Abstract: Mary L. Woods was an African American woman from Smithfield, Va. The collection is a photograph album belonging to Mary L. Woods containing 69 snapshots of friends and family members, labeled with names, dates, and comments. The images are posed portraits of African Americans, including a few children; they were taken outdoors in rural settings, urban settings, and at the beach. Locations mentioned include Smithfield, Va., Yorktown, Va., Portsmouth, Va., and Washington, D.C.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: Blackwell Markham (1897-1977) was a general surgeon in Durham, N.C. He received his medical training at the University of North Carolina and at Harvard University. He served in the United States Army in World War II in North Africa and Europe. The collection contains correspondence, greeting cards, diaries, personal papers, a few business papers, and photographs relating to Blackwell Markham and his family. Topics include family matters and life during World War II. Much of the correspondence is between Markham and family members and with Mary Poteat, an English teacher at Duke University with whom he corresponded for 40 years; the bulk was written from Italy and Algeria, 1942-1945. There are also detailed diaries kept by Markham during World War II that include descriptions of specific patient cases, travel, and hospital and general military life. Also included is a diary, written in Italian, that was at least partially compiled by internees at an Italian prisoner of war camp in Algeria where Markham was stationed. There are also scrapbooks and other materials primarily relating to Markham while he attended Durham High School; the University of North Carolina; and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. There are also materials, many annotated by Markham, relating to earlier generations of Markhams, including John L. Markham Sr., who owned a general store in Durham and died circa 1900. Some materials relate to Markham and Brogden relatives, including letters of John L. Markham Jr. while serving in the United States Army in Columbia, S.C., during World War I, 1917-1919; letters of Markham’s nephew, Blackwell M. Brogden, while serving in the United States Navy, 1942-1945; and papers relating to North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Willis J. Brogden Sr. Also included are materials relating to Ritta Geer, the Markhams’ longtime African American domestic servant. Photographs are of Markham and the Markham family members, 1860s-1972, and include three tintypes, circa 1860. Photographs between about 1900 and 1930 include formal portraits and candid shots of the Markham family; posed portraits of servants, including Ritta Geer; and images of various locations around Durham. There are also World War II photographs taken by Markham in North Africa and Europe; photographer Margaret Bourke-White appears in a few of the images.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: A significant amount of Markham’s correspondence discusses being stationed as a military surgeon overseas, including North Africa (see particularly Folders 5-30; 35-72). He also describes the end of a military campaign in Tunisia in 1943 (Folder 185).

There are also letters related to Ritta Geer, the Markham’s longtime domestic servant. Folder 223 contains a 13 November 1934 receipt for Geer’s funeral expenses addressed to Blackwell Markham; an 11 October 1926 letter from Ritta Geer’s niece Cleora that discusses a family rift and Cleora’s desire to bring Geer to live with her in Pittsburgh, Pa.; and a Bible belonging to Geer, with a few handwritten annotations. There are also letters from John Markham, Jr. to Ella Markham from Camp Jackson between 1917-1919  writing about missing comforts of home including Ritta Geer’s homecooking  (Folder 218-220).

Abstract: The Atlantic Coast Line was based in Wilmington, N.C., and possessed rail that ran through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. The Atlantic Coast Line later formed part of the CSX Transportation System. The collection contains records, 1900s-1950s, of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Files are divided between President’s Files, which document railroad operations and relations with other companies, and Tax Files, which contain records of federal, state, and local taxes paid by the Atlantic Coast Line. There are also a set of financial journals and a series of files related to the reorganization of the Florida East Coast Railway Company. Addition of 2011 consists of records, 1918-1963, of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company Police Department. Reports document often extensive investigations into crimes such as trespassing and vandalism, especially by juveniles; petty larceny of railroad and personal property; vagrancy and train hopping; public drunkenness; and assault. Reports typically mention age, race, and sex of the suspects, many of whom were African American, and often personal or family information. There are also lost luggage claims, reports of injuries sustained in the rail yard, and personnel records that document relief checks, retirement traditions, job applications, and funerals.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The addition of October 2011 contains records of the Atlantic Coastline Railroad Company Police Department, and includes investigative reports and arrest records for juveniles as well as adults. Many of the records involve African American men and women, suspected of crimes as well as victims.

Abstract:  Helen Laura Ruth was a teacher at Leland University in New Orleans, La., a private institution of higher learning for African Americans founded in 1870. It closed in 1915; was re-named Leland College and re-opened in Baker, La., in 1923; and finally closed in 1960. The collection includes two scrapbooks of Helen Laura Ruth and a student essay. The 1913 scrapbook contains photographs of Ruth’s family and Leland students, some taken on the Leland University campus, and pictures, postcards, and brochures relating to her travels to Washington, D.C.; around New Orleans; Altlanta, Ga.; and other locations. Most of the scrapbook items have diary-like annotations. The 1940 scrapbook documents travel with friend Jenny Feiser around the western half of the United States, including Los Angeles, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle, Wash. The undated and unascribed essay, “School in the Year 2000,” appears to have been written by a Leland student.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: William Augustus Heermance (fl. 1846-1847) of New York was supercargo on the Montgomery, an American cargo ship that traded along the coast of West Africa. The Montgomery, commanded by a Captain Hooper, carried goods assigned to George R. Sheldon. African travel journal (original, 44 p.; transcription 34 p.), 21 August 1846-11 April 1847, kept by William Augustus Heermance while supercargo on the Montgomery. The journal best documents the Montgomery’s sea voyage from New York to Liberia and its trading activities along the coasts of Liberia, Ghana, and Gabon, and on the islands of Principe and Sao Tome in the Gulf of Guinea. Only one entry pertains to the return sea voyage. Journal entries vary from daily to weekly.They are brief, but detailed, and offer considerable information on locations visited, including descriptions of local buildings and internal improvements; means of transport by land and sea; local merchants, trade officials, tribal leaders, missionaries, and colonists; and inhabitants’ social customs, religious practices, and modes of dress and adornment. There is limited information on the ship’s crew (African American sailors and temporary workers hired along the coast); Captain Hooper and occasional passengers; the diet aboard ship; and the sale and purchase of cargo.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: J. B. Willis (b. 1851), a native of Delaware, was a Methodist minister and teacher at New Orleans University, an African-American school in New Orleans, La., and at a normal school in Huntsville, Ala. Diary, 1874-1877, of J. B. Willis describes his daily activities while he was teaching at New Orleans University, an African-American school in New Orleans, La., and at a normal school in Huntsville, Ala., and also his activities and observations during trips to Texas and Mexico. Willis’s diary records his observations of New Orleans weather, social life, and public events, including parades, Mardi Gras, sessions of the Louisiana state legislature, and religious revivals.Willis described the evangelism in New Orleans of Maggie Newton Van Cott (b. 1830), the first woman licensed to preach by the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. The diary also describes traveling by wagon, flatboat, steamer, and railroad to Texas in 1874, and people, animals, and landscape along the way. In Huntsville, Ala., Willis recorded his observations of the natural world as well as people, church services, and revivals during the year he administered a new normal school and taught a theological class.In Mexico, in December 1876, Willis described Tampico, Tuxpan, Vera Cruz, and Mexico City. In Mexico City, he reported on social occasions, tours, and day trips, including visits to Chapultepec, the Baths of Montezuma, the Guiterraz marble factory, the lava fields near Pedregal, “a very ancient pyramid of adobe bricks,” gardens, churches, private mansions, museums, and the unfinished public library.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Willis writes entries about preaching at African American Methodist and Baptist churches in New Orleans in the 1870s. This diary has been digitized and is available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digital content.

Abstract: Luther Hartwell Hodges began his career as an executive for Marshall Field & Comapny, 1919-1950. He was later consultant to the Economic Cooperation Administration, 1950-1951; lieutenant governor, 1953- 1954, and governor, 1956-1960, of North Carolina; United Sates Secretary of Commerce, 1961-1965; head of the Research Triangle Foundation, 1966-1972; and president of Rotary International, 1967-1968. Correspondence, subject files, political files, speeches and other writings, scrapbooks, and other private papers and audiovisual materials of Luther H. Hodges. Much of the material concerns Hodges’s years with Marshall Field & Comapny, 1919-1950; his work with Rotary International, 1930-1972; and his chairmanship of Research Triangle Foundation, 1966-1972. Also included are some letters about the Economic Cooperation Administration in post-World War II Germany; a small amount of family correspondence; political speeches Hodges made as governor and Secretary of Commerce; books by and about Hodges; scrapbooks of clippings about Hodges’s political career and about school desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., as well as in North Carolina; materials relating to a study of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees; and trip reports to friends and family from many trips overseas, including trips to Asia and Africa.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Series 2.7 (General Subject Files) contains various folders related to school desegregation and historically black colleges and universities in the area (See Folders 1774, 1815, 1816-1817).

Some copies of speeches in Series 4.2 also deal with Civil Rights and school desegregation as well.

Subseries 4.3 contains various reports about Hodges’s travel, including Africa, where he noted observations about various African nations after independence.

Scrapbooks in Subseries 5.1 contain several clippings, papers, and letters regarding desegregation in North Carolina and Arkansas from 1954-1961 and  1957-1958 (See Volumes S-72 to S-81).

Subseries 5.3 also contains letters, telegrams, clippings, and political pamphlets sent to Governor Hodges in the wake of Governor Orval Faubus’s summoning of the National Guard troops to prevent the integration of Central High School in Little Rock.

Abstract: William Jesse Kennedy, Jr. (1889-1985), businessman, author, and community leader, was born in Andersonville, Ga. He began his affiliation with North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1916 in Savannah, Ga. He later relocated to Durham, N.C., and, in 1952, was elected the fifth president of the company. Correspondence, speeches, photographs, organizational records, and other items that document the business, civic, social, humanitarian, and professional activities of William Jesse Kennedy, Jr. Included are records relating to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, N.C.There are also materials relating to Kennedy’s activities with the Boy Scouts of America, the Boys’ Clubs of America, the Durham Committee of 100 (a group focused on developing the Research Triangle Park), 4-H clubs, Durham’s Lincoln Hospital, the NAACP, and the North Carolina Board of Higher Education, among other groups.Also included are deeds and correspondence belonging to Kennedy’s mentor, John Moses Avery, and a series of audiotaped interviews with Kennedy’s relatives, friends, and associates conducted by Carter Cue in 1994. Materials show Kennedy’s contributions to social and economic progress in North Carolina and demonstrate his interest in civil rights, integration, recreation, and industrial development, particularly in the Research Triangle Park.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Included are records relating to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. Materials show Kennedy’s contributions to social and economic progress in North Carolina and demonstrate his interest in civil rights, integration, recreation, and industrial development, particularly in the Research Triangle Park. This includes photographs and oral histories with friend and contemporaries of Kennedy’s.

Series 1 (Correspondence) contains a number of letters from youths in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries in 1963, following publication of his article, “If I Were Young Today,” in Ebony Magazine.

Of particular interest are the publications, correspondence, and materials in Series 4 (Business and Civic Associations). Kennedy was very involved in a number of diverse community organizations. This series contains records from various groups, such as the Boy Scouts, Delta Sigma Theta, Stanford Warren Library, and Lincoln Hospital.

