Textile History Portal

Richland Cotton Mill in Columbia, SC

Welcome to the South Carolina Textile History Portal. This site provides links to archives, libraries, museums and textile company resources relating to the history of textiles and the textile industry in South Carolina.

We hope that this site will continue to grow and provide increased access to the textile heritage of South Carolina. If you know of any links to online presentations/papers on the textile industry in the state; to additional archives, libraries, and museums that hold collections relating to the industry; to textile companies with a significant South Carolina presence; or to any other South Carolina textile-related sites, please contact Jim Cross, the Manuscript Archivist at Clemson University.

Archives and Libraries

Gregg-Graniteville Archives, USC-Aiken

Aiken SC

The collection includes the records of the Graniteville Company and the papers of its founder, William Gregg.

Anderson County Museum

Anderson SC

Includes paper records, photographs, maps, and magazine and newspaper articles primarily related to Anderson area businesses, individuals, and government organizations, which includes the textile industry.

Central Heritage Society

Central, SC 29630

The Central Heritage Society holds two textile-related collections: the Max and Adele Perry Collection of correspondence, memoranda, financial statements, income taxes, estate of Ivy Mauldin Campbell, letters to World War II soldiers and their replies, all related to Mr. Perry as citizen, mayor, and member of the House of Representatives, and the Jeptha and Minnie Morgan Collection of personal papers, land records, bills, poems, photos, tours, school records, daybooks, calendars, Converse College scrapbooks, theatre programs, sheet music, Central school system records, Central Family records, Isaqueena-Cannon-Central Textile financial books, and Daughters of the Confederacy records.

South Carolina Historical Society

Charleston, SC

The Society has manuscript collections and books relating to textiles and the textile industry.

Clemson University Libraries, Special Collections

Clemson, SC

Clemson holdings include artifacts, books, journals, and manuscripts relating to the textile industry, including the records of the Alester Furman Company (a real estate company that sold mill villages all over the Southeast), Clifton Mills, J. P. Stevens and Company, the Textile Hall Corporation, and various colleges, departments and schools of textiles that were (and are) part of Clemson University.

South Carolina Department of Archives and History

Columbia, SC.

A repository for state government records. Material relating to the textile industry can be found in the records of the Department of Commerce, the State Development Board, and the Textile-Apparel Industry Study Committee, among others.

South Caroliniana Library, USC

Columbia,SC.

The Library has a number of books and manuscript collections that relate to the textile industry, as well as extensive photograph and postcard collections that include images of textile mills.

William Elliott White Homestead Archives

Mailing address:
1826 Second Baxter Crossing
Fort Mill, SC 29708

Archivist and Curator: Ann Y. Evans

Telephone: (803) 547-4557

Fax: (803) 802-5546

Email: whitehomestead@comporium.net

The collection dates from 1764 to the present and includes over 200 linear feet of records, and more than 2000 bound volumes. Included in the manuscript collection are wills, deeds, plats, Catawba Indian land leases, correspondence, diaries, architectural drawings, and maps relating to the ancestral home and its residents. Also included are account books, receipts, reports, and minutes of the many businesses ventures involving the Springs, White, Allison, and Phifer families. These businesses include Springs Industries in Fort Mill, South Carolina as well as mercantile and land holdings in both North Carolina and South Carolina. The collection is open to serious researchers by appointment Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Please direct requests for information to Ann Evans, Archivist and Curator of Collections.

Greenville County Historical Society

Greenville, SC

The Society holds theCoxe Collection of photographs, local history books, City of Greenville tax abstracts, tax receipts and license registers from 1890-1997 and maps, including an 1891 sewer map. The Coxe Collection, shot by William B. Coxe and his daughter, contains over 100,000 historical prints and negatives of Greenville, South Carolina, from the late 1800s through the 1900s, including photographs from the textile industry and expositions.

Carolina First South Carolina Room, Greenville County Library System

Greenville, SC

The South Carolina Room in the Hughes Main Library collects local history and the library has a number of publications relating to the textile industry in the Upstate, especially Greenville County.

Greenwood Mills, Inc. Archives

Address:
104 Maxwell Ave.
Greenwood, SC 29646

Telephone: (864) 229-2571, ext: 2149

Paper records, photographs, sound recordings, video tapes, newspapers, and books related to the Self family, the textile industry, Greenwood Mills Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Appointments recommended.

Pendleton District Commission

Materials relate mainly to the three-county Pendleton District area: Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties. Special collections include Anderson Cotton Mill, 1895-1963.

Historical Center of York County

The Historical Center has material relating to the cotton industry in York County.

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