Creator: Baldwin, George Johnson, 1856-1927.
Collection number: 850
View finding aid.
Abstract: George Johnson Baldwin (1856-1927), capitalist and civic leader, was born in Savannah, Ga. An 1877 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he began his career as a chemist, but quickly became associated with diverse industries and companies, especially Stone & Webster, a Boston, Mass., firm of electrical engineers, financiers, and managers of street railway and public utilities companies. During World War I, Baldwin lent his business expertise to the shipping and shipbuilding industries. Throughout his life, he was an active Savannah civic leader and philanthropist. General papers, subject files, letter books, and account books that document the business affairs and personal life of George Johnson Baldwin. Materials chiefly concern his work with Stone & Webster, and his tenure as president of street railway and electric lighting companies in Savannah and Columbus, Ga.; Jacksonville, Key West, Pensacola, and Tampa, Fla.; and Houston, Tex. Materials document purchase, consolidation, and management of these companies as well as investment opportunities, unions, labor disputes and strikes, segregation in transportation, corporate real estate tax, local and state politics, and regulatory legislation. Also documented are brick manufacturing, gas, construction, and real estate companies; the Chestatee Pyrites Company, a mining property near Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Ga.; the Gainesville Midland Railroad; banking and finance; cotton; rice; fertilizer; and hydroelectric power. In addition, there are materials relating to Baldwin’s civic leadership and charitable activities with the Savannah Board of Trade, Savannah Public Library, Associated Charities of Savannah, Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten, Georgia Institute of Technology, and many other institutions and organizations. There are also some personal materials that provide insight into Baldwin’s life outside of work, especially his family financial affairs, property matters, and leisure, including the development and operation of a 200-acre mountain lodge estate near Flat Rock, N.C.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Collection documents segregation in Georgia streetcars, 1903-1908.