New Collections (11 July 2008)

Adkins, Davis, and Fulton Family Papers (#5230)

The collection contains family papers of the related Adkins, Davis, and Fulton families. Correspondence includes letters to and from Hiram Adkins, Emily Caroline Davis Adkins, and their children. There is also correspondence of James William Davis and other Davis family members. Letters discuss family affairs; life in Stokes County, N.C.; finances; and travel. There is also correspondence among the children of Mary Ann Davis Fulton and Wilson Fulton, and letters to Mary Ann Davis Fulton, living in Texas, from her siblings James William Davis and Luretta Campbell Davis in Stokes County, mainly discussing family affairs. Other materials include deeds and probate materials; a 1921 notebook, author unknown, documenting business travel around North Carolina possibly selling insurance; an account book listing family names and insurance information; bills and receipts for lumber mills run by Adkins and Davis family members; and a list of parishioners and financial records of the chapel on Davis property. There are also annotated typed transcriptions of family letters and research notes compiled by J. Daniel Mahar in 2005, donor-generated compact discs that duplicate some items in the collection and may include additional items, and other items.

Brian Bain Collection of Materials on Shalom Y’all (#5331)

The collection consists of elements pertaining to the making of the documentary film Shalom Y’all by Brian Bain, including video footage, photographic stills, audio materials, scripts and other documents, and photographs taken during filming; research materials; business files; and promotional materials. Video footage includes road tapes of raw footage, archival tapes, vignette footage, assembly cuts, original and final trailers, and credit rolls. Audio elements include composer dubs, voice-overs, sound effects, swelltones, music, addons, loops, sound effects, pickups, and papers briefly describing portions of the audio material and printed drafts of the film script with annotated audio cuts. Scripts and other materials include electronic versions of the script and the screen credits, as well as other documents related to the making of the film. There are several hundred printed photographs and accompanying negatives taken during the filming of the documentary. Subjects include interviewees and locations featured in the film, the cast and crew, traveling and filming, and events and openings. Research materials are photographs and videos collected by Bain while conducting research for the film. Images in the photographic research materials cover a wide time span and include subjects such as southern Jewish businesses, Jewish homes, and temples; celebrations, religious ceremonies, and other gatherings; southern Jews and civil rights; individual and family portraits; and other subjects. Research video materials pertain to research done before filming of the documentary, covering a range of subjects from Mardi Gras to civil rights to college football. Research film footage also includes Shalom Y’all scout tapes. Business files consist of correspondence and other papers related to grants, loans, expense accounts, film credits, the official film logos and posters, copyright, and public relations. Promotional materials are newspaper clippings related to the film; film festival schedules and film posters; correspondence related to the opening and showing of the film; digtial photographs and negatives of related merchandise; and press passes for film openings.

Independent Weekly Records (#5319)

The Independent Weekly is a free, alternative, weekly newspaper serving the Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and surrounding communities in central North Carolina. It was founded in 1983 in Durham by Steve Schewel, David Birkhead, and Katherine Fulton. The Independent Weekly is perhaps best known for its coverage of local music, film, visual arts, theater, dance, and pop culture, as well as for its strong focus on progressive politics and social activism. The collection is chiefly photographs, 1982-2004, from the Independent Weekly, including images published in the newspaper; unpublished production images of scenes, events, subjects, and organizations throughout North Carolina; images of individuals–chiefly politicians, artists, musicians, local activists, and civic leaders–such as Mike Easley, John Edwards, Harvey Gantt, Jesse Helms, Jim Hunt, Bill Bell, and others; images created by staff photographer Sadie Bridger; photographs of the newspaper’s staff; and other images. There is also one slide reel (with slides) and a transcript for an Independent Weekly promotional slideshow. The collection also contains papers relating to early efforts to establish a statewide progressive newspaper in North Carolina and the founding of the Independent Weekly (first as the North Carolina Independent, then as the Independent) in the early 1980s, along with correspondence, notes, clippings, and other business and financial materials of the paper.

Robert H. Moore Audiocassettes (#5355-z)

The collection of history and literature professor Robert H. Moore includes audio recordings of William Faulkner’s April 1962 remarks at the United States Military Academy (with an introduction by William C. Westmoreland), conversations between Moore and Faulkner scholar James B. Meriwether, Ralph Ellison’s 1969 remarks at the United States Military Academy, Moore’s reading of several Kurt Vonnegut articles that appeared in the New York Times, and conversations among United States Military Academy professors and others who were also Vietnam War veterans regarding their perspectives on the war. A more detailed description of the content and context of each tape has been provided by the donor. Note that original cassette titles have, for the most part, been retained.

