Durham Hosiery Mill
subject: 1950-1959
subject: Durham (N.C.)
description: Looping department on the second floor of Durham Silk Hosiery Mill. The man in the picture is Loftin C. Buchanan (“Buck” Buchanan), a “fixer”—the person who maintained the machines. The loopers pictured,including some black workers, received one stocking at a time rolled up in a long string. (If it were ironed out, it would be flat, since it had no seams yet.) The loopers put the stitches at the toe end on a round wheel of needles, and the machine knit the toe seam, joining it front to back. It then went to seamers to do a seam up the back. Stockings with a seam up the back were called “full-fashioned." The building was located at the corner of Corcoran and Ramseur streets on the former site of the Hotel Carrolina.
source: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
date: 1953 circa
type: image