This ca. 1912 photograph shows a pine mill in Bogalusa, Lousiana operated by the Great Southern Lumber Company, a Pennsylvania corporation chartered by brothers Frank and Charles W. Goodyear, members of a prominent family of industrialists in Western New York.
Text associated with this item reads:
"The genesis of these Louisiana wooden ships is the huge saw mill where thousands of heavy timbers are cut by 'patterns to fin into the hull design, exactly as a dressmaker would cut material for a frock from paper patterns. Here's the Great southern Lumber Company's plant at Bogalusa, LA photographed at midnight. Since war was declared against Germany, this plant has worked 24 hours daily. It has turned whole Louisiana forest into huge hulls to carry men and supplies to Americans fighting overseas and to the Allies."
The mill, which began operating in 1908 was, at the time, reported to be the largest sawmill in the world, with a staff of 1,200 employees producing 660,000 feet of lumber each day. The town of Bogalusa was a company town, built from the ground up to accommodate the mill's workforce. The mill closed in 1938, after the local supply of harvestable pine was depleted.
This photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials, Series II. Nation's Business photographs (Accession 1993.230.II). The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America formed in 1912 with the purpose of advising the government on issues facing industry and business throughout the country.
Most of the images in this digital collection are photographs that were taken for the Chamber’s publication, Nation’s Business: A General Magazine for Businessmen, published to inform the business community about commercial trends and to solidify political support around key positions on government policies regarding business and economic life.
Nation's Business is call number f HF1.N38 in the Hagley Library's Published Collections Department; our holdings cover all the years of its publication (1912 to 1999), with most volumes included in their entirety. All of the issues in our collection from 1915 on have been digitized - you can view them online now by clicking here or view a digital collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs, videos, and publications by clicking here.