Newly Revised and Described (11 July 2008)

Harry Lee Harllee Films (#4773)

Harry Lee Harllee was a naturalist, ornithologist, taxidermist, and founder of the Harllee Museum of Natural History in Florence, S.C. In 1927, he founded the Harllee Construction Company, also in Florence, S.C. In 1947, his nephew, Alexander McQueen Quattlebaum (1913-1987) joined the company as a partner, and it was renamed Harllee-Quattlebaum, Inc. The collection consists of 41 reels of silent, black and white, color and tinted 16-mm film, including both home movies and commercially released films. The home movies were shot, edited, and titled by Harry Lee Harllee. Subjects include members of the Harllee, Quattlebaum, Blackwell, and Dargan families; friends; former slaves; hunting and fishing scenes in North Carolina and South Carolina; Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, S.C.; members of the Woodstone Hunting Club; and trips to Washington, D.C., the Florida Keys, and Elon College, N.C., in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Many of the films are extensively edited and contain numerous intertitles identifying people and places. Some also have identifying information written on paper inserts or on their boxes. The commercially released films are primarily short nature documentaries.

Lawrence Foushee London Papers (#4958)

Papers of Lawrence Foushee London (1908-), a retired Curator of Rare Books at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an active member of Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, N.C., and the Episcopal Church of North Carolina, and an avid family historian. The collection includes personal, church, and family papers documenting London’s relationships with family, friends, and colleagues, and his interest in research and preservation of church history and family history. Correspondence documents family life, including the experiences of his son, Alexander Claypoole London, at boarding school during the 1960s, and later in the Navy Hospital Corps during the Vietnam War; family history and church history research; the response to publication of London’s book on Bishop Joseph B. Cheshire; the experiences of friends serving in the South Pacific during World War II; friendships that grew from common interests in collecting Caruso recordings and bird watching; and the North Caroliniana Society Award that London received in 1991. There is a small amount of material relating to library administration matters. Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina materials document London’s efforts to research and preserve the history of the Diocese and the Chapel of the Cross (Chapel Hill, N.C.). London family papers chiefly consist of 18th- and 19th-century correspondence, indentures, deeds, and other papers of John R. London, Henry Adolphus London, William Lord London, and other family members. Included are deeds transferring ownership of slaves and land, and letters with news of family, business, and political affairs of various family members, chiefly in Chatham County, N.C. Civil War materials include letters from William Lord London regarding camp life and news at home and an 1863 muster roll for the 32nd North Carolina Regiment. Letters of Frank Marsden London to his parents document his art school experience and life in New York. Other materials include miscellaneous writings, a memorial, and genealogical materials.

Matthew Cary Whitaker Papers (#768)

Matthew Cary Whitaker was a physician and planter of Halifax County, N.C. The collection contains family correspondence and other materials, 1728-1870. Included are letters received by Whitaker when he was studying medicine in Baltimore, Md., 1823-1824, and bills, receipts, accounts, and business papers related primarily to plantation operations, including records of slave transactions. Items before 1823 are deeds, accounts, and other papers of the related Fort family, including letters concerning plantations in Lawrence County, Ala. Letters from Fort family members in Alabama to Hilliard Fort of Halifax County, N.C., indicate that Alabama land was more productive than North Carolina land and encourage him to speculate in unclaimed lands in Alabama. Letters to Matthew Whitaker from his brother, Spier Whitaker, and other family members discuss family news, Halifax County political news, opinions of presidential candidates, monetary and other changes made by President Andrew Jackson, and the rising price of grain due to scarcity in Europe. The Addition of 2006 contains correspondence between Whitaker and Fort family members and friends. Topics include family news, Halifax County news, plantation matters, and politics. Included is an 1864 letter from Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Ransom, a Whitaker family friend, discussing the whereabouts of her husband, Major General Robert Ransom Jr. The Addition also contains financial records and receipts including records of slave transactions.

Newly Revised and Described (21 May 2008)

Albert Coates Papers (#3818)

Albert Coates was director of the Institute of Government at the University, 1931-1962, and a professor in the University of North Carolina’s School of Law. The collection includes office and personal files of Albert Coates and his wife, Gladys Hall Coates. Boxes 1-6 contain materials, 1941-1965, relating to North Carolina nonprofit organizations apparently collected by Coates in preparation for a study of these agencies at the local administrative level. Included are annual reports and publications of a variety of social and community organizations, like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. Also included are materials about regional organizations arranged by place name, reports of various committees of the North Carolina Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women, and information about other North Carolina and national agencies. Miscellaneous items included two original manuscripts by Coates, “The Many Lives of North Carolina Women,” and “Palingenesis: An Example.” Boxes 8-36 chiefly contain office files, many of which relate to Coates’s tenure with the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina.

Edmiston, Kelley, and Flowers Family Papers (#5230)

The Edmiston, Flowers, and Kelley families, primarily of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, are related through the marriages of William Kelley (1844-1897) to Mary Seraphina Flowers Kelley (1844-1937), and their daughter, Olive Kelley Edmiston (1887-1979), to Paul C. Edmiston Sr. (1881-1927). William Kelley was a physician in Tallulah, La., in the 1880s and 1890s. The papers consist primarily of family correspondence and genealogical materials, chiefly from Mississippi and Louisiana, gathered by Edmiston family members. Correspondence chiefly consists of letters between Saraphina Brooks Flowers of Bovina, Miss., and her daughter, Mary Saraphina Flowers Kelley, 1867-1868; letters between William Kelley of Tallulah, La., and his wife, Mary Saraphina Flowers Kelley, 1878-1897; telegrams sent to William Kelley regarding yellow fever cases in Louisiana, 1880s-1890s; and letters between Olive Kelley Edmiston and her mother, Mary Saraphina Flowers Kelley, 1900-1915. Some letters are from girls in school in Mississippi or Louisiana in the mid-19th century and early 20th century; others relate to African Americans in 19th-century Louisiana. Also included is a 1864 letter from Saraphina Brooks Flowers regarding her visit to the Union Army prison in Rock Island, Ill., where her son, a soldier serving with a Mississippi regiment, was a prisoner; an autograph album of William Kelley containing signatures of friends and acquaintances; naval records and other papers of Paul C. Edmiston Jr. serving as a naval radio officer, 1940s-1950s; photographs of various Edmiston and Flowers family members, 1850s-1950s; and a photograph album belonging to Olive Kelley Edmiston, circa 1900-1910, with some images of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Mo. Genealogical materials include notes, prepared works, and a compact data disc documenting the lineage of the Edmiston, Kelley, and Flowers families.

John Burgwyn MacRae (#478)

John Burgwyn MacRae of Jackson, Northampton County, N.C., son of Episcopal rector Cameron F. MacRae and Julia Burgwyn MacRae, was a lawyer, owner of a large Roanoke River plantation, and diarist. The collection includes MacRae’s nine-volume daily diary, 1883-1916; letterpress copy books, 1886-1896, of MacRae; speeches by MacRae; and miscellaneous volumes and papers. The diary describes day-to-day life and events in Jackson, including including MacRae’s long-term relationship with a local African-American woman, his fishing expeditions, and his work as a steward in the State Penitentiary in Raleigh, N.C. Among others discussed in the diary are various members of the Burgwyn family and Matt Whitaker Ransom (1826-1904). Also included are letters, 1869-1870, from Kate MacRae to her father Cameron MacRae describing her travels in Europe; class notes from the University of North Carolina, 1886; a baseball club treasurer’s book and constitution, 1883; an account book, 1880-1889, containing accounts for meat, corn, cotton, and other goods; and political speeches and addresses given by MacRae at Confederate reunions and Masonic, Episcopal Church, and other organization meetings.

Miscellaneous Papers (#517)

Single or small groupings of items arranged in units by provenance. Included are tax forms, records of accounts, slave lists and bills of sale, land patents, schedules of debt, wills, marriage licenses, naturalization papers, invitations, proclamations, commissions, sermons, speeches, and reminiscences, predominantly from North Carolina, Virginia, and other southern states. There is little correspondence.

Mordecai Family Papers (#847)

Mordecai family of Warrenton and Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va. Prominent family members included Jacob Mordecai (1762-1838); his sons Samuel (1786-1865), Solomon (1792-1869), and George W. (1801-1871); and his daughters Ellen (1790-1884), Emma (1812-1906), and Rachel Mordecai Lazarus (1788-1838). The collection consists of primarily personal letters (bulk 1810-1850) containing detailed information about family, social, and local events in Richmond and Petersburg, Va.; Raleigh, Warrenton, and Wilmington, N.C.; and Mobile, Ala. Subjects include the Mordecai Female Academy at Warrenton, N.C., 1809-1818; correspondence between Rachel Mordecai Lazarus and novelist Maria Edgeworth; activities in Virginia, North Carolina, and New Orleans during the War of 1812; travels of family members; Judaism; Ellen Mordecai’s writing and publishing; and births, deaths, and domestic activities. Emma Mordecai’s journal, 1864-1865, chronicles the fall of Richmond, Va. The Addition of January 2007 includes personal letters between family members; 1816 letters by Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth responding to Rachel Mordecai Lazarus’s letter concerning Edgeworth’s literary treatment of Jews; and reminiscences, song lyrics, and fragments. The Addition of September 2007 includes letters written to and by Mordecai family members, 1865 and 1916-1917, and one poem dated 1945.

Sam Ragan Papers (#4490)

Samuel Talmadge Ragan (1915-1996) was managing and executive editor of the News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 1948-1969; editor and publisher of The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.), 1969-1996; award-winning poet; writing teacher; and supporter of the arts in North Carolina. Ragan served as the first secretary of the North Carolina Department of Art, Culture, and History from 1972 to 1973. In 1982, he was named Poet Laureate of the state of North Carolina by Governor James B. Hunt. He was also chair of the North Carolina Arts Council, chair of the North Carolina Writers’ Conference, and president of the Friends of Weymouth, which operates the Weymouth Center for Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines. Ragan died at his home in Southern Pines on 11 May 1996. Papers document Sam Ragan’s career as a journalist and his role as patron of the arts in North Carolina. Correspondence files include materials relating to newspaper organizations, the North Carolina Arts Council, North Carolina Writers’ Conference, North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities. Subject files include information about the Freedom of Information Act and on the Free Press-Fair Trial confrontation of 1968, along with correspondence from various North Carolina writers. Writings include materials regarding Ragan’s The Tree in the Far Pasture (Blair, 1964), typescripts of commentaries from “Sam Ragan Reports,” which aired on WTVD television in Durham, and drafts of works by other writers. There are also materials relating to Ragan’s tenure at the News and Observer, typescripts of the columns, and letters to the editor used on the editorial page of The Pilot. Financial information chiefly relates to the The Pilot. Also included are photographs of Sam Ragan alone and with others and recordings of North Carolina Writers’ Conference banquet dinners.

David L. Swain Papers (#706)

David L. Swain was governor of North Carolina, president of the University of North Carolina, and a state legislator. The collection includes correspondence relating to Swain’s position as president of the University of North Carolina; his interest in the history of North Carolina in the colonial, Revolutionary War, and early national periods; and his activity as a collector of historical manuscripts. Also included are scattered items on politics and on railroad promotion in North Carolina and South Carolina. The few items of earlier and later dates are miscellaneous and family materials, with little relating to Swain’s active political career. Papers include correspondence with prominent state leaders and men of national importance in the fields of education and history, including William A. Graham, William H. Battle, William H. Haywood, Elisha Mitchell, John Motley Morehead, Thomas Ruffin, William W. Holden, Charles Phillips, and Cornelia Phillips Spencer. The volume, 1855-1868, contains accounts of debts owed to Swain and a list of his slaves. Also included are typed transcriptions of Swain correspondence, 1827-1868, probably prepared by former Southern Historical Collection Curator Carolyn Wallace as part of her research on Swain in the mid-1970s. These are not transcriptions of the original correspondence in these papers, but are likely transcriptions of original Swain materials held in the North Carolina Collection (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and elsewhere.

Alfred M. Waddell Papers (#743)

Alfred M. Waddell was an author, historian, lawyer, Confederate Army officer, United States Representative, 1871-1879, and mayor of Wilmington, N.C., 1898-1905. The collection includes correspondence, writings, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous papers of Alfred M. Waddell. The bulk of the collection, 1875-1900, consists of correspondence with national and state Democratic Party leaders and members of the Cameron family and other prominent North Carolina families, legal correspondence, manuscripts and clippings of writings and speeches of a religious, literary, political, or historical nature, genealogical research into the DeRosset, Waddell, Moore, and Myers families, and correspondence with other writers and historians. There are some papers related to Waddell’s service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War with the 41st North Carolina Infantry Regiment, as well as his activities as mayor of Wilmington, N.C., especially his involvement in the white supremacy campaign and Wilmington Race Riot of 1898. Also included are a few colonial and early nineteenth-century papers of the related DeRosset, Moore, Nash, and Waddell families of Hillsborough, N.C., and Wilmington, N.C. Volumes in the collection include a letterpress copybook, 1886-1894, of Waddell’s law office; a recipe book, 1890, and scrapbooks belonging to Gabrielle (DeRosset) Waddell related to her involvement in the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Colonial Dames; and two notebooks belonging to Hugh Waddell, one containing notes on legal subjects, 1820s, and another containing notes on art, architecture, and classical literature.

New Collections (21 May 2008)

Mahlon D. Cushman Diary (#5379-z)

Mahlon D. Cushman, a Union soldier during the Civil War, served as a private in Company I of the 16th Connecticut Infantry Regiment, 1862-1864. As part of the Union garrison at Plymouth, N.C., the 16th Connecticut, with the 18th Army Corps, defended against a Confederate land and naval attack, 17-20 April 1864. On 20 April 1864, the Union garrison at Plymouth surrended, and Cushman was sent to the Andersonville Prison at Camp Sumter, Ga. He was paroled in November 1864 and discharged with disability in June 1865. The collection consists of the 1864 pocket diary of Civil War soldier Mahlon D. Cushman. The diary documents Cushman’s capture by Confederate soldiers at the Battle of Plymouth and subsequent imprisonment in Andersonville Prison. Daily entries are typically brief, generally indicating weather conditions and occasionally diet. Entries of note include the 20 April 1864 surrender at Plymouth, the journey southward, and 2 May 1864 arrival at Andersonville Prison. Brief entries tell of many hundreds of prisoners coming into the prison and the deaths of prisoners. On 26 November 1864, Cushman recorded his parole and, on 5 December 1864, his arrival in Annapolis, Md.

Charles Louis Schlom Papers (#5313-z)

Born to a family of Jewish craftspeople near Riga, Latvia, Charles Louis Schlom emigrated to America to avoid religious persecution, and, in 1908, settled in Greenville, Miss., where he operated a jewelry store. The collection includes documents related to the Schlom family in Latvia; legal and financial papers, including the naturalization papers, property deed and loan papers, and last will and testament of Charles Louis Schlom; letters and materials sent to Schlom and newspaper clippings related to the purchase and operation of his Greenville, Miss., jewelry store; photographs of Charles Louis Schlom, family members, and the store; a biographical sketch of Charles Louis Schlom by his oldest daughter, Zelda Schlom Sachs; and other materials.

Newly Revised and Described (18 April 2008)

Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics Records (#4687)

The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics (Knight Commission) was established in 1989 with the purpose of drafting a reform agenda for the administration of intercollegiate sports. The Commission was dissolved in February 1996.

Karen L. Parker Diary, Letter, and Clippings (#5275-z)

The first African-American woman undergraduate to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Karen L. Parker was born in Salisbury, N.C., and grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C. Parker worked for the Winston-Salem Journal before attending UNC-Chapel Hill. She majored in journalism and was elected vice-president of the UNC Press Club and served as editor of the UNC Journalist, the School of Journalism’s newspaper, in 1964. After graduating in 1965, Parker was a copy editor for the Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Mich. She also worked for the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers before returning to the Winston-Salem Journal. The collection is Karen L. Parker’s diary with entries 5 November 1963-11 August 1966. The Addition of February 2008 consists of a letter from Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, Dean of Women at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to Karen L. Parker’s mother, F.D. Parker, concerning Karen L. Parker’s arrest on 19 December 1963. Also included are newspaper clippings about Karen L. Parker’s accomplishments as a journalism student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nicholas Phillip Trist Papers (#2104)

Nicholas Philip Trist, student at West Point, 1818-1821; Louisiana planter, 1821-1824; United States State Department clerk, 1828-1834; consul to Havana, Cuba, 1834-1840; State Dept. chief clerk, 1845-1847; and chief negotiator of treaty ending Mexican War, 1847. Trist was also a lawyer and worked as paymaster for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, and postmaster at Alexandria, Va. He married Virginia Jefferson Randolph (fl. 1818-1875), Thomas Jefferson’s granddaughter, in 1824 and lived at Monticello. The collection contains chiefly family correspondence of the Trist and Randolph families.

University of North Carolina Miscellaneous Diplomas (#3050-z)

The collection consists of diplomas and certificates from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., some issued by the Dialectic Society and some by the Philanthropic Society, both literary societies at the University. Most are from the nineteenth century.

New Collections (18 April 2008)

Joseph A. Herzenberg Papers (#5367)

Joe Herzenberg (Joseph Alexander Herzenberg II) was born in 1941 in Franklin, N.J. He moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1969. Herzenberg was a politician; historian; advocate for social, environmental, and economic justice; and the first openly gay elected official in North Carolina. He died in October 2007 in Chapel Hill. The collection contains diaries, correspondence, subject files, photographs, and other materials relating to Joe Herzenberg.