Title: George A. Sloan Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1917-1955

Creator:

• Sloan, George A., 1893-1955

Call Number: Mss 208; PH 4028; PH 4041 (3)

Quantity: 11.2 cubic feet (27 archives boxes and 1 flat box), 0.1 cubic feet of photographs, and 1 pamphlet (1 oversize folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of George A. Sloan, a prominent New York City businessman active in the Business Advisory Council of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Cotton Textile Institute, the U.S. Council of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the Metropolitan Opera Association, as well as national Republican politics, particularly the presidential election of 1952. The papers include correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings, and articles demonstrating Sloan's interest in managerial, labor, and social problems. The bulk of the collection is comprised of correspondence including exchanges with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Alfred M. Gruenther, Cordell Hull, Sir Rudolf Bing, Herbert Hoover, H. Wendell Endicott, Billy Rose, Estes Kefauver, John Foster Dulles, Thomas E. Dewey, William O. Douglas, and others. Also present is information on the national textile strike of 1934.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00208

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Chronology

1893 May 30	George Arthur Sloan was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Paul Lowe and Anne Mae (Joy) Sloan.
1915	Graduated from Vanderbilt University with an LL.B. Admitted to the Tennessee bar, but never seriously practiced.
1915-1917	Worked for the Nashville drygoods firm of Cain-Sloan Co., of which his father was co-owner.
1917-1919	Served with the American Expeditionary Force in France and attained the rank of captain.
1919-1922	Assistant to the Chairman of the American Red Cross, Washington, D.C.
1922-1926	Secretary of the Copper and Brass Research Association, New York City.
1926-1929	Helped organize the Cotton Textile Institute Inc., and served as its first secretary.
1929-1935	President and chairman of the Cotton Textile Institute. Reforms he introduced to the industry included the 40 hour work week, the prohibition of child labor, increased wages, and an enlarged work force. He felt that improving working conditions made good business sense and that restraining production would raise profits and wages. These policies were resisted both by social critics and traditionally-minded mill owners and were a factor in his controversial resignation. Nonetheless, these reforms earned him a reputation as a progressive business leader.
1929 November 30	Married Florence Lincoln Rockefeller, who by her previous marriage to William A. Rockefeller had two daughters, Florence Lincoln and Anne. Florence later became the first wife of Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis).
1931	Member of President Hoover's Committee on Unemployment Relief.
1932-1933	Chairman of the clothing and textile group of the national share-the-work movement.
1933-1935	Chairman of the Cotton Textile Code Authority, which submitted the first code under N.R.A.
1935-1942	Member of the Business Advisory Council, U.S. Department of Commerce, and chairman of the U.S. Consumer's Goods Industrial Committee.
1938-1955	Worked for the New York Metropolitan Opera Association as director (1938-1941), president (1941-1946), chairman of the board (1946-1955), and honorary chairman (1955). He led several successful fund raising campaigns, raising more than $3 million from 1940 to 1953, and had innovative and controversial ideas about management of artistic talent. He also lobbied for a repeal of the federal tax on admissions charged by non-profit musical organizations, which was repealed in 1952.
1940-1944	Commissioner of Commerce, New York City, and chairman of the Mayor's Business Committee.
1944-1950	Chairman of the Board, Southern Agriculturalist. Director, United States Steel Corporation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Bankers Trust Company, and the Great American Insurance Company.
1945	Honorary LL.D. from University of Chattanooga.
1952	Campaigned for his friend Dwight D. Eisenhower and worked to strengthen the Republican Party in the South.
1955 May 21	George A. Sloan died in New York City.

During his lifetime Sloan also served on the board of trustees of Vanderbilt University, belonged to numerous charitable and professional organizations, and wrote articles on the opera and on social and economic problems.

The George A. Sloan Papers, 1917-1955, primarily document his business career and his work for the Metropolitan Opera, especially from 1930 until his death in 1955. The papers have been arranged into five series: Correspondence, Articles, Addresses, Clippings, and Visual Materials.

The CORRESPONDENCE comprises the bulk of this collection. There is much material on his work for the Cotton Textile Institute, 1926-1935; the Business Advisory Council, 1935-1942; and the Republican Party in the South, 1952. Sloan's involvement in the Metropolitan Opera, 1938-1955, is illustrated by correspondence concerning the financial, managerial, and labor problems of that institution. Many letters in this series concern congratulations on his many appointments, reactions to information bulletins he sent out, his personal financial transactions, and his work for charities. Sloan arranged his correspondence alphabetically by topic and chronologically thereunder; often he left clippings and related documents with individual letters. This arrangement has been retained.

