Inventing the “Creative City”: Cultural Capital and the Making of North Carolina’s Research Triangle, 1953-1965

These images are part of the forthcoming project RTP and the Rise of the Postindustrial City by Alex Sayf Cummings of Georgia State University.  They come from the promotional literature and news coverage of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park since 1957.

Research climate

Figure 1 Standard image of scientist in a Research Triangle ad (1957)

Cultural advantages

Figure 2 Promotional literature stressing high culture (1958)

Research center is people

Figure 3 Just like Soylent Green: Chemstrand brochure (ca. 1960)

Roger Babson on Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill is heaven

Figure 4 Chapel Hill brochure emphasizes appeal of town to young families (ca. 1960)

Research Triangle in early 80s

Figure 5 Christian Science Monitor looks at “cities on the rise,” “idea industries” (1982)