University preserves rare insights from Nashville’s top business leaders, setting foundation for a growing archival initiative
Belmont University has received a significant collection of interview recordings from Nashville author and historian Bill Carey, preserving firsthand accounts from many of the city’s most influential business leaders. The collection will be housed in Belmont’s Library Special Collections under the stewardship of the Thomas W. Beasley Center for Free Enterprise and will serve as the foundation for a future Nashville Oral Business History Project currently in the early planning stages.
The collection features more than 150 cassette interviews Carey conducted while researching two influential books on Nashville’s business landscape: “Master the Big Board: The Life, Times, and Businesses of Jack C. Massey” and “Fortunes, Fiddles, and Fried Chicken: A Nashville Business History.” These interviews offer rare, firsthand accounts from the entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders who helped shape Nashville’s rise as a major business hub.
"These interviews are a time capsule of Nashville's entrepreneurial spirit," said Dr. Howard Cochran, Thomas W. Beasley Center for Free Enterprise director and professor of economics & finance. "Bill Carey's remarkable collection not only preserves the wisdom of leaders like Jack Massey but also provides an invaluable educational resource for tomorrow's business innovators. We're honored to steward this legacy and expand it through our Nashville Oral Business History Project.”
Many of the recordings spotlight the life and legacy of Jack C. Massey, a transformational figure in both Nashville’s growth and Belmont’s history. Massey, famously the first person to take three different companies to the New York Stock Exchange, played a defining role in shaping Nashville’s business culture: one rooted in entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration and civic responsibility.
“Bill Carey’s work has created a deep and rich history of a pivotal era when Nashville was truly coming into its own,” said Dr. Sarah Gardial, dean of Belmont’s Massey College of Business. “These interviews are a precious gold mine.”
The newly acquired collection will be preserved and stewarded by Belmont’s Special Collections team, housed in the Lila D. Bunch Library. Plans are underway to digitize, transcribe and eventually make the interviews searchable and accessible to students, faculty, researchers and the broader Nashville community.
“Not only will this collection be available to our campus community, but it will also serve as a resource for the entire Nashville area,” said special collections manager Molly Randolph. “It marks the beginning of a beautiful and growing archive.”
The Beasley Center, founded in 2018 through a generous gift from Thomas W. Beasley, is dedicated to exploring the role of free enterprise in American society and fostering opportunities for students to engage in real-world business learning. The Nashville Oral Business History Project aligns closely with the Center’s mission, serving both as a scholarly resource and a living tribute to the entrepreneurial values that built Nashville.
In addition to preserving Carey’s original interviews, the Center envisions expanding the project in the future by collecting new oral histories from today’s business leaders — ensuring that the stories of innovation, resilience and leadership continue to be recorded for generations to come.
“It’s not just about preserving the past,” Gardial noted. “It’s about creating a living, growing archive that keeps recording the voices and vision of the leaders shaping Nashville’s future.”
Through this initiative, Belmont honors the legacy of Jack C. Massey and countless other visionaries whose spirit of free enterprise continues to influence Nashville — and inspires the business leaders of tomorrow.
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