History of the Southern Apparel and Textile Industry: Through the Photographer's Lens

Abstract

<p>Reconstruction of the post-Civil War South was fueled in part by entrepreneurs who moved south for plentiful nonunion labor, readily available land and geographic closeness to raw materials. Although extensive documentation exists about textile and apparel manufacturing in Northeast U.S. communities (e.g., Kulik, Parks, & Penn, 1982), with a few exceptions, limited documentation exists about Southern textile and apparel manufacturing. Exceptions, such as the case study of West Point Manufacturing Company (AL), concentrate primarily on mill life (Blythe, 2003). This study focuses on technological changes and documentation of these changes in textile and apparel manufacturing buildings.</p>