Textiles, Teachers, and Troops: Greensboro, 1880-1945
Textiles, Teachers, and Troops makes available more than 175,000 digital images documenting the social and cultural development of Greensboro from Reconstruction to World War II. Photos, books, personal papers, scrapbooks, and oral histories demonstrate how the textile industry, education, and the massive World War II military presence helped Greensboro grow into one of the leading manufacturing and education centers in the Southeast.
Textiles, Teachers, and Troops is a collaborative project among seven cultural heritage institutions in Greensboro and was funded in part through a Library Services and Technology Act Grant administered by the State Library of North Carolina.
Collections included:
Pages
-
- Art Shop Collection
- The Art Shop was established by Charles Farrell (1893-1977) in Greensboro in 1923, and his wife Anne joined the business in 1935. The couple were both talented photographers, and over the next 25 years they captured many people, places, and events in Greensboro and across North Carolina. Many of the latter images can be found in the Charles A. Farrell Photograph Collection at the North Carolina State Archives. The Art Shop Collection held at the Greensboro History Museum consists of several thousand negatives and over 1500 contact prints. It includes numerous images of local businesses and schools, as well as some copy work and street scenes.
-
- Bernard Cone Photograph Albums
- Bernard Milton Cone (1874-1956) was born in Baltimore as one of the youngest of Herman and Helen Cone’s thirteen children. His elder brothers, Moses (1857-1908) and Ceasar (1859-1917), built Proximity Cotton Mills in Greensboro in 1895, and later launched Revolution Mill, White Oak Mill, and Proximity Print Works, creating one of the largest textile mill companies in the South. Educated at Johns Hopkins University and Columbia Law School, Bernard Cone worked as a lawyer in New York for seven years before settling in Greensboro in 1904. Over the next 45 years, he held various positions in the family’s textile empire, including that of president of Proximity Manufacturing Company from 1917 to 1938. Cone was a skilled amateur photographer, and his photos provide a rich picture of life in Greensboro in the 1900s and 1910s. Images show: members of the Cone family and their mansions on Summit Avenue, the textile mills and their employees, the mill villages and their residents, and mill-sponsored schools and recreational activities. Cone also captured street scenes in downtown Greensboro and the city’s 1908 centennial celebrations. In addition, the albums include several creative self-portraits.
-
- Greensboro Public Library Collection
- This collection of historical materials owned by the Greensboro Public Library now resides at the Greensboro History Museum.
-
- Map Collection
- This collection contains maps of Greensboro and Guilford County dating from the 1870s-1980s. Some of the later Greensboro maps also include the city government's annual report.
-
- Martin's Studio Collection
- This extensive photographic archive of over 300,000 images consists primarily of 4x5 inch negatives but also includes some prints and business papers. Carol W. Martin (1911-1993) became the first full time paid professional photographer for the Greensboro Daily News in January 1938. When he left to open his own studio in 1947, he took with him a wealth of his work for the newspaper. His World War II images obviously date to his local photojournalism career. Many of the post-1947 images of businesses, on the other hand, were probably taken by his partner, Malcolm A. Miller (1917-2008). Known as Tex, he was a self-trained photographer who learned his craft from classes at White Oak YMCA and from a backyard chicken-coop-turned-darkroom he built at the family home in the Revolution Mill village.
-
- Miscellaneous Collection
- The Miscellaneous Collection consists of primarily single-folder manuscript collections filed alphabetically by topic and also cross-referenced. Subjects cover a broad range of Greensboro history, including businesses, civic groups, schools, individuals, and events.
-
- Klein Family Papers
- Min and Al Klein were prominent in both the Jewish and military communities in Greensboro during World War II. They served as coordinators for the soldiers' lounge at Temple Emanuel, were two of the founders of the Greensboro USO, and hosted Jewish soldiers at their house for dinner every Sunday night. Min also volunteered for the Jewish chaplains at the Overseas Replacement Depot. The digitized items include several documents that highlight Min Klein's involvement in supporting servicemen and women in Greensboro during World War II. The 1994 reminiscence that she wrote for Ned Harrison, which goes into detail about World War II Greensboro and her and her husband's involvement, has also been digitized (https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/ghm%3A12836).
-
- Luis Felicia Papers
- A native of Ohio, Private Luis Felicia (1911-2008) was stationed in recreation at the Overseas Replacement Depot (ORD) during World War II. As head of Service Club #1, he performed in shows for the soldiers and provided dance instruction. After the war, he remained in Greensboro as a dance instructor and owner of Felicia Studios of Dance. This collection consists of photographs and printed material relating to his wartime service and post-war career, but only material relating to the ORD has been digitized. The photographs document daily life and recreational activities on the military base, as well as a visit by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, while the printed material includes copies of news clippings, ephemera, and an original 1945 base telephone directory.
-
- Greensboro History Museum Inc. Archives
- As the institutional archives for the Greensboro History Museum, this collection consists of materials relating to the governance of the museum and the functions of its departments. The digitized items include scrapbooks documenting the museum's early history, museum newsletters, and material relating to the "Army Town" exhibit about Greensboro during World War II, which was on display from 1993 to 1995.
