Oral history interview with Frank Gilbert, Summer 1977
Subtitle: interview H-0121, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Gilbert, Frank Carman, Mrs., interviewee; Gilbert, Don, interviewee; Dilley, Patty, 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; Lumber trade; Employees; Social life and customs; Health and hygiene; Depressions; Race relations; Conover Chair (Firm)
Other titles: Interview H-0121, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Frank Gilbert, Summer 1977; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Frank Gilbert recalls his laboring life in and around Conover, NC. Gilbert worked a variety of jobs in North Carolina industries and also taught and did odd jobs until settling into a sixteen-year stint as machine foreman at Conover Chair. Gilbert, who is joined at times by his wife during the interview, spends most of his time discussing his family background and work life. For its length, this is not a particularly rich interview, but it does offer some insights into rural, laboring life in western North Carolina and touches on some themes of interest to researchers: dealing with poverty during the Great Depression, the tenor of rural communities, narratives of laboring, and racial integration.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 7, 2008).

Interview participants: Frank Gilbert, interviewee; Mrs. Gilbert, interviewee; Don Gilbert, interviewee; Unidentified Speaker, interviewee; Patty Dilley, interviewer.

Duration: 03:17:35.

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. 388.6 kilobytes, 361 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, interview H-0121, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 93 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.