Creator: Royster family.
Collection number: 4183
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Abstract: The Royster family of Raleigh, N.C., descended from James Daniel Royster (1790?-1870?) and Mary Ashley Royster (1795?-1880?). The collection includes correspondence, writings, printed items, and financial, legal, and military documents, relating to Royster family members. The bulk of the material is correspondence, 1890s-1950s, of Hubert Ashley Royster, M.D., (1871-1959), grandson of James Daniel Royster and a prominent and pioneering Raleigh surgeon, concerning his practice, life in Raleigh, the Medical Department in Raleigh of the University of North Carolina, and related matters. Prominent among correspondents are psychiatrist James K. Hall and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. Also included are a few letters from Iowa Michigan Royster (1840-1863), a son of James Daniel Royster, two written in 1858 while he was a student at the University of North Carolina and three during his service with the 1st North Carolina Cavalry Regiment during the Civil War. The Addition of March 2010 consists of photographs, circa 1887-1904 (bulk 1898), of Royster family members, town scenes, African Americans, and soldiers at camp and in town during the Spanish-American War. Also included are photocopies of portraits of Hallie Lee High Royster and her sons, Percy Lake Royster and Wilbur High Royster, and panoramic postcards of Raleigh, N.C.; St. Mary’s College, Raleigh, N.C.; and North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University), Raleigh, N.C.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Image Folder PF-4183/3 contains several images of African American men, women, and children, most of whom are unidentified. Those who are identified, perhaps by Hallie Lee High Royster, are “Mary,” the nurse of two boys, and “Aunt Mandy,” a cook, both of Raleigh, N.C.