Textile Hall Corporation Records
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0121
The Corporation records document the Southern Textile Expositions which began in 1915 and were held biannually until 1972. The exhibition records are not comprehensive for each year. Some years have very little information, while other years are reasonably complete.
Other activities held in the halls, such as health/science fairs and home shows, are also documented. In March 1966, Billy Graham held his crusade program in the new Textile Hall Building.
Supplemental sections of the Greenville News and Decision are included. Other articles from the Greenville News and Greenville Piedmont from February and March, 1966 were discarded. Both papers are available on microfilm in Cooper Library . Specific dates for articles about the Graham Crusade are February 11, 27 and 28, 1966 and March 3-15, 1966.
Records documenting corporation activities including bond issues, taxes, correspondence, payroll, and publicity are divided into general and correspondence. Much of the correspondence and company records were not retained by the Corporation. The files for Mr. William Sirrine and Miss Bertha Green would have been valuable, but these were not extant at the time the Corporation turned these records over to Clemson. Therefore, the business records for the Corporation are very sketchy. The tax files cover the period 1919-1923, then skip to 1936. After 1936 there are no tax records. Annual reports are only available for the period 1940-1950's. Records of this period of reorganization in the 1920s are incomplete, but do give some idea of the process. The general correspondence files are for specific companies, individuals and organizations and are also incomplete. The file for the Toledo Pipe Threading Machine Company contains interesting perspectives on the presidential election of 1944.
Changes in the textile industry are well documented by the approximately 1400 black and white photographs of the various Southern Textile Exhibitions. The changes in machinery used in various textile processes is apparent through the photos. The majority were taken by Henry Elrod of Greenville, Coxe Studio of Greenville, and by various news photographers from the Greenville News and Piedmont. There are also 2 boxes of photos from the health sciences fairs, home shows and the Billy Graham Crusade. The oversize photos box contains two scrapbooks of photos which have been left intact.
Oversize materials include floor plans and blueprints of both old and new Textile Halls dating from 1951 to 1968.
Textile Hall Corporation began as the Southern Textile Exposition, Inc. in order to coordinate and host the Southern Textile Expositions which began in 1915 and were held biannually until 1972. In 1923, the company was reorganized and became an eleemosynary corporation. This public corporation owned both Textile Halls and currently operates the Palmetto International Exposition Center.
The original Textile Hall building was erected in 1917 and expanded over the years to include nine annexes in downtown Greenville. In 1964, a new Textile Hall was built on property adjacent to the downtown Greenville airport, off Pleasantburg Road. This hall was expanded even before the first show was held in it and was expanded again two years later. The new textile hall has been re-named the Palmetto International Exposition Center and continues to provide exhibit space for a variety of activities every year. Both halls have been used for other purposes than the textile shows, including a hospital convention, vaudeville shows, musical performances, home shows, health and science fairs and a Billy Graham Crusade. Every fourth and fifth year Greenville hosts the American Textile Machinery Exhibition-International. Looms and spinning equipment are displayed at one ATME-I show; other textile manufacturing equipment at another companion show the following year.
8 Cubic Feet (10 boxes of documents, 9 boxes of photos, 1 oversize document box, 4 oversize flat boxes and 1 oversize map folder)
English
The material is arranged by type. Materials specific to Southern Textile Exhibitions are arranged by date of show, and then alphabetically within the date. Records of other shows held in Textile Hall follow. Business and correspondence files for Textile Hall Corporation follow show materials. Photos have been separated from paper documents and are arranged in chronological order. Photos of other textile hall activities follow show photos. Show scrapbooks are in chronological order, with oversize scrapbooks in the oversize boxes in date order. Oversize newspapers are in date order. Oversize blueprints are in date order in a map folder.
Donated to Clemson University Libraries in 1987 by Textile Hall Corporation through the efforts of Special Collections employee Bryan McKown. The papers were accessioned as number 87-113.
Preliminary arrangement of early records (circa 1915-1932) was done by Betsy Byford of Textile Hall Corporation. Arrangement and description, following the pattern established by Ms. Byford, was completed by Pauline Klein in 1991. Jen Bingham and student Kristi Roberts made minor revisions and entered the register in Archivists' Toolkit in 2009.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository