Legacy finding aids update

The latest group of updated and encoded finding aids has just been posted online. Some of the notable collections in this group are:

Edwin Björkman Papers, #3070

Edwin Björkman (1866-1951) was a Swedish-American literary critic, translator, newspaperman, and author, and, from 1925, a resident of North Carolina. The collection includes literary, personal, and business correspondence, chiefly from 1907, writings and collected writings, of Edwin Björkman. His correspondence is divided into two series: Professional (literary), and Personal. The Professional series includes letters from many significant twentieth century authors, including Zoe Akins, Van Wyck Brooks, James Branch Cabell, Olive Tilford Dargan, John Galsworthy, Francis Grierson, Archibald Henderson, Henry Goddard Leach, William Lyon Phelps, Upton Sinclair, Freeman Tilden, and Allan Eugene Updegraff. Topics include Björkman’s work as a translator of Swedish literature and drama, his World War I experiences in Sweden as an employee of the British Department of Information and the American Committee on Public Information, and his work in North Carolina as literary editor of the Asheville Times newspaper and, after 1935, as director of the North Carolina Federal Writers’ Project. The Personal series consists of correspondence of and writings of Björkman’s family, including his four wives.

Thomas F. Hickerson Papers, #3809

Thomas F. (Thomas Felix) Hickerson was a professor of civil engineering and applied mathematics at the University of North Carolina and an expert in highway design. The collection includes professional and technical correspondence related to Hickerson’s work as professor at the University of North Carolina; papers, photographs, and genealogical and other data connected with the writing of his two books about the history and families of the Happy Valley area in Wilkes county and Caldwell county, N.C.; and about fifty items concerning the slaying of William C. Falkner (great-grandfather of the novelist William Faulkner) at Ripley, Miss., in 1889.

William Calk Diary, #131-z

William Calk (fl. 1775) traveled from Prince William County, Va., to Boone’s Fort on the Kentucky River in 1775. The collection is a typescript copy of a daily journal, 13 March 1775-2 May 1775, kept by Calk while on this trip.

A complete list of all updated and posted legacy finding aids can be found here.

Featured Z- Collection: Lizzie Chambers Hall (#4145-z)

Lizzie Chambers Hall was the wife of W. T. Hall, who was the  pastor of Baptist churches in Danville, Virginia from 1897-1907, and in Roxborough, Pennsylvania from 1913- 1928.

Photo of Lizzie and an article she wrote from her scrapbook

The Lizze Chambers Hall Papers contain  photographs, scattered family correspondence, and a scrapook which Lizzie compiled.

The scrapbook contains news papers clippings, pictures, religious tracts and broadsides,  printed and manuscript poems (some of which were written by Lizzie herself ) and other memorabilia. It is a fascinating record of certain elements of African American family life and religious practices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Click here to link to the finding aid for the Lizzie Chambers Hall papers.

From the Digital SHC

Detail from a page in the Martha Ryan Cipher Book, SHC #1940-z

Today’s digital feature is the Martha Ryan Cipher Book, SHC collection #1940-z. From the finding aid:

“School mathematics exercise book kept by Martha Ryan, probably of Perquimans County, N.C., circa 1781. The volume is bound in homespun fabric with ornate decorations on each page. Mottos, ship designs, and other patriotic decorations, and inscriptions such as “Liberty” or “George Washington” on many of the pages reflect the Revolutionary influence.”

We have digitized the entire cipher book. Please see the finding aid to view it online (once you reach the finding aid, scroll down and click on the link for “Folder 1” to view the digitized material). Enjoy!

Video of Governor Terry Sanford’s “emancipation” speech to the North Carolina Press Association

We are pleased to share this video of Governor Terry Sanford’s remarkable January 18, 1963 speech, given before the North Carolina Press Association at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, N.C. In this speech, delivered on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Governor Sanford called on citizens, “to quit unfair discrimination and to give the Negro a full chance to earn a decent living for his family and to contribute to the higher standards for himself and all men.” Sanford’s address is preserved in the SHC’s Terry Sanford Papers (Collection #3531, Videotape VT-3531/1a; view finding aid).

Special thanks to Wilson Library’s Moving Image Archivist Stephanie Stewart for transferring the film to a digital file, and to James Leloudis, UNC Chapel Hill history professor, for uploading the video to YouTube so that all could view this moment in Southern history. Prof. Leloudis is co-author of a new book on the anti-poverty work of the North Carolina Fund, To Right These Wrongs (out this month from UNC Press). Prof. Leloudis and his co-author, Robert Korstad, professor of public policy and history at Duke University, will present a lecture at Wilson Library later this fall on their new book.  Check back soon for more details about this program.