Fall 2021 History Acquisitions

Lummus Cotton Gin Gifted to Museum

Museum visitors have enjoyed learning about the Chattahoochee Valley’s manufacturing history by viewing a circa 1910 Lummus cotton gin in the Legacy Gallery for more than 30 years. Now this significant artifact has officially joined the Museum’s collection as part of a gift made by the Lummus Corporation this spring.

The story of Lummus cotton gins begins with E. T. Taylor & Co., manufacturers of premium cotton gins, which moved from Girard (present-day Phenix City) to Columbus in 1849. (The Museum owns a coin silver pitcher given by the South Central Agricultural Society to the company in 1851 for “the best cotton gin for fine cotton.”) In 1854, it became W.G. Clemons, Brown, and Company, before its final incarnation as the Lummus Cotton Gin Company after Franklin Hadley Lummus purchased the business in 1869.

This new owner, who had previously run a gin manufacturing company in Connecticut, built the Lummus Cotton Gin Works, established at Juniper on the Talbot-Marion County line near a railroad, in 1871. By moving the company to a rural area and building a non-denominational chapel, Lummus hoped to encourage his workers to avoid Columbus’ “rough element.” When the company returned to the city in 1899, however, Lummus became synonymous with Columbus manufacturing in the 20th century, at one point achieving the status of the world’s largest independent gin manufacturer. Reflecting the diversification of its products, the company became Lummus Industries in 1970. After a bankruptcy filing, Lummus Corporation was formed in 1993 before moving to the Savannah area in 1998, where it is still a leader in the manufacture of cotton ginning, oilseed processing, and manmade fiber machinery.

This steam-powered cotton gin, also known as a ginstand, employed a system of 60 twelve-inch saws, a pneumatic elevator, and a small drum feeder. Working as part of a larger system, this gin could produce one and a half bales of cotton every hour, or as many as 15 bales in a 12hour workday. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History, as well as the Georgia Museum of Agriculture in Tifton, own similar Lummus gins. The Columbus Museum is deeply grateful to the Lummus Corporation for this gift, which will ensure future generations can continue to learn about Columbus’ rich industrial heritage.

Image: Lummus 60 Saw Air-Blast Gin, ca. 1910, Gift of the Lummus Corporation, The Columbus Museum G.2021.34.1-.3