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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 105.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 85,000 items) |
| Abstract | John William Harden (1903-1985) of Greensboro, N.C., was a journalist, newspaper editor, author, advisor to North Carolina governors and textile executives, and founder of the state's first full-service public relations company. The collection contains materials, 1914-1986, including business records, correspondence, writings, speeches and speech materials, administrative records, newspaper clippings, diaries, scrapbooks, photograph albums, family papers, sound recordings, and videocassettes relating to John Harden. Business records of John Harden Associates include information about businesses and other organizations in North Carolina and the South and the public relations services Harden provided to them. Major clients included North Carolina National Bank (NCNB), the North Carolina Fish Processors Association (promoting the menhaden fishing industry), Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and the Tryon Palace. Other files document Harden's employment as a public relations executive with Burlington Industries, Inc., and Cannon Mills Company. Many of the Cannon Mills files reflect Harden's efforts to improve the company's image in the light of its opposition to union organizing activities. Also included are files related to Harden's political activities as a Democrat; his work as secretary to Governor Robert Gregg Cherry; his work in Hugh Morton's 1972 gubernatorial campaign; and his work promoting North Carolina businesses, especially during the administration of Governor Luther H. Hodges. Harden's work as a journalist and his interest in North Carolina folklore and ghost stories and his collection and publication of The Devil's Tramping Ground, and Other North Carolina Mystery Stories (1949) and Tar Heel Ghosts (1954) are also documented. Harden's personal papers include correspondence about his experiences as a student at the University of North Carolina in the 1920s and about his work with the Episcopal Church in North Carolina. |
| Creator | Harden, John, 1903- |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
Born in 1903 in Graham, N.C., the son of Peter Ray and Nettie Cayce Abbott Harden, John William Harden worked for the Burlington Evening Times and the Raleigh News and Observer before entering the University of North Carolina at the age of 20. While at Chapel Hill, he worked under Bob Madry, head of the University News Bureau. On graduation in 1927, Harden joined the Charlotte News as a reporter and columnist, working there until 1937 when he became news editor of the Salisbury Evening Post. In 1944, Harden became executive news director of the Greensboro Daily News. That same year, he was named director of public relations in R. Gregg Cherry's gubernatorial campaign.
After Cherry's inauguration, Harden was appointed executive secretary to the governor, and wrote Governor Cherry's letter book. While living in Raleigh, he moderated a series of programs on radio station WPTF on Tales of Tar Heelia. Drawing from his personal file of ghost stories and mysteries, he continued this program for eighteen months during 1946-1947. Out of this grew two books, The Devil's Tramping Ground and Other North Carolina Mysteries (1949) and Tar Heel Ghosts (1954), both published by The University of North Carolina Press.
In addition to his works on North Carolina folklore, Harden was the author of Alamance County: Economic and Social (1928); North Carolina Roads and Their Builders, volume 2 (1966); a history of Cannon Mills entitled Cannon (1977), drafts of which may be found in Subseries 2.2 under the title The Story of Cannon; and Boling: The Story of a Company and of a Family (1979), commissioned by The Boling Company. According to a 1981 bio-sheet, John noted that he was attempting to finish a volume on North Carolina adventure stories that would have, when added to The Devil's Tramping Ground and Tar Heel Ghosts, formed a trilogy.
In 1948, Harden became head of public relations in the reelection campaign of U.S. Senator William B. Umstead. Following the election, John joined Burlington Mills Corporation as director of public relations and shortly afterwards was made a vice-president. In 1958, he left Burlington Mills to establish John Harden Associates (JHA), the first full service public relations consulting firm in North Carolina. Based in Greensboro, JHA expanded throughout the 1960s and 1970s, opening offices in Raleigh and Charlotte and setting up its own advertising agency, Cochrane Harden and Stuart.
While establishing himself as the "Tar Heel dean of public relations," Harden maintained close links with former colleagues in North Carolina politics and textiles. In 1959, Governor Hodges tapped him to organize--and publicize--the first North Carolina trade mission to Europe. Harden was also appointed to serve on the board of the Department of Conservation and Development during the administration of Governor Daniel K. Moore, a fellow alumnus of UNC's class of 1927. In 1971, Harden took a leave of absence from JHA to assist the Cannon Mills Company of Kannapolis as its director of public relations. Harden received wide recognition for his work in public relations, most notably being inducted as the first member of the North Carolina Public Relations Hall of Fame. After selling his company in 1981, he continued in an advisory capacity until his death, while working at his desk, in 1985.
On 13 June 1928, John Harden married Josephine (Nina Jo) Holt; they were the parents of Glenn Abbott and John William, Jr. Nina Jo Harden died in 1951. In 1953, John married Sarah Plexico (1925-1997); they had three sons, Mark Michael and Holmes Plexico, who were twins, and Jonathan Holder.