The collection only includes four folders on Sloan's ARTICLES, which reflect his varied business, cultural, and charitable interests from 1933 to 1955. Especially after 1945, Sloan publicized his ideas on how business should develop in the post-war world and on the need for internationalism in the business community. Included in this series are correspondence, drafts, and printed articles. There is also a list of his major articles; prepared soon after his death, this list is arranged alphabetically by the name of the magazine in which the article appeared, and by date thereunder. The articles themselves are arranged chronologically by date of publication.

His ADDRESSES have been divided into two sections. The first section includes those broadcast on television, but primarily on radio before 1940 and mainly concerning the cotton textile industry. The second section is comprised of those he presented live before audiences in the United States and in other countries from 1924 to 1955 on a variety of business, social, and cultural topics. Included in this series are correspondence, drafts, reprints, clippings, and an alphabetical list of the city and date of his major speeches. The speeches themselves are arranged chronologically.

In the series of CLIPPINGS are a pressbook Sloan maintained from 1922 to 1938, a scrapbook concerning the 1940 New York opera season, and miscellaneous loose clippings. These clippings were taken primarily from newspapers in New York City, Nashville, Tennessee, and other major cities in the East and South.

The VISUAL MATERIALS include photographs relating to George A. Sloan depicting Sloan, his ship, Sir Rudolph Bing, and other Sloan associates.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. H. Barton Farr, Greenwich, Connecticut, October 16, 1964 and a small amount of correspondence from William Rockefeller, August 5, 1981. Accession Number: M64-312; M81-441

Processing Information

Processed by KG and WT, September 7, 1972. Additions processed by Alison E. Bridger, February 2014.