Abstract: The Penn School on Saint Helena Island, S.C., was founded during the Civil War by northern philanthropists and missionaries for former plantation slaves in an area occupied by the United States Army. Over the years, with continuing philanthropic support, it served as school, health agency, and cooperative society for rural African Americans of the Sea Islands. The first principals were Laura M. Towne and Ellen Murray, followed around 1908 by Rossa B. Cooley and Grace B. House, and in 1944 by Howard Kester and Alice Kester. The school became Penn Community Services in 1950, with Courtney Siceloff as the first director, and the Penn Center, Inc. in the 1980s. The original deposits are papers, mostly 1900-1970, mainly from the Penn School, and primarily correspondence of the directors and of the trustees, treasurers, and publicity workers located elsewhere. Topics include African American education, Reconstruction, political and social change in South Carolina, agricultural extension work, public health issues, damage from hurricanes, World War I, the boll weevil and the cotton industry, the effects of the Great Depression on the school and the local population, changes in the school leading to a greater emphasis on social action in the outer world, and the end of the school and the turn to community service. Volumes include diaries, extracts from letters, recollections, minutes of the board of trustees, ledgers, cashbooks, inventories, financial records, registers of students and teachers, and minutes of various clubs and societies. Printed materials consists of newspapers clippings, pamphlets, promotional literature, school materials, administrative circulars, and annual reports. There are also about 3,000 photographs in the collection, dating from the 1860s to 1962 (bulk 1905-1944), documenting school activities, Island scenes and Islanders, classes and teachers, baptisms, agricultural activities, parades, fairs, and special events at the Penn School. Also included are about 300 audiotapes with oral history interviews and recordings of community acivities, 1954-1979. The Addition of 2005, contains papers of Courtney Siceloff, director of Penn Community Services, 1950-1970, and secretary of the South Carolina Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, circa 1960-1970. Penn Community Services materials are chiefly administrative and financial. Material relating to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and its state advisory committees, especially the South Carolina Advisory Committee, includes some information about specific discrimination cases.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Administrative correspondence and records of Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School, a school for black students established in 1862 on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The collection also contains material on Penn School’s successor, Penn Community Services, which commenced its activities in 1948. Materials include approximately 3,000 photographs of students, teachers, school buildings, school events, and island life and inhabitants (1860s-1962). Numerous volumes include trustee minutes; account books and inventories; school and community club records; and guest books. The collection also includes diaries and papers of Laura M. Towne, founder of the school, and of others associated with the area in the 1860s. Microfilm available.

The Penn School papers cover myriad topics such as enslavement, education, agriculture, environmental conditions, family, social justice, Gullah/Geechee heritage, and Civil Rights, to name a few.

Of particular interest in the diary of Laura Towne, one of the first principles of Penn School (Folder 355a-b). She discusses life during the establishment of the school and interactions with the African American community, as well as with Union and Confederate Soldiers coming to St. Helena Island.

The printed materials in Series 3 also contain numerous annual reports, including reports from African American teachers at the school.

Of particular interest are the more than 3,000 photographs that are in the collection. They document Penn from its earliest days as a school in the 19th century, to the shift from Penn Community Services during the 1950s. The people and landscape of Saint Helena are prominently featured. Many of the images have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link the finding aid and to access the digitized content.

 

Abstract: Three generations of the Spears and Hicks families of Virginia and North Carolina, including Sallie Gray Spears Lewis (b. 1833), her daughter Sallie Moore Spears Hicks (b. 1860), and her grandson Charles Spears Hicks (b. 1886), a North Carolina banker. Primarily personal letters, 1852-1917, detailing the family, social, and financial affairs of members of the Spears and Hicks and related Gray, Warren, Glasgow, and Lewis families of Fincastle and Botetourt County, Va.; Malden and Charleston, W.Va.; Wilmington and Dunn, N.C.; Paris, Tex.; Saline County, Mo.; and other locations. Subjects include military life and social conditions during the Civil War; farming in various locations; student life at the Augusta Female Seminary (later Mary Baldwin College) in Staunton, Va., 1875-1881; conditions among slaves, including an 1861 slave list; women’s lives and business dealings; banking in North Carolina, 1908-1917, including mention of a Chinese banker in Wilmington; engineering of heating and cooling systems, 1908-1917; experiences of an elderly woman living with her daughter’s family; and social aspects of tuberculosis. There are also many letters from Virginia lawyers William A. Glasgow and his son Frank T. Glasgow.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Topics discussed include slavery in Virginia in the correspondence between 1852-1861 (Folders 1 & 2). An letter dated 14 June 1880 also discuss race relations in England (Folder 13); and white relations with African American servants in West Virginia throughout 1908-1917 (Folders 18-27). The collection also contains a slave list  from 1861 (Folder 10).