Harden was a Democrat, a Rotarian, and an Episcopalian. He worked with a wide variety of civic groups, including the Greensboro Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Carolina Regional Theater, and the North Carolina Historic Preservation Society. Harden also served in 1955 as the president of the General Alumni Association for The University of North Carolina.
Biographical note from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 3 (1988), with additional information from the collection.
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Scope and Content
The collection contains materials, 1914-1986, including business records, correspondence, writings, speeches and speech materials, administrative records, newspaper clippings, diaries, scrapbooks, photograph albums, family papers, sound recordings, and videocassettes relating to John Harden. Business records of John Harden Associates include information about businesses and other organizations in North Carolina and the South and the public relations services Harden provided to them. Major clients included North Carolina National Bank (NCNB), the North Carolina Fish Processors Association (promoting the menhaden fishing industry), Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and the Tryon Palace. Other files document Harden's employment as a public relations executive with Burlington Industries, Inc., and Cannon Mills Company. Many of the Cannon Mills files reflect Harden's efforts to improve the company's image in the light of its opposition to union organizing activities. Also included are files related to Harden's political activities as a Democrat; his work as secretary to Governor Robert Gregg Cherry; his work in Hugh Morton's 1972 gubernatorial campaign; and his work promoting North Carolina businesses, especially during the administration of Governor Luther H. Hodges. Harden's work as a journalist and his interest in North Carolina folklore and ghost stories and his collection and publication of The Devil's Tramping Ground, and Other North Carolina Mystery Stories (1949) and Tar Heel Ghosts (1954) are also documented. Harden's personal papers include correspondence about his experiences as a student at the University of North Carolina in the 1920s and about his work with the Episcopal Church in North Carolina.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. John Harden Associates, 1958-1982.
Records of John Harden Associates (JHA) highlight the development and daily operations of North Carolina's first full service public relations firm. In a broader sense, these files open a window on the post-war industrial development of North Carolina and the South in general: a South concerned, as the field of public relations is concerned, with "image" and good media relations to attract new "customers." Indeed, Harden frequently touted his firm to northern and international businesses as one that understood Southern folkways but more than matched the professionalism of northern public relations firms. On a more practical level, JHA sought to attract clients by providing "New York quality at North Carolina prices."
JHA's client files, Subseries 1.1, form by far the largest portion of this series, and indeed of the entire collection. The rest of the series contains correspondence, memoranda and miscellaneous documents related to the company's routine office activities (Subseries 1.2), financial records (Subseries 1.3), and information on three particularly large clients: Tryon Palace in New Bern, N.C. (Subseries 1.4), the North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) (Subseries 1.5), and the Episcopal Church's Penick Home for the Aging (Subseries 1.6). Subseries 1.7, Public Relations Society of America contains correspondence and other documents maintained by JHA which deal with developments in the field of PR, both nationally and in the Carolinas.
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Subseries 1.1. John Harden Associates (JHA) Client Files, 1958-1982.
Arrangement: alphabetical by client.
Correspondence, press releases, clippings, and other documents pertaining to the services provided by John Harden Associates (JHA) to clients and prospective clients. JHA's broad array of clients reflected Harden's catholic interests in business, politics, and education. Clients ranged from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to Structure House, a Durham, N.C.-based weight loss program, and from B. Everett Jordan's 1972 campaign for the U.S. Senate to the Medical Plastics Corporation of America, manufacturers of the nation's first mildew-free shower curtain. The majority of clients were based in North Carolina, with a scattering of firms based in Virginia and South Carolina.
The following is a list of some of the major topics covered by this series, and files in which information about them may be found. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather a suggestive one:
North Carolina business and politics: North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development; North Carolina Citizens Association; North Carolina Council of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency
North Carolina commerce and industry: Gilbarco; Texas Gulf Sulphur; (also NCNB, Subseries 1.5)
North Carolina education: North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; University of North Carolina-Greensboro
North Carolina politics: Campaign Associates, Inc.; Independent Research Associates; Jordan, B. Everett; Morton, Hugh, Gubernatorial Campaign, 1971-2
Greensboro/Guilford County: Gateways; Guilford County Bicentennial; Greensboro Chamber of Commerce; Greensboro Country Club
Textile industry: Cone Mills; National Spinning Company; North Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association; Morpul, Inc.
Southern labor relations: Cone Mills; National Spinning Company; Gilbarco, Inc.; P. Lorillard Company; Patrick B. Comer Associates; McDowell County Industries
Advertising: Ruder and Finn; Ayer and Gillette
Charities: Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; Crossnore School; the Children's Home Society of North Carolina; Evergreens, Inc.; Muscular Dystrophy Association of America
Grandfather Mountain/Hugh Morton: Grandfather Golf and Country Club
Environment: Appalachian Power Company; Texas Gulf Sulphur; Nuclear Corporation of America (Darlington, S.C.)
