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Size | 5.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 230 items) |
Abstract | In 1900, Sidney Halstead Tomlinson founded Tomlinson Chair Manufacturing Co. in High Point, N.C. The company became Tomlinson of High Point, Inc., in 1934. By the 1960s, the company manufactured dining room, bedroom, living room, occasional, and upholstered wood furniture. Chiefly auditors' reports, insurance summaries and appraisals, inventories, product catalogs, account books, and minutes of stockholders and board of directors meetings of Tomlinson of High Point, Incorporated. The records chiefly trace the financial development of the company from about 1920 through the 1960s, with only sparse earlier documentation. A 1946 speech to workers by a company official who argued against unionization is included. |
Creator | Tomlinson of High Point, Inc. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Lisa C. Tolbert, October 1989
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Revised by: Dawne Howard Lucas, February 2022
Back to TopThe 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.
In 1900 Sidney Hastead Tomlinson founded Tomlinson Chair Manufacturing Company in High Point, North Carolina, with $8,000 in capital, one two-story corrugated iron building, and about twenty-five workmen. Charles F. Tomlinson joined the company as its secretary and treasurer in 1904, and the two Quaker brothers built the business together for the next thirty-nine years. In 1911 they enlarged their factory by purchasing Globe-Home Furniture Company and beginning a four-year remodeling effort. By 1915 the Tomlinson Chair Manufacturing Company occupied an entire city block.
In 1916 the Tomlinsons expanded their production to include matching dining room pieces and living room suites. In light of continuing diversification, the company was renamed Tomlinson of High Point, Incorporated, in 1934. During the 1930s the company also began to offer a collection of furniture designs inspired by Colonial Williamsburg for which new marketing techniques were developed to display the best designs in furniture galleries.
By 1943 the Tomlinson factory had grown to occupy thirteen acres and to employ seven hundred workers. By the 1960s the company manufactured dining room, bedroom, living room, occasional, and upholstered wood furniture.
For more information see Dorothy Lloyd Gilbert, "Charles F. Tomlinson Civic Leader and Industrialist," We the People Vol. 1, No. 6 (October 1943): 12-13, 28.
Back to TopThis collection chiefly traces the financial development of Tomlinson of High Point, Incorporated from about 1920 through the 1960s. There is only sparse documentation for the evolution of the company in its earliest years, and Manuscripts Department staff knows of no other surviving records of the company.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
These Auditors' reports present financial information in a variety of formats including budgets, balance sheets, statements of profit and loss, and tax quotes. There are no reports for operations of the company from 1900 to 1919. This series documents the increasingly complex accounting system employed after 1920.
Arrangement: chronological.
Insurance summaries and appraisals conducted for insurance purposes. These documents contain descriptions and itemizations of property, including buildings, automobiles, machinery, and office equipment, but excluding land, stock, supplies, goods in process of manufacture, finished products, and accounts receivable.
Appraised values are based on "Cost of Reproduction New" determined by prevailing market prices for labor, materials and equipment, cost of freight and installation, and cost to replace property new in like kind. Summaries also contain plats showing arrangement of factory buildings.
This series also contains a folder of terse correspondence chiefly concerning the transfer of documents between the furniture company and its appraisers.
Folder 62 |
Appraisal Summaries, 15 November 1923 |
Folder 63 |
Appraisal Inventory, 15 November 1923 |
Folder 64 |
Insurance Summaries, 15 November 1923 |
Folder 65 |
Appraisal Report, December 1925 |
Folder 66 |
Insurance Summary, 1926 |
Folder 67 |
Correspondence concerning appraisals and insurance summaries, 1918-1926 |
Folder 68 |
Insurance Appraisal, 1930-1934 |
Folder 69 |
Insurance Policy, March 1934 |
Chiefly inventories (1963-1968) and product catalogs (undated), this series also contains information about the Williamsburg Galleries trademark (1937-1943), a typed transcript of a speech by William A. Thomlinson to his employees (1946), and microfilm of minutes of stockholders and board of directors meetings (1907, 1930-1956).
Arrangement: chronological.
Inventories show items in stock, style, price lists, and itemized sales percentages.
