This collection contains publications generated by the College of Textiles and its various departments. Materials range in date from 1941 to 2012.
The North Carolina State University College of Textiles is the largest of its kind in the United States, offering the only accredited Textile Engineering program in the country. The COT produces more than half of the textile graduates in the United States each year. Almost 20 percent of the graduates serve as corporate managers, and half of those are either board chairpersons or presidents of their companies. The textile industry is involved with more than producing fabric and apparel. Composites, artificial organs, fireproof materials, tire sections and computer circuit boards are just a few of the modern products in the textile industry. More than 150,000 people have been implanted with a knitted polyester artery developed at the COT. The industry continues to need more college graduates with skills in design, engineering, electronics, chemistry, management, computers, apparel, marketing/sales and quality control.
In 1991, the COT moved to the North Carolina State University Centennial Campus, where students learn in state-of-the-art laboratories that are unequalled anywhere in the country. Here, students can participate in the Mars Mission, funded by NASA, where one of the world's only automated, three-dimensional braiding machinery creates space-age fabrics and fibers. Special projects are also being conducted to address environmental issues through the Industrial Electrotechnology Laboratory enabling students to learn about more about energy-efficient systems for manufacturing facilities. Because of the strong emphasis on research, development or management in the textile industry, the COT prepares its students with professional skills to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. In 2018, the Wilson family made a generous donation to the College, and the College was renamed the Wilson College of Textiles.
D.A. Tompkins of Charlotte was one of the most eager advocates for textile education in the South. Tompkins and other community leaders were instrumental in the founding of the textiles department in 1899 at the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College (NC State University). George Franks Ivey taught the first course in textiles in 1899. The next year the college expanded its textiles program; Ivey left and Henry M. Wilson joined the faculty as an instructor in cotton manufacturing. The college offered courses such as carding and spinning, weaving, textile designing, and textile chemistry and dyeing. The courses provided students with specialized expertise to operate mills and use advanced scientific research in the textiles industry.
The original textile equipment was housed in the basement of Holladay Hall. Support for the program grew, and in 1901 the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $10,000 toward the construction of a textile building. This structure, Tompkins Hall, resembled a textile mill of the period and was completed in early 1902. Thomas Nelson, a young Englishman from the Lowell Textile School in Massachusetts, joined NC State's faculty in 1901 and became department head in 1906 following Wilson's resignation.
On 24 March 1914 Tompkins Hall was almost completely destroyed by fire. With the help of builders and manufacturers, who donated much of the replacement machinery, the textiles program bounced back and by 1919 enrollment reached 154. Meanwhile, the textile industry continued to expand in North Carolina, as mills from the North moved South. The new College of Textiles (School of Textiles) was created out of the School of Engineering at the Board of Trustees meeting on 8 June 1925 and Thomas Nelson was appointed dean of the school.
From 1928 to 1943 students organized style shows to display their fabric designs. Students from local women's colleges participated in the event by creating fashions from fabrics made by NC State students and by modeling for the shows. These popular style shows were held in Pullen Hall. After the show, the audience and contestants visited Tompkins Hall to attend the NC State College Textile Exposition which displayed the latest methods of textile processing from raw material to finished fabrics.
The new building for the School of Textiles was dedicated on March 5, 1940, and named for Nelson in 1954. The School of Textiles, along with seven other academic schools, was designated as a college in 1987, and its name changed to the College of Textiles. In 1991, the COT moved to the North Carolina State University Centennial Campus. In 2018, the Wilson family made a generous donation to the College, and the College was renamed the Wilson College of Textiles.
This collection contains announcements, books, brochures, flyers, magazines, newsletters, pamphlets, and reports produced by the College of Textiles and its constituent units. Materials range in date from 1941 to 2012.
This collection is arranged alphabetically.
The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries' "Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain" and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.
The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.
[Identification of item], North Carolina State University, College of Textiles Publications, UA 130.200, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Transferred from the College of Textiles.
Processed by Lauren E. Garbrick, April 10, 2002, and Hermann Trojanowski, October 29, 2002
Encoded by Steven Mandeville-Gamble, 2006 March 8
Finding aid updated by Cate Putirskis, 2008 May; 2009 January
Processed and finding aid updated by Campbell Dunne, 2025 May
CAD/CAM: Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing
TOTE: Textile Off-Campus Televised Education
By Arthur C. Hayes and J. Glenn Templeton
By Elliot B. Grover
By Elliot B. Grover
ITMA: International Textile Machinery Association
ITMA: International Textile Machinery Association
ITMA: International Textile Machinery Association
By Dr. Peter Brown
Researchers may request copies of digital files. The Special Collections Research Center cannot guarantee that all files will open and will not in all cases have software available to read files.
ADMI: American Dye Manufacturers Institute
Prepared by Peter Schwartz, Trevor Rhodes, Mansour Mohamed
Dean Dame Hamby, 1982 Founder's Day address
This collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to digital files may require additional advanced notice.
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[Identification of item], North Carolina State University, College of Textiles Publications, UA 130.200, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries' "Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain" and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.
The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.