For more than 400 years, Virginians have been part of a global community—exporting ideas, products, and culture to the rest of the world. Although the commonwealth has become more urban and industrial, the land continues to produce minerals and food. Its shores are home to many of the nation’s finest shipyards. Its universities and laboratories share new discoveries, and artists perform for a worldwide audience.
Tobacco
The growing and processing of tobacco remains an important industry in Virginia. Although its production has declined since the 1970s, Southside and southwestern Virginia farmers continue to be major producers. Phillip Morris USA, a subsidiary of Altria, produces almost half of all the cigarettes sold in the United States, and its Richmond plant is one of the largest in the world.
Cigarettes became popular in the mid-1800s, but not until the 1881 invention of a cigarette-rolling machine by James Bonsack of Roanoke could production be accomplished on a mass scale. The development of color lithography in the late 1870s allowed companies to create attractive images on the packages and onto cigarette cards to market their products more effectively. Newer technologies permitted companies to expand from trading cards, tin tags, and posters to magazines and billboards. Radio and television ads were popular until banned from the airwaves in 1970. Philip Morris owes much of its success to two effective advertising campaigns—“Call for Philip Morris” and the “Marlboro Man.”
Mining
Modern coal mining dates to the discovery of vast deposits in Southwest Virginia in the 1870s. A century later, demand fell because of Clean Air Act requirements for low-sulfur coal, and the supply from Virginia dropped with the exhaustion of the easy-to-mine coal beds. Once prosperous counties in southwestern Virginia have been plunged into poverty.
Railroad Industry
An extensive railroad network integrated Virginia into a national market. Railroads transformed the hamlet of Big Lick into the city of Roanoke, which became a center for manufacturing railroad equipment. In 1887, the Richmond Locomotive Works was the only major locomotive manufacturing plant in the South and made about 4,500 engines before ceasing operations in 1927.
Shipbuilding
Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company was established in 1886 to repair ships used to transport coal carried there by rail from western Virginia. It soon was building warships, and, in turn, ocean liners. It has produced more than 70 percent of the U.S. Navy’s fleet. It is now Huntington Ingalls Industries. Across Hampton Roads is the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, specializing in repairs and overhauling.
Organized Labor
Although antiunion views have a long history in Virginia, workers in many industries organized in the early twentieth century. The new century also brought women in large numbers to the rank and file, and African Americans formed all-black union locals representing workers in railroading, shipbuilding, and tobacco. After World War II, union power was weakened by the adoption of right-to-work statutes still in effect.
Virginia Agriculture
As it has been for centuries, agriculture remains Virginia’s largest industry, with farms covering one-third of its total land area. Livestock—poultry and cattle—yields the greatest income, but the commonwealth also produces large quantities of soybeans, tobacco, apples, and peanuts. Virginia’s 250 wineries make it the fifth largest producer of grapes in the United States.
Wineries, Breweries, and Distilleries
Alcoholic beverages have been made in Virginia for more than 400 years. Early settlers hoped that the colony would become a major source of wine, and for centuries Virginians have produced beer, cider, and “moonshine” for their own use or trade. In the 1970s, interest in wine-making revived, and in the early twenty-first century, craft brewing has become a thriving industry.
Automotive Industry
The first Virginia-made car, the “Dawson,” was built in Basic City (now Waynesboro) in 1901. Cars were assembled in Richmond and Lynchburg in the 1910s and 1920s and in Norfolk after 1925, but relatively few Virginians have made their living making automobiles. Many more have been employed selling, fixing, fueling, and customizing them in dealerships, garages, and gas stations.
Homegoods Industry
At the turn of the twentieth century, furniture-making became one of the South’s manufacturing mainstays, drawing on the region’s plentiful natural resources and relatively inexpensive labor supply. Companies like Lane, Stanley, Pulaski, Rowe, and Bassett grew into national brands. In recent years, as imports have gained strength, foreign companies have located manufacturing or distribution facilities in Virginia.
Reynolds Metals Company
Reynolds Metals Company began producing aluminum foil for cigarette packaging in 1926 and moved its headquarters to Richmond in 1938. During World War II, Reynolds provided aluminum for aircraft. In peacetime the company pioneered a variety of applications for aluminum including building siding, beverage cans, a submarine, and of course, Reynolds Wrap. The company was acquired by Alcoa in 2000.