Folder 70 |
Inventory, 20 May 1963 |
Folder 71 |
Inventory, "Replacement Should Sells," 25 May 1964 |
Folder 72 |
Inventory, "Miscellaneous Should Sells," 25 August 1964 |
Folder 73-74
Folder 73Folder 74 |
Inventory, "Replacement Should Sells," 25 November 1964 |
Folder 75 |
Inventory, "Replacement Should Sells," 31 July 1968 |
Product catalogs contain pictures and descriptions of the furniture manufactured by Tomlinson.
Folder 76-77
Folder 76Folder 77 |
"Furniture by Tomlinson" |
Folder 78 |
"Pavane Tables" |
Folder 79-81
Folder 79Folder 80Folder 81 |
"Furniture by Tomlinson" |
One reel of microfilm consisting chiefly of minutes (1930-1956) of annual, monthly, or special meetings of stockholders or board of directors. Also included are copies of resolutions, correspondence about board actions, and the 1907 by-laws of Tomlinson Chair Manufacturing Company.
Reel M-4296/1 |
Stockholders and Board of Directors Meetings, 1907, 1930-1956 |
William A. Tomlinson's speech to Mill 10 Employees records his attempt to persuade them to vote against representation by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, AFL, Union.
Folder 82 |
"Talk by William A. Tomlinson to Mill 10 Employees, Monday, April 15, 1946" |
Materials about the trademark "Williamsburg Galleries" document a Federal Trade Commission investigation for possible infringement of Colonial Williamsburg patent rights.
Folder 83-85
Folder 83Folder 84Folder 85 |
Williamsburg Galleries |
Ledgers, journals, notes receivable, cash receipts, factory expenses, invoices, and other financial information.
Arrangement: chronological.
Voucher summaries, payroll, factory expenses, administrative expenses, and selling expenses.
Oversize Volume SV-4296/1 |
January-June 1933, 67 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/2 |
July-November 1933, 74 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/3 |
December 1933-April 1934, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/4 |
April-October 1934, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/5 |
November 1934-February 1935, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/6 |
March-June 1935, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/7 |
July-November 1935, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/8 |
November 1935-March 1936, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/9 |
April-August 1936, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/10 |
August-November 1936, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/11 |
November 1936-February 1937, 72 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/12 |
March-June 1937, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/13 |
June-October 1937, 75 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/14 |
October-December 1937, 74 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/15 |
December 1937, 7 pages |
Arrangement: chronological by to last date in volume.
Ledgers summarize a variety of financial information including factory, office, publicity, and shipping expenses, profits and losses, wages, sales, taxes, insurance, common and preferred stock, and individual accounts.
Oversize Volume SV-4296/16 |
Transfer General Ledger, 1910-1919 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/17 |
Suspense Ledger (192 pages), 1905-1922 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/18 |
General Ledger, 1910-1922 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/19 |
Transfer General Ledger, 1910-1922 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/20 |
Transfer Subsidiary Ledger, 1913-1923 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/21 |
Transfer General Ledger, 1910-1924 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/22 |
Trial Balance Ledger (56 pages), 1913-1930 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/23 |
Suspense Ledger (199 pages), 1924-1933 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/24 |
General Ledger (793 pages), 1938-1939 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/25 |
General Ledger (pp. 30-399), 1938-1939 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/26 |
General Ledger, 1938-1939 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Financial information presented in a form other than ledgers and voucher-recaps.
Oversize Volume SV-4296/27 |
Distribution (factory expense, supplies on requisition, production report, payroll), 1913-1916 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/28 |
Cash receipts, January 1925-March 1926 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/29 |
Invoices (287 pages), 1923-1928 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/30 |
Record of Audited Vouchers, 1924-1928 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/31 |
Record of Cash Disbursements, 1928-1929 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/32 |
Cash Receipts (10 pages), 1933 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/33 |
Notes Receivable (75 pages), 1933-1935 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/34 |
Receivables (74 pages), January 1936-February 1938 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/35 |
Receivables (75 pages), March 1938-December 1939 |
Oversize Volume SV-4296/36 |
Receivables (113 pages), February 1940-August 1943 |