Fulbright Family Business Records

Collection

Identifier: MC 281

Staff Only
Select files to request

Scope and Content Note

This collection includes company ledgers, minutes, correspondence, property records, financial records, and other documents related to various Fulbright family businesses. The vast majority of the collection is made up of materials relating to the J.H. Phipps Lumber Company, of which the Fulbrights were majority shareholders.

Dates

1900-1977

Creator

Fulbright family (Family)

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Access restrictions apply: Three groupings of personnel materials have been placed in a restricted collections box, and are restricted until the death of the individuals named on the documents to protect personally identifying information (PII).

Access to Box 7 is limited due to fragility of originals. Researchers should first consult access copies of the documents, which can be found in Box 4, Folder 5 and Box 5, Folders 5 and 6.

Use Information

No Use Restrictions Apply

No Interlibrary Loan

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

It is believed that the businesses included in this collection were all companies incorporated under the Fulbright Investment Company. Roberta Fulbright formed the Fulbright Investment Company to solidify her family’s business holdings after her husband Jay’s sudden death in 1923. When J. William Fulbright came of age, he helped his mother run the Investment Company, eventually taking over after Roberta passed away in 1953. Roberta’s grandson, Allen Gilbert, the collection’s donor, was an officer of the Fulbright Investment Company as well as editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times, formerly the Fayetteville Daily Democrat, owned by the Fulbright Family.

Company papers included in the collection come from the J.C. Mitchell and Company, the Fayetteville Mercantile Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Fulbright Wholesale Grocer Company, the Fayetteville Ice Company, the Fayetteville Democrat Publishing Company, the J.H. Phipps Lumber Company, the Springfield Wagon Company, the Combs Cass and Eastern Railroad Company, and the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Company. All of these companies operated out of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Extent

3.5 Linear Feet (7 boxes and 1 oversized folder)

Additional Description

Abstract

Company ledgers, minutes, correspondence, property records, financial records, and other documents related to various Fulbright family businesses, particularly that of the J.H. Phipps Lumber Company of Fayetteville, AR.

Arrangement of the Papers

Materials are arranged by topic.

Acquisition Information

The Fulbright Family Business Records were donated to the Special Collections Department by J.W. Fulbright and other heirs through Allan Gilbert (1923-1980) on July 18, 1977, and August 8, 1977, and by Allan Gilbert on April 29, 1980. Allan Gilbert, Jay and Roberta Fulbright’s grandson, was an executive officer of the Fulbright Investment Company and author of A Fulbright Chronicle, published in 1980 by the Fulbright Investment Company. Roberta Fulbright became Gilbert’s guardian in 1933.