Inventory of the George Johnson Baldwin Papers, 1884-1936

Collection Number 850

Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Descriptive Summary

Repository

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.

Creator

Baldwin, George Johnson, 1856-1927.

Title

George Johnson Baldwin Papers, 1884-1936

Call Number

850

Language of Materials

Materials in English

Extent

Items: About 55,000

Linear Feet: 71.5

Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access

No restrictions.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. David D. Irwin of Winnetka, Ill., in October 1943.

Processing Information

Processed by: Anna Brooke Allan and J. Douglas Helms, June 1967

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2005

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the encoding of this finding aid.

Additional Descriptive Resources

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the George Johnson Baldwin Papers #850, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Associated Charities of Savannah.

Baldwin, George Johnson, 1856-1927.

Chestatee Pyrites Company (Ga.)

Civic leaders--Georgia.

Electric utilities--Southern States.

Family--Georgia--Social life and customs.

Florida--Economic conditions.

Gainesville Midland Railroad.

Georgia--Economic conditions.

Georgia Institute of Technology.

Industries--Florida.

Industries--Georgia.

Industries--Texas.

Iron industry and trade--Georgia--History--20th century.

Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten.

Labor disputes--Southern States.

Public utilities--Southern States.

Railroads--Florida.

Savannah (Ga.). Board of Trade.

Savannah (Ga.)--History.

Savannah (Ga.)--Social life and customs.

Savannah Public Library.

Segregation in transportation--Southern States.

Southern States--Economic conditions.

Stone & Webster.

Street-railroads--Southern States.

Texas--Economic conditions.

Related Collections

Edward Porter Alexander (#7)
Lucy Hill Baldwin Papers (#849)
Ulrich Bonnell Phillips Papers (#2832)
Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten Association Papers (#2834)

Biographical Note

George Johnson Baldwin (1856-1927), capitalist and civic leader, was born in Savannah, Ga., the son of Daniel Hoard Baldwin and Kate Alice Philbrock Baldwin. He attended schools in Boston, Mass., and New York, N.Y., before graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1877. Baldwin began his professional career as a chemist for the Woodstock Iron Company in Anniston, Ala. From 1878 to 1879, he was the superintendent of the Bradlee Gold Mine in Nacoochee, Ga. In 1880, he joined Baldwin and Co., a firm of cotton and naval stores factors and fertilizer manufacturers and dealers of Savannah. Baldwin left that firm in 1891 to concentrate on the Baldwin Fertilizer Company, of which he was president from 1887 to 1894. In 1898, he became associated with Stone & Webster, of Boston, Mass., a public utilities company that acquired control of street railways and electric plants in Savannah and Columbus, Ga.; Jacksonville, Tampa, Pensacola, and Key West, Fla.; and Houston, Tex. Baldwin served as president of these various companies. In addition, he simultaneously held positions of officer or director in several banks, transportation, and mining and manufacturing enterprises, among them the Chestatee Pyrites Company, Gainesville Midland Railroad, Savannah Trust Company, National Bank of Savannah, and Augusta and Savannah Railroad.

During World War I, Baldwin went to New York lend his business expertise to the American International Corporation. He also took on chair and director positions at several affiliated shipping and shipbuilding companies, including Pacific Mail Company, American International Shipbuilding Corporation, New York Shipbuilding Corporation, and International Mercantile Marine Company. Baldwin's wartime service also included connections to the American Bureau of Shipping, the Navy League of the United States, the Council of the National Merchant Marine Association, and the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation.

As with his business responsibilities, Baldwin's civic activities were many. Over the years he served as president of numerous organizations, including the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten Association and the Savannah Public Library Association, both of which he helped to establish, and the Associated Charities of Savannah. He was a member of the Savannah Park and Tree Commission, the Board of Curators of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of chambers of commerce in New York, Philadelphia, and Paris. Baldwin was a trustee of the Union Society (Bethesda Orphanage), Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, Carnegie Foundation, Georgia School of Technology, Georgia Infirmary, Chatham Academy of Savannah, and the Stone & Webster Employees Investment Association. He maintained memberships in many Georgia and New York clubs and societies, as well as national and international organizations.

Baldwin returned to Savannah in 1922. At the time of his death in 1926 he was chair of the board of directors of the Savannah Electric and Power Company. Baldwin was married to Lucy Harvie Hull, the daughter of George Gilmer Hull of Athens, Ga., in 1882. The Baldwins had two children, George Hull Baldwin and Dorothea Clifford Baldwin Irwin.

Collection Overview

The collection consists of general papers, subject files, and letter books and account books that document the business affairs and personal life of businessman and civic leader George Johnson Baldwin of Savannah, Ga. Materials chiefly concern his work with Stone & Webster, a Boston, Mass., firm of electrical engineers, financiers, and managers of street railway and public utilities companies, and his affairs as president of these companies in Savannah and Columbus, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla., Key West, Fla., Pensacola, Fla., and Tampa, Fla.; and Houston, Tex. Materials document purchase, consolidation, and management of street railways and electric power as well as gas, construction, and real estate investment opportunities; unions; labor disputes and strikes; segregation in transportation; corporate real estate tax; local and state politics; and regulatory legislation. Also documented are brick manufacturing, gas, construction, and real estate companies; Chestatee Pyrites Company, a mining property near Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Ga.; Gainesville Midland Railroad; banking and finance; cotton; rice; fertilizer; and hydroelectric power. In addition, there are materials relating to Baldwin's civic leadership and charitable activities with the Savannah Board of Trade, Savannah Public Library, Associated Charities of Savannah, Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten, Georgia Institute of Technology, and many other institutions and organizations. There are also some personal materials that provide insight into Baldwin's life outside of work, especially his family financial affairs, property matters, and leisure, including the development and operation of a 200-acre mountain lodge estate near Flat Rock, N.C.

Detailed Description of the Collection