Mss 208	Series: Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	Processor's notes
Box   1 Folder   2	Biographical material
Box   1 Folder   3	Address lists
Box   1 Folder   4	Academy of Political Science, 1936-1940, 1948
Box   1 Folder   5	American Society, French Legion of Honor, 1950-1954
Box   1 Folder   6	Bankers Trust Company, 1937-1938, 1942-1945, 1951
Box   1 Folder   7	Blue Ridge Mutual Fund Inc., 1951-1955
	Business Advisory Council
Box   1 Folder   8	Agriculture Committee, 1936
Box   1 Folder   9	Anti-Trust and Monopolies, 1936-1939
Box   1 Folder   10	Conference with the President (Franklin D. Roosevelt), 1937-1938
Box   1 Folder   11-12	Consumer's Goods Industrial Committee, 1935-1937, 1939
Box   1 Folder   13	Corporate Board of Directors, 1939-1941
	Economic Conditions
Box   2 Folder   1	1937-1938
Box   2 Folder   2	Clippings, 1938
Box   2 Folder   3	Economic Development Committee, 1946, 1948
Box   2 Folder   4	Economic Expansion Act of 1949
Box   2 Folder   5	Economic Policy, 1942
Box   2 Folder   6	Economic Policy Committee, 1941
Box   2 Folder   7	Ellenbogen bill, 1936
Box   2 Folder   8	Employment and Wage Conditions, 1936-1939, 1942
Box   2 Folder   9	Federal Income Tax Laws, 1936-1937
Box   2 Folder   10-11	General, 1935-1948
Box   3 Folder   1	Government Spending and Recovery, 1939
Box   3 Folder   2	Labor and Industry, 1935-1939, 1944-1945
	Monetary Matters
Box   3 Folder   3	No. 1, Dr. Spahr, 1936
Box   3 Folder   4	No. 2, Sir Charles Morgan-Webb, 1936
Box   3 Folder   5	No. 3, Letters to Bankers, 1936
Box   3 Folder   6	No. 4, 1936 January-June
Box   3 Folder   7	No. 5, 1936 July-December
Box   4 Folder   1	No. 5, 1936 July-December (continued)
Box   4 Folder   2	No. 6, 1937
Box   4 Folder   3	No. 7, Letters regarding Robt. M. Harriss, 1938
Box   4 Folder   4	No. 8, 1938-1939, 1949
Box   4 Folder   5	Neutrality Committee, 1936-1937
Box   4 Folder   6	Postwar Economy, 1941-1945
Box   4 Folder   7	Pricing Policy, 1938-1939
	Wage and Hour Standards Survey
Box   4 Folder   8	1936
Box   5 Folder   1	1936 (continued)
Box   5 Folder   2	Clippings, 1936
Box   5 Folder   3	Walsh, Bill S-3055, 1935-1936
Box   5 Folder   4	C.A.R.E., 1954
Box   5 Folder   5	Century Association, 1939-1940
Box   5 Folder   6	Cement and Morton Salt Case, 1948
Box   5 Folder   7	Commissioner of Commerce, 1940-1944
	Committee for Economic Development
Box   5 Folder   8	1942
Box   5 Folder   9	1943-1944
Box   5 Folder   10	1943-1944
	Cotton Textile Institute
Box   5 Folder   11	1930-1934
Box   6 Folder   1-2	1935
Box   6 Folder   3	1936
Box   6 Folder   4	1937-1939, 1946
Box   6 Folder   5-6	General Strike, 1934
Box   6 Folder   7	Distillers Corporation - Seagrams Limited, 1952
	Eisenhower, Dwight D.
Box   7 Folder   1-2	General, 1946-1952
Box   7 Folder   3-6	Campaign, 1952
Box   7 Folder   7	Election and Inauguration, 1952-1953
Box   7 Folder   8	General, 1953-1954
Box   7 Folder   9	Election miscellany (other than Eisenhower), 1936, 1940, 1944-1945
Box   8 Folder   1	Foundation for American Agriculture, 1945-1946
Box   8 Folder   2	Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, 1938-1941, 1945-1947
Box   8 Folder   3	Greater New York Fund, 1938
Box   8 Folder   4	Groom Dye Process, 1939
Box   8 Folder   5	Gruenther, Alfred M., 1951-1954
Box   8 Folder   6	The Hall of Our History, 1954
Box   8 Folder   7	Hoover, Herbert, 1931-1945
Box   8 Folder   8	Iselin, William and Company, 1936-1940
Box   8 Folder   9	Japanese Imports: Correspondence with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, 1936
Box   8 Folder   10	M.I.T. Corporation Membership, 1944, 1947-1948, 1950-1951, 1955
	Metropolitan Opera
Box   9 Folder   1-5	Admission tax, 1949-1955 January
Box   9 Folder   6	A.G.M.A. Union, 1946
Box   10 Folder   1	Rudolf Bing, 1950-1955
Box   10 Folder   2	Rudolf Bing and Kirsten Flagstad, 1950
Box   10 Folder   3	Board of Directors, 1953-1955
Box   10 Folder   4	Budget, 1954
Box   10 Folder   5-6	Cancellation of season, 1948
Box   10 Folder   7	Club, 1943-1953
Box   10 Folder   8	Colledge, Rebekah, 1954-1955
Box   11 Folder   1-2	Endicott, Wendall, 1948 May-1954 June
Box   11 Folder   3	Financial statements, 1940-1954
Box   11 Folder   4	Fund, 1940-1955
	General
Box   11 Folder   5	1942 March-1945 December
Box   11 Folder   6	1945 May-1946 December
Box   12 Folder   1	1946 December-1947 June
Box   12 Folder   2	1947 May-December
Box   12 Folder   3	1948 January-1949 December
Box   12 Folder   4	1950 January-December
Box   12 Folder   5	1950 December-1951 December
Box   12 Folder   6	1952 January-December
Box   13 Folder   1	1953 January-August
Box   13 Folder   2	1953 May-December
