Fulbright Industries was a furniture manufacturing business in Fayetteville, AK, owned and operated by the local Fulbright family. The furniture manufacture was an outgrowth of Phipps Lumber Company, which was headed by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright. Phipps manufactured farm implements, including wooden plow handles and other tool components. In or about 1950, in order to offset the financial difficulties brought about by reduced demand after the war, Fulbright formed Fulbright Industries, in order to save the wood working operations of Phipps through diversification. Fulbright enrolled the assistance of his friend, architect Edward Durell Stone, who designed distinctively modern furniture to be produced by Fulbright. Stone’s designs utilized some of the shapes already in use by Phipps, and produced, among other pieces, the “plough-handle chair”, which used modified plough handles for the legs. Most of the furniture produced by Fulbright Furniture was made using wood frame and woven oak splints, although some upholstery options were offered. The association of Fulbright and Stone attracted a lot of press, but the furniture-making venture was not commercially sustainable and ceased in 1952, although Fulbright Industries continued to operate into the 1970s under the name Fulbright Wood Products.
