Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material from the Carroll and Wythe Counties Industries Collection must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Carroll and Wythe Counties Industries Collection, Ms2019-016, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Carroll and Wythe Counties Industries Collection was donated to Special Collections in 2017.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Carroll and Wythe Counties Industries Collection commenced and was completed in May, 2019.

Biographical / Historical

The New Jersey Zinc Company purchased the lead and zinc mines in Austinville, Virginia (which had been in operation since the late 18th century) from the Bertha Mineral Company in 1902. The mines eventually employed as many as 650 people. In the 1920s, the company began marketing its by-product, agricultural limestone, under the Austinville Limestone name, to regional farmers. Owned by Gulf & Western Industries, New Jersey Zinc closed the Austinville Mine at the end of 1981. Austinville Limestone continues to operate today (2019) under different ownership.

Operating in Ivanhoe, Virginia, National Carbide Corporation produced calcium carbide for lamps used in mining and elsewhere. The lamp dust was sold in tins, also manufactured at Ivanhoe. In 1921, National Carbide was purchased by the Air Reduction Sales Company. By 1926, the company had added another manufacturing facility in Keokuk, Iowa; another plant was built in Louisville in 1941. The facility in Ivanhoe closed in 1966.

Content Description

This collection consists of materials relating to various industries in Carroll and Wythe counties, Virginia, collected by author Randal L. Hall in the course of writing Mountains on the Market: Industry, the Environment, and the South . The collection includes four issues of Zinc magazine (the in-house publication of New Jersey Zinc Company), the Summer 1939 issue of which includes a six-page photo section on Austinville, Virginia. Also included is a special photographic section of the Galax Gazette . In addition to brief company overviews, the publication contains photos of the plants, products, and personnel of Galax Mirror, Webb Furniture, Vaughan Furniture, Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, and Galax Knitting, as well as other businesses; and various scenes of the city and surrounding area. The collection also contains an Austinville Limestone pocket notepad, a National Carbide Company miners lamp dust can lid, and a combined photo portrait of the individual employees of the Carroll Hosiery Mills.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by item type.

Separated Material

The following items were removed from the collection to be cataloged for the Rare Book Collection:

"Agreement Between the New Jersey Zinc Co., Austinville, Virginia, and United Steelworkers of America" (July 26, 1963; September 19, 1969; August 1, 1972; August 1, 1975; August 1, 1978)

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• Virginia, Southwest