-
- Alexander Stoesen Papers
- This collection consists largely of materials collected by Dr. Alexander (Alex) R. Stoesen (1932-2017) during his research on Basic Training Center #10 and the Overseas Replacement Depot (ORD). Located within Greensboro city limits, this military base was a training and processing center for the Army Air Forces during World War II and a catalyst for Greensboro's transformation from a small town to a modern city. The collection includes several drafts of Dr. Stoesen’s unpublished paper, “The Elixir of War: Greensboro as an ‘Army Town,’ 1942-1946.” His extensive research on the ORD was heavily used in “Army Town: Greensboro, 1943-1946,” an exhibit that detailed Greensboro’s contributions to the Allied war effort during World War II.
-
- Abraham H. Peeler Papers
- Born in Greensboro, Abraham H. Peeler (1904-1991) was an important leader in the local African American community for many decades. Perhaps best remembered as the principal of J.C. Price Elementary School from 1931 to 1969, he also maintained a lifelong interest in organized sports and officiated at high school and college football and basketball games for 32 years. This collection is rich in information relating to the local public school system, particularly J.C. Price School, and the evolution of African American education in North Carolina. The digitized items include a minute book from Ashe Street School, photographs of students at Dudley High School, and printed material relating to the NC Negro Teachers Association. The digitized materials pertaining to J.C. Price School include teachers' handbooks compiled by Peeler and numerous images of the school and its students.
-
- Col. Paul R. Younts Papers
- A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Paul Younts (1899-1971) was the longest serving commander (September 1944-March 1946) of the Army Air Forces Overseas Replacement Depot (ORD) in Greensboro during World War II. During his tenure, the ORD processed over 100,000 men, separated from service 32,200 soldiers and reassigned 32,108 others. This collection is rich in documentation that sheds light on how the ORD functioned as a military installation and how it interacted with the local community. The digitized items include statistical charts, a brief history of the ORD, and guides to processing, separating from service, and standard operating procedures. The bulk of the photos are of Younts or activities at the ORD.
-
- DAR Scrapbooks
- These four newspaper scrapbooks were compiled by members of the Rachel Caldwell Chapter, NSDAR, which was founded in Greensboro in 1935. During World War II, the chapter undertook the herculean effort of cutting and pasting newspaper clippings about local soldiers, no matter their gender or race. Although almost all the clippings are from the Greensboro Daily News, the articles and photographs document servicemen and women from towns throughout Guilford County, and even from neighboring counties.
-
- James E. Sifford Papers
- This collection contains photographs and printed materials relating to one of the first supermarkets in Greensboro, the A&P store on Commerce Place, at which James Sifford (1900-1982) served as the first manager.
-
- Immanuel Lutheran College Collection
- The Immanuel Lutheran College Collection contains handwritten and printed materials chronicling the events leading to the establishment of this Lutheran college for black teachers and ministers in Greensboro, as well as its early years. A few items relating to the college can also be found in the Jackson Printing Company Collection (https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/ghm%3AMssColl173).
-
- Puckett Family Papers
- The Puckett Family Papers consist primarily of correspondence from Beth Norvell Puckett to her husband, Lewis, who was stationed overseas with the U.S. Navy for over a year and a half during the latter part of World War II. The collection is rich in letters that document the single parent life that World War II thrust upon millions of women like Beth Puckett, who was left raising their two children, Sherry and Stephen, during her husband’s absence. The correspondence also documents the importance of extended family, which for Beth meant her parents, Joy and D.W. Norvell, who lived nearby and ran the D.W. Norvell Tent Manufacturing Company.
-
- James Turner Morehead Family Papers
- This collection includes correspondence, financial and legal documents, printed material, some Confederate military items, photographs, silhouettes, drawings, and other miscellaneous material. The documentary materials relate chiefly to James T. Morehead Jr. and his brother Joseph Motley Morehead. Photographic materials are portraits of family members and images of Greensboro near the turn of the 20th century.
-
- World War II Newspapers
- This collection of newspapers published by the U.S. Army Basic Training Center #10 (BTC-10), later the Overseas Replacement Depot (ORD), documents life on an urban army base during the final years of World War II. As the largest military base within city limits in America, BTC-10/ORD was an important element in Greensboro's growth and development during and after the war. The newspaper features base and military news, coverage of dances and other social events, and advertisements for local businesses that catered to the soldiers, providing not only an important record of military history but also a glimpse into the social and cultural life of Greensboro during the period.
-
- Jerry DeFelice Photographs
- A resident of Rochester, New York, for most of his life, Jerry DeFelice (1920-2005) worked in the Public Relations office at the military base in Greensboro from April 1943 until the base closed in September 1946. He had trained as a military aerial photographer at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, but when he arrived in Greensboro he was put to work taking photographs for the base newspaper. Since the base was still under construction when he arrived, it had no darkroom facilities. DeFelice reached out to the Greensboro Daily News and became friends with its photographer, Carol Martin, who allowed him to use the newspaper darkroom until the camp facility was ready. Martin also taught DeFelice a lot about photojournalism, and they remained lifelong friends. It was through their friendship that in the early 1990s the Greensboro Historical Museum received not only a full run of the base newspaper, but many of DeFelice's original photographs. A short reminiscence by DeFelice has also been digitized (https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/ghm%3A19643).
-
- Photograph Collection
- This collection consists of historical photographs of Greensboro and Guilford County acquired from many different sources. Subjects cover the broad range of local history, including street scenes, businesses, schools, hospitals, and events. Of particular note are many images of the 1908 Greensboro Centennial celebrations and damage caused by the 1936 tornado.
