Free
admission
Free parking
Nearby restaurants
Guided tours offered
Wheelchair/stroller
accessible
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Carolinas
Textile Exhibit
Beginning in the 1870s and 1880s, the Carolina Piedmont started to build
and operate textile mills. The development would have profound impact on
the region's economy and social development.
By the 1920s, Gaston County had become the center of the U.S. textile
business.
The permanent Carolinas Textile Exhibit, The Ties That Bind, presents
the history of the people and the businesses that created the economic
engine of the 20th Century for this region.
Using audio-visual recorded interviews and rare artifacts -- including
one of Thomas A. Edison's original electric generators (used at the
McAdenville Mill -- now part of Pharr Yarns) -- the story is revealed
through its technology revolution, community development and economic
impact.
Exhibit Creation
In 1995, a committee was finally put together to formulate plans for
utilizing part of the main floor for a major textile exhibit. The
original organizing committee was composed of Pamela K. Warlick, Linda
S. Hoyle, Lucy R. Penegar, Rebecca H. Rhyne, May C. Barger, James F.
Love III and Robert A. Ragan and J. Bynum Carter. In 1996, Barbara H.
Brose was selected as the new Executive Director for the museum. She
immediately gave the project top priority.
Professional consultants were brought in to give the idea a focused
direction, a permanent curator was appointed, and a community
consultation group was formulated to advise the exhibit development and
implementation. In addition, a Peer Review Committee, composed of
nationally and regionally known scholars whose research and publications
are dedicated to studies of the Southern Textile industry, was set up to
advise on the presentation.
The Carolinas Textile Exhibit Campaign, under the chairmanship of Bynum
Carter, commenced in 1998 and received major support from A.B.
Carter, Inc., J. Bynum Carter, First Gaston Foundation, American &
Efird, Inc., The Dickson Foundation, Robert A. Ragan and Jocelyn Ragan
Rose, Stowe-Pharr, Inc., R.L.Stowe Mills, The Glenn Foundation, The
Community Foundation of Gaston County, Charlton K. Torrence, Jr. and
Parkdale Mills, Inc.
In September 2001, "The Ties That Bind" Carolinas Textile
Exhibit opened. The focus of the exhibit is on the transformation of
Gaston County and the region from an agrarian economy of the 1860's to
a modern industrial economy and center of America's textile industry.
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©
2005. The Gaston County Museum.
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