's Southern
Historical Collection to acquire and preserve corporate manuscripts and
other archival materials from the Burlington Industries files. |
|
|
