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.
