The North Carolina Museum of History has mounted an exhibition of the photography of Lewis Hine. His bleak, black-and-white prints paint a vivid picture of young people, some not yet teenagers, covered in the lint and grime of the state’s textile mills. Meanwhile, University of North Carolina at Greensboro public history students, under the guidance of associate professor of history Benjamin Filene, have created an online project called “Community Threads: Remembering the Cone Mill Villages.”
Former residents of Greensboro’s Cone Mill villages have contributed photos and memories – in writing and audio – that paint a picture of a gentler, more congenial life in the Greensboro mill communities of the mid-20th century.