Coastal Carolina Water Issues: Texas Gulf Sulphur; Menhaden
Historic Preservation: Historic Cabarrus; Guilford County Bicentennial; Colonial Williamsburg Brick
Alcohol Licensing Laws in North Carolina: Citizens United for Responsible Enforcement
African Americans in North Carolina: Palmer Memorial Institute; Cone Mills
Harden and his associates provided each of their clients with a myriad of public relations services, including press releases; advertising copy for print, radio, and television; company newsletters; brochures; and, for major clients such as the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, full length books. All of these documents assisted JHA in its efforts to get the clients' stories to their intended publics, either directly to consumers via the media, or to public policy makers via the media and lobbying efforts. These documents augmented by clippings about the clients and correspondence between JHA and each client or prospective client provide the raw material for researchers of the collection.
A small number of files are not related to clients, but are instead "information" files. For instance, the "NC Senate, 1969" file contains clippings, biographical material, and policy stances of all members of that body. The file on "NC House, 1969" reveals similar information. These files appear to have been used as part of an effort to gauge legislators' opinions on telephone utility companies, but there are no records of any client requesting this service. Researchers should note that although this collection includes most of the company's files, it does not contain all of them because water damage destroyed a substantial portion.
A number of clients are represented by only one or two files, usually reflecting a short term commitment by JHA. These may vary in usefulness. A few may contain a single press release or scattered clippings. Others are somewhat more revealing of their times. Copy of a radio jingle for A & A discount stores, for instance, is suggestive of the devices used by advertisers to attract customers: "background music should be modern and swinging-not rock. Scene begins as 3 or 4 attractive female models in beach coats and robes take off their robes."
In other instances, the company provided clients a wider array of services over a period of years. In this regard, the relationship of JHA with Gilbarco, Inc., one of JHA's largest clients, is instructive of the kinds of materials found throughout the series--and of the light these materials shed on the changing economics of the South. Gilbarco, a national leader for a century in support products for the petroleum industry moved its international headquarters and its entire American manufacturing operation from Springfield, Mass., to Greensboro, N.C., in 1966.
Correspondence between JHA and Gilbarco executives sheds light on the problems and the opportunities faced by the company's relocation and the early challenges posed by a lengthy Teamsters strike in 1968 and 1969. From its founding in 1958, JHA had offered its clients support in enlisting "official and citizen support in communities where union organizing attempts are resisted." For similar information on JHA's interest in opposing union drives, see also the files on Cone Mills, the National Spinning Company, and the American Textile Manufacturers Institute. Many documents show how JHA attempted to improve Gilbarco's image of good corporate citizenship--by news releases to the media, open days, sponsorship of a Miss Black North Carolina pageant, and publicity of new job opportunities and plant openings. At the same time, JHA advised the company how best to persuade workers that the firm was a loyal employer--by enclosing in wage packets a reminder of the benefits such as financial aid for further education and a ten percent discount on Humble Oil. Copies of Gilbarco News, 1969-1973, a newsletter, also reveal the effort to create a community atmosphere at the plant where workers could read of Armand Ragazzini's hole-in one, Jane Poole's success in the Powder Puff Derby at Caraway Speedway, and of United Fund drives and company picnics. A number of press releases and brochures deal with "project upgrade," an attempt to improve both the quality of the company's main product, gas pumps, and pride in the company's work force, with prizes awarded by a Miss Upgrade, dressed in a "distinctive uniform...of Gilbarco blue sweater, hot pants, and boots."
Much of the correspondence and clippings from the 1970s deals with Gilbarco's efforts to counteract the problems of gas hikes and the oil crises. Personnel and employee recruitment files reveal the company's attempts to attract northerners by highlighting opportunities to "enjoy leisure time in scenic North Carolina."
Copies of Gilbarco recruitment ads for women are also revealing: "Girls...Gilbarco, the company that has that very pretty plant near the airport, has decided to make the inside of the building look just as nice as the outside. So they are hiring women, women, women."
Similar materials reflecting JHA's range of services may be found in the files of the company's larger clients: the Appalachian Power Company, Carolina Motor Club, the Children's Home Society, Crossnore School, Citizen's United for Responsible Enforcement (CURE), Grandfather Mountain Golf and Country Club, Guilford College, Home Security Life Insurance Company, Morpul, Inc., Muscular Dystrophy Association of America, National Spinning Company, North Carolina Association of Independent Schools and Colleges, Ruder and Finn, Inc., Structure House, Texas Gulf Sulphur, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.