Gibson
Orville Gibson founded the company in 1902 as the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. Ltd." in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to make mandolin-family instruments. Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, used and popularized by Charlie Christian. In 1944, Gibson was bought by Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI), which was acquired in 1969 by Panama-based conglomerate Ecuadorian Company Limited (ECL), that changed its name in the same year to Norlin Corporation. Gibson was owned by Norlin Corporation from 1969 to 1986. In 1986, the company was acquired by a group led by Henry Juszkiewicz and David H. Berryman.
Henry R. Gibson
Gibson returned to Knoxville in 1876, and founded the "Knoxville Republican", a campaign newspaper, three years later. In 1882, he and a group of investors purchased the "Knoxville Daily Chronicle" from William Rule, and merged it with the "Republican" under the new name, "Knoxville Republican-Chronicle" (Rule would re-purchase this paper within a few years, however). Gibson served as a United States pension agent at Knoxville from June 22, 1883, until June 9, 1885. From 1886 to 1894, he was chancellor of the second chancery division of Tennessee. In 1891, he published a legal text, "Gibson’s Suits in Chancery". Gibson worked as a professor of medical jurisprudence at the Tennessee Medical College from 1889 to 1906.