East Tennessee State University
Archives of Appalachia
Box 70295
Johnson City, Tennessee 37614
E-mail: archives@etsu.edu
Telephone: (423) 439-4338
INTRODUCTION
Title: Helen Raulston Papres
Collection Number: Accession No. 123
Physical Description: 1 video cassette tape; 2 16 mm. reels of film; 2 interviews
Creator: Helen Raulston
Repository: Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Provenance: In August 1982 Helen Raulston gave the archives two 16mm films of the spring 1929 strike at the American Bemberg and American Glanzstoff rayon plants, Elizabethton, Tennessee. The films were taken by the company photographer and given to Mrs. Raulston's husband, Clarence, upon Bemberg's closing in 1976. Two video cassettes were made from the films. The archives retained one cassette and gave the other to Mrs. Raulston's daughter, Jean Raulston Madgett.
Access: The papers are open for research.
Processing Information: Marie Tedesco completed processing and the papers were opened for research in April 1987.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Helen Raulston (born February 13, 1909; died September 29, 1985), native of Elizabethton, Tennessee, went to work for American Bemberg in 1929. (It is not clear if she went to work before the March 1929 strike). She worked in the office at the plant. She was laid off in 1932. (It is not clear from the interview if she returned to work).
HISTORICAL NOTE
American Bemberg was owned by J.P. Bemberg, Barmen, Germany, an affiliate of Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken (VGF), Elberfeld, Germany. The Bemberg plant began operations on October 28, 1926, while the companion Glanzstoff plant, also owned by VGF, began operations two years later in September 1928. In March 1929 workers struck first the Glanzstoff plant, then the Bemberg plant. Low wages, wage differentials between the plants and increased productivity demands ("stretch-out") were among the issues in the strike. After an apparent settlement was agreed to by the plant president, Arthur Mothwurf and United Textile Workers Union representatives, workers returned to the plants.
Charging that the company violated an agreement not to retaliate against the strikers when in April some of the strike participants were dismissed, the workers struck again. This time the strike lasted into May and resulted in defeat for the workers.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Helen Raulston papers include two 16mm films and a video cassette copy of the 1929 strike at Bemberg and Glanzstoff, and two 1982 interviews conducted by the, then, archives director Ellen Garrison with Raulston and Alice and Charles E. Bowman, both of whom worked at Bemberg and Glanzstoff for a number of years.
The two films and the video tape were placed in the audio visual storage room and were shelved according to the accession number. The interviews were placed in a single folder and added to the small collections.
Important subjects covered in the collection include:
American Bemberg Corporation
American Glanzstoff Corporation
Bowman, Alice
Bowman, Charles E.
Raulston, Helen, 1909-1985
Rayon industry and trade--Tennessee--Elizabethton
Strikes and lockouts
Textile workers
MTC