Box   13 Folder   3	1953 November-1954 May
Box   13 Folder   4	1954 April-1955 February
Box   13 Folder   5	Guild, 1946-1954
Box   13 Folder   6	Interim report, 1934
Box   14 Folder   1	Minutes of meetings, 1949-1954
Box   14 Folder   2	National Council, 1952-1955
Box   14 Folder   3-5	New Opera House, 1946 November-1955 January
Box   14 Folder   6	Opera memorabilia, 1945-1955
Box   14 Folder   7	Radio mail, 1949-1953
Box   14 Folder   8	Reports, 1943, 1953-1955
Box   14 Folder   9	Resignation, 1951-1955
Box   15 Folder   1	Rose, Billy, 1948
Box   15 Folder   2	Second mortgage bonds, 1950-1951
Box   15 Folder   3	Strub, Dr. Charles O., 1946-1950
Box   15 Folder   4	Talks, 1945-1954
Box   15 Folder   5	Truman, Harry S., 1945-1946
Box   15 Folder   6	Opera Activities in America, 1949
Box   15 Folder   7	Clippings, 1943-1946
Box   16 Folder   1	National Cotton Council, 1938-1939
Box   16 Folder   2	National Institute of Social Sciences, 1941-1942, 1945
Box   16 Folder   3	New York Southern Society, 1941-1952
	National Recovery Act
Box   16 Folder   4	1933 December-1934 March 15
Box   16 Folder   5	1934 March 16-March 20
Box   16 Folder   6	1934 March 21-March 31
Box   16 Folder   7	1934 April 1-April 30
Box   16 Folder   8	1934 May 1-June 30
Box   16 Folder   9	1934 July 1-July 31
Box   16 Folder   10	1934 August 1-October 31
Box   17 Folder   1	1934 November 1-November 3
Box   17 Folder   2	1934 December 1-December 31
Box   17 Folder   3	1935 January 1-January 31
Box   17 Folder   4	1935 February 1-March 31
Box   17 Folder   5	1935 April 1-April 30
Box   17 Folder   6	1935 May 1-June 30
Box   17 Folder   7	1935 July 1-October 31
Box   17 Folder   8	1935 November 1-1936 January 31
Box   18 Folder   1	Undated
Box   18 Folder   2	Nutrition Foundation, 1942-1943, 1945, 1947, 1949-1955
	Personal
Box   18 Folder   3	1917
Box   18 Folder   4	1927-1929
Box   18 Folder   5	1929
Box   18 Folder   6	1930
Box   18 Folder   7	1931 January-June
Box   18 Folder   8	1931 July-December
Box   18 Folder   9	1932-1933
Box   19 Folder   1	1934 January-July
Box   19 Folder   2-5	1934 August
Box   19 Folder   6	1934 September-October
Box   20 Folder   1	1934 November-December
Box   20 Folder   2	1934, Clippings - Resignation
Box   20 Folder   3	1935
Box   20 Folder   4	1936-1947
Box   20 Folder   5	1949-1952
Box   20 Folder   6	1953-1954
Box   20 Folder   7	Promotion of Commerce in New York City, 1943
Box   20 Folder   8	Selby Shoe Company, 1937-1939
Box   20 Folder   9	Special group: G.A. Sloan, 1933-1934
	Southern Agriculturist
	General
Box   20 Folder   10	1944
Box   21 Folder   1	1945-1950
Box   21 Folder   2	Editorials and Articles, undated
Box   21 Folder   3	Southern Research Institute, 1945, 1949
	U.S. Council of International Chamber of Commerce
Box   21 Folder   4	1936-1944
Box   21 Folder   5	1945-1949
Box   21 Folder   6	1950
Box   21 Folder   7	1951
Box   21 Folder   8	Clippings, 1951
Box   21 Folder   9	1952
Box   21 Folder   10	Clippings, 1952
Box   21 Folder   11	1953
Box   21 Folder   12	1954
Box   22 Folder   1	Miscellaneous publications, 1955
	U.S. Steel Corporation
Box   22 Folder   2	General, 1936-1955
Box   22 Folder   3	Clippings, 1937
Box   22 Folder   4	Vanderbilt University, 1947-1952, 1957
	Series: Articles	⇧
Box   22 Folder   5	Alphabetical list
Box   22 Folder   6	1933-1938
Box   22 Folder   7	1939-1941
Box   22 Folder   8	1942-1954
	Series: Addresses	⇧
	Broadcasts
	Radio
Box   23 Folder   1	1930
Box   23 Folder   2	1934-1952
Box   23 Folder   3	Television, 1952
	Live Speeches
Box   23 Folder   4	Alphabetical list
Box   23 Folder   5	1924-1934
Box   23 Folder   6	1935-1939
Box   23 Folder   7	1939
Box   24 Folder   1	, 1939 (continued)
Box   24 Folder   2-3	1940
Box   24 Folder   4	1941
Box   24 Folder   5	1942
Box   24 Folder   6-7	1943
Box   25 Folder   1	1944
Box   25 Folder   2-3	1945
Box   25 Folder   4	1946
Box   25 Folder   5	1947-1948
Box   25 Folder   6	1949-1950
Box   25 Folder   7	1951
Box   26 Folder   1	1952
Box   26 Folder   2	1955
	Series: Clippings	⇧
	Press books
Box   26 Folder   3	1922-1927
Box   26 Folder   4	1927-1930
Box   26 Folder   5	1931-1932
Box   27 Folder   1	1932-1934
Box   27 Folder   2	1934-1938
	Miscellaneous clippings
Box   27 Folder   3	1927-1944
Box   27 Folder   4	1945-1955
Box   28 Folder   1	Scrapbook: Metropolitan Opera, 1940
	Series: Visual Materials	⇧
PH 4028	Photographs Note: Includes photographs relating to George A. Sloan, depicting Sloan, his ship, Rudolph Bing, and other Sloan associates.
PH 4041 (3)	Poster-size pamphlet celebrating National Cotton Week, 1932 Note: Published by the Cotton-Textile Institute Inc., this pamphlet contains photographs, clippings, letters and slogans.