United Hosiery Mills: Rethinking a Capitalist History

Presenter(s)

Trinity Anthony

Abstract or Description

United Hosiery Mills was a Chattanooga-based clothing mill that produced Buster Brown-themed garments for children and operated independently from 1904 - 1979 and as a subsidiary in Chattanooga until 1999. Gustavus H. Miller and his brother Frank Lubbock Miller Sr. founded the company with Chattanooga business partners in 1904. For two semesters I have been processing the Miller Family papers at the University of Tennessee's Special Collections, which details the complete history of the United Hosiery Mills. Throughout processing archival materials and developing a finding aid a narrative was missing from the primary sources: the workers. Using the primary sources from the Miller Family papers in conjunction with academic literature about Southern Textile workers' I investigate the missing narrative of the 1917 and 1934 strikes that impacted United Hosiery Mills.

Mentor

Molly Copeland