Records, 1921-1953.

ArchivalResource

Rock Hill Body Company (S.C.). Records, 1921-1953.

Records, 1921-1953.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/557297865

Business letters, ca. 1928-1953, between James C. Hardin of the Rock Hill Body Company and businesses in S.C. and elsewhere in the United States interested in purchasing delivery trucks, school buses, etc., including udated catalog [ca. 1920?], "Price List No. 10," promoting the services of J.C. Hardin & Company (Rock Hill, S.C.). Letter, 30 Mar. 1931, from Hardin's former employer, "JGA" [John Gary Anderson] of the Anderson Motor Company, "Builders of Motor Cars," re radio broadcast by reporter Floyd Gibbons on use of Libbey-Owens-Ford shatter-proof glass and a bus accident in which children died due to the use of non-safety glass in the windows, as reported by George Hackney [of Hackney Brothers, a rival firm in Wilson, S.C.] who had supposedly sent a "hundred word telegram" discussing this accident, and suggesting a way to get the firm's name broadcast for free on the radio, "Hackney pulled off a good one, and got himself advertised all over the United States, as Floyd read his telegram in full. Now the thing to do is to stage something like this and get your name, and incidentally your bus bodies, on the air....," letterhead stationery illustrated with a stagecoach with team of horses, and slogan: "Five generations of coach builders." A request (with drawing) for the firm to design a shopping cart, from the Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Greenville, S.C., hints at the firm's involvement with industrial design for products in addition to vehicles (letter, 11 Sept. 1939). Other clients represented include the Lancaster Department Store (S.C.), Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, and other bottling companies in North Carolina and South Carolina, a Pepsi bottling company in Amarillo, Texas, and the Royal Crown Bottling Company in Tallahassee, Fla.; and telegrams, 1953, delivered by Western Union. Many letters written from or by J.C. Hardin; other employees represented include F.S. McFadden, R.C. Munn; W.P. Goodman; E.H. Jones and others. In addition to truck chasis, the company also produced smaller, push-car varieties of dispensers for soft drinks and other products, including an undated price list for six models of refrigerated storage, which could include a compartment for ice cream. Visual materials include photographs dating ca. 1917-1936 (including 3 images of traffic accidents); a sketch of a truck without a wind shield (1928); Red Rock Bottlers Cola Truck flyer, printed in color, with comments suggesting changes (11 Sept 1946); and illustrated letterhead stationery with sketches of various commercial buildings in S.C. and elsewhere: the Fort Sumter Hotel (Charleston, S.C.), 15 July 1921 and 1 June 1931; the Lancaster Department Store (Lancaster, S.C.), 23 June 1928; the John C. Calhoun Hotel (Anderson, S.C.), 3 Feb. 1937; the Ware Shoals Inn (Greenwood County, S.C.), 22 Mar. 1934; and the Hotel St. Regis (New York, N.Y.) 26 Oct. 1931. Correspondence on business letterhead documents many national and local soft drink brands, bottlers, and distributors; soda pop varieties represented include Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Royal Crown, Nehi, Red Rock Cola, Squirt, Hires R-J Root Beer ("with real root juices"), and Rhythm Punch ("tastes like grapes"); as well as Dr. Wells & Spur Bottling Co. (Durham, N.C.); Virginia Dare Flavors (Washington, N.C.); Bob's Cola Bottling Company (King's Mountain, N.C.); and others.

22 photographs.

University of South Carolina, System Library Service, University Libraries