Oral history interview with Barbara Hanks, August 10, 1994
Subtitle: interview K-0098, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Huber, Patrick, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Furniture workers; Furniture industry and trade; Social life and customs; Plant shutdowns; Furniture finishing; Factory inspection; Women; Employment; White Furniture Company
Other titles: Interview K-0098, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Barbara Hanks, August 10, 1994; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Barbara Hanks followed her father into the furniture industry, taking a job in the mid-1980s in the rub and pack department of the White Furniture Company. In this interview, she describes her career there, which saw her earn a position as an inspector, but ended when the company closed. Hanks describes the furniture finishing process, including sanding and oiling pieces to a shine, and recalls the challenges of her role as sole inspector. But more significantly, she describes the atmosphere on the factory floor and the way the factory brought workers together into an environment where they could build relationships with one another. Those relationships, and an older model of work, ended when the factory closed around 1993. At its core, this interview is about the dissolution of the social elements of working and the erosion of one community united by the sound of the factory whistle.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on February 12, 2008).

Interview participants: Barbara Hanks, interviewee; Patrick Huber, interviewer.

Duration: 01:10:57.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 138.8 kilobytes, 129 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0098, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jackie Gorman. Original transcript: 36 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.