Firestone News, a company newspaper produced by Firestone Textiles, formerly a division of Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, has been digitized and is now available on DigitalNC.

The publication, which runs from 1952 through 1971 and was bimonthly and later monthly, is specifically for the Gastonia plant. While stories about the company are included, the majority of the content is related to events and employees in Gastonia. Each issues contains a “News in Brief” section divided by plant departments such as carding, spooling, and winding, which reports news on members of those departments. Typical announcements include births, deaths, illnesses, vacations, sons home on military leave, and visiting guests.

The paper also reports on company sports leagues, including bowling, baseball, and the fishing club. In later issues, service anniversaries were published, along with photos of those employees with twenty-five years or more at the plant.

The Firestone News should be of particular interest to genealogists researching former employees of the plant as well as those who would like to know more about the culture of a North Carolina textile mill in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Firestone News has been published online in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill North Carolina Collection and UNC’s Digital Innovation Lab.