Harriet Herring was a research associate at the Institute forResearch in Social Science and professor in the Department of Sociology, Universityof North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Over half of these papers are letters between HarrietHerring and textile mill representatives, research colleagues, newspaper and journaleditors, and politicians. Most of the rest of the papers are writings, includingdrafts of books, articles, speeches, and other works, and material collected duringher research. The papers date from Herring's 1925 appointment as research assistantat the Institute for Research in Social Science to her retirement from theUniversity of North Carolina in 1968. Most of the letters are of a professionalnature, relating largely to research projects and other academic activities. Therealso are scattered personal letters, particularly from the 1960s. The topics of thewritings include labor strikes in Southern cotton mills, life in mill villages inNorth Carolina, welfare work in mill villages, part-time farming by mill workers,tax support for public schools, industrial relations, and various other facets ofSouthern industrialization. Prominent correspondents include Luther H. Hodges,governor of North Carolina and U.S. Secretary of Commerce; University of NorthCarolina president Frank Porter Graham; University of North Carolina sociologist andInstitute director Howard W. Odum; and Gerald White Johnson of the Baltimore newspaper. Sun
