Merchants and Mill Workers: Harrison Brothers Hardware and Huntsville Commerce, 1897-1910

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Harrison Brothers Hardware store on South-Side Courthouse Square underwent many changes in customers and merchandise. This exhibit explores the major shifts in the Harrison Brothers' merchandise from tobacco to Queensware and from Queensware to the well-known hardware store. This exhibit also analyzes the developments in the tobacco and pottery industries in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century that affected merchants and consumers and explores the effect of the rise of the cotton mill industry in Huntsville on local businesses. The Harrison Brothers' ledgers record customer credit accounts and their daybooks record daily transactions. These books and other primary source materials from the Harrison Brothers Hardware Collection give insight into the store's operation, customer habits, and significant events in the store's history. This exhibit presents an in-depth view of Harrison Brothers and Huntsville in relation to significant developments in Huntsville at the dawn of the twentieth century. Merchants and Mill Workers offers an intricate view of Rocket City’s well-known hardware store that once sold Queensware in Cotton Mill City.

This exhibit is a project of the Historic Huntsville Museum. Visit their website here.