The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History said it will publish on the 30th a report compiling the 50-year history of Bangrim Co.'s Gumi plant, a symbolic space of industrialization in the Gumi industrial complex in North Gyeongsang Province. The report goes beyond a simple corporate history, illuminating the transformation of Korea's textile industry from three perspectives: space, people, and records.
The report selected the Bangrim Co. Gumi plant as its central subject of investigation. The plant began as "Yunseong Spinning" in 1973 and has demonstrated the growth and change of Korea's textile industry on-site over the past 50-odd years. Holding the historical identity of the Gumi National Industrial Complex, the site was recently designated as the future location of the "National Museum of Korean Contemporary History Gumi Branch."
As the risk of related records disappearing has grown amid the structural transition of the industrial complex and the demolition of aging facilities, the museum launched an urgent survey to systematically document the plant's spatial information and records.
The most notable aspect of this report is the first public disclosure of spatial information covering the major fire that occurred in 1974, following its establishment as "Yunseong Spinning" in 1973, and the reconstruction process that followed. The traces of the fire, recorded as the largest damage in the history of Korean industrial fires at the time, along with the layout and design drawings from when the plant was rebuilt in about a year after overcoming it, were disclosed to the public for the first time. This is valuable material for examining the early construction methods of the Gumi industrial complex in the 1970s and the patterns of change in industrial facilities.
The report recorded and compiled, for the first time, the voices of on-site workers that had been obscured by official documents. Through the testimony of workers who had been employed since the Yunseong Spinning era, it vividly restored the labor culture inside the plant and the realities of the work site across different periods. Its significance lies in recording the history of "people," the subjects who judge the value of industrial heritage.
Through literature research, the report clearly organized the eventful history of the Bangrim Co. Gumi plant—from its Yunseong Spinning days through fire and management difficulties—centered on documentary materials. By academically reconstructing the key turning points of the company's management history, it established its value as foundational material for future industrial heritage surveys and research.
The second volume of the report, scheduled for publication in the second half of the year, plans to analyze in detail the overall transformation and industrial environment of the Gumi industrial complex. Based on the case study results, it will contain in-depth research findings on space, people, and records within the Gumi industrial complex. The report will be made available on the museum's website.
