The Burlington Industries, Inc., Project
Burlington Industries, Inc., Greensboro Headquarters
The Burlington Industries, Inc., 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.