Collections : [David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

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David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

The holdings of the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library range from ancient papyri to records of modern advertising. There are over 10,000 manuscript collections containing more than 20 million individual manuscript items. Only a portion of these collections and items are discoverable on this site. Others may be found in the library catalog.

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Collection
Rev. William Young, was an itinerant Methodist preacher. Collection of 77 manuscript sermons (246 pages) that were written and used by the Reverend William Young, delivered at irregular intervals between December 1835 and January 1848.

Collection of 77 manuscript sermons (246 pages) that were written and used by the Reverend William Young, delivered at irregular intervals between December 1835 and January 1848. Each sermon is identified by a date and place and is signed by Young. They approximately follow the chronology of Young's circuit appointments. The text is followed by an index in which there is a brief thematic description of each sermon, along with the Bible verse upon which it is based.

Collection
Richard Harvey Wright (1894-1980) was a businessman of Durham, N.C., and founder of Wright Machinery Company. Wright Machinery merged with Sperry Rand Corporation on 29 March 1957. Collection dates from 1870-1980 and comprises correspondence, 1870-1941; legal papers; printed matter; business papers; financial papers; and clippings relating to Wright's business interests, particularly the Wright Machinery Company of Durham, N.C., manufacturer of packaging for tobacco products and various other kinds of commodities. There is much information on the economic history of Durham and the development of the tobacco industry. Volumes in the collection include financial records and letterpress books for business correspondence. Later additions comprise business correspondence; financial ledgers and statements; machinery licensing, leasing, and loan agreements; and legal documents of the Wright Machinery Company. Also includes one framed oil portrait of Wright, signed "Freeman. 1922."

Collection (232,267 items; dated 1870-1980) comprises extensive files of correspondence dating from 1873-1941; legal papers; printed matter; many business and financial papers; and clippings relating to Wright's business interests, particularly the Wright Machinery Company of Durham, N.C., manufacturer of packaging for tobacco products and various other kinds of commodities. There is much information on the economic history of Durham and the development of the tobacco industry. Volumes in the collection include financial records and many letterpress books for business correspondence.

Additions (4-27-79) (2002-086) comprise business correspondence; machinery licensing, leasing, and loan agreements; and legal documents (2101 items, dated 1941-1967) of the Wright Machinery Company. Also includes one framed oil portrait of Wright, signed "Freeman. 1922."

Addition (2005-108) (65 items, 1.1 lin. ft.; dated 1877-1905) comprises one letter book; one financial ledger; a judgment appeal; general contractor reports and statements; rental statements; and checks.

Two accessions (97-087 and 97-105) containing chiefly print materials from Wright Machinery Company, including company newsletters, were separated from the Wright Papers and placed in the Wright Machinery Company Records collection.

Addition (2021-0025. 1.1 lin. ft.; dated 1835-1878) contains account and day books from Tally Ho and Durham, North Carolina. There is also a volume of "The Methodist Protestant" newspaper and "Gram's unrivaled family atlas of the world".

Collection

Franklin D. Wright papers, 1790-1897 2.5 Linear Feet — approx. 550 Items

Franklin D. Wright was a lawyer from Auburn, New York in the mid-to late 19th century. Collection includes correspondence, legal papers, financial papers, and 4 volumes. The collection ranges in date from 1790-1897.

The collection includes professional correspondence, bills and receipts of clientele, legal papers and indentures, and a woman's diary. Some of the materials appear to pre-date Wright's work.

Collection

Woody family papers, 1784-1939 9 Linear Feet — 2,389 Items

Family of Quaker merchants and millers residing in Guildford County, North Carolina, with relatives in Indiana and Montana Territory. Collection comprises a rich array of business and personal correspondence and other papers (chiefly 1835-1887) relating to Newton D. Woody, merchant and miller of North Carolina, his Civil War service, and his flight to Indiana in 1865 and eventual return to N.C.; the activities of Frank H. Woody, who traveled to and described life in the territories of Washington and Montana before and after the Civil War. There are also important materials regarding the Civil War and its aftermath, including descriptions of camp life by Confederate soldiers, one of whom was in the 21st North Carolina Regiment; experiences of Confederate soldiers in Union prisons at Johnson's Island, Ohio, and Elmira, New York, during the war; accounts of Reconstruction in Augusta, Georgia, given by a Union sympathizer, 1867-1868, as well as economic conditions in North Carolina before, during, and after the Civil War. There are also some documents and letters concerning African American life in the South before, during, and after the war. Printed matter in the collection relates to the activities of Unionists in North Carolina during the Civil War and opposition to Ulysses S. Grant and the Radicals. Other topics include the activities of Woody relatives who had migrated to Indiana; the activities of the children of Newton and of his brother, Robert Woody, postmaster, miller, and merchant; and the history of the Society of Friends in antebellum North Carolina. Includes legal documents, business records, and minutes of the Orange Peace Society, Orange County, N.C.

Papers of Robert Woody, Newton Dixon Woody, and other members of the Woody family include a rich trove of business and personal correspondence; legal and financial papers; printed materials; and manuscript volumes. The papers of this family concern the mercantile and milling businesses of Robert Woody in Chatham County, North Carolina, and Newton Dixon Woody in Guilford County, North Carolina, in the 1850s; the decision of Newton D. Woody to leave North Carolina during the Civil War and his return in 1865; experiences of Frank H. Woody, a lawyer and clerk, in the Washington and Montana territories in the 1860s and 1870s, in which he mentions clashes with Native Americans and settlers, and reports seeing Sherman in 1878. There are also letters with news from relatives living in Indiana.

Other papers include information about temperance meetings, including the General Southern Temperance Conference at Fayetteville, North Carolina, 1835; hog droving; commodity prices in the last half of the 19th century; general economic conditions in North Carolina and the United States in the 19th century; the upkeep of roads in Guilford County; and the experiences of Mary Ann Woody as a student at New Garden Boarding School, Guilford County, 1852-1853. In addition, there is a bill of sale for slaves and a letter from Alabama describing African American celebrations at Christmas, 1857.

There are also important materials regarding the Civil War and its aftermath, including descriptions of camp life by a soldier in the 21st North Carolina Regiment during the Civil War; experiences of Confederate soldiers in Union prisons at Johnson's Island, Ohio, and Elmira, New York, during the war; and accounts of Reconstruction in Augusta, Georgia, given by a Union sympathizer, 1867-1868. Printed matter in the collection relates to the activities of Unionists in North Carolina during the Civil War and opposition to Ulysses S. Grant and the Radicals. There is also a May 1865 letter saying that John Gilmore of N.C. was dividing land with freed African Americans, and a letter mentioning African American violence during elections in an unspecified state in Dec. 1870.

Volumes in the collection include minutes of meetings of the Orange Peace Society, Orange County, North Carolina, 1824-1830; memorandum books; an account book kept during the construction of a Quaker church at High Falls, North Carolina, 1905-1909; minute book of meetings of the Friends of Prosperity, 1913-1914. Other papers in the collection mention camp meetings and religious revivals in North Carolina and their effect on Quakers. There are also financial record books of Robert Woody and Newton Dixon Woody.

Collection
Papers include a receipt of payment for attendance by Wistar upon a Wm. Cohen, and an 1839 invitation card to a Wistar Party.
Collection

Winn family papers, 1780-1925, bulk 1780-1889 5 Linear Feet — 9 boxes, 2,684 items, 27 vols.

Collection contains personal and business correspondence, papers, and volumes, mainly of John Winn (d. 1844), farmer, lawyer, and postmaster, and his son, Philip James Winn, physician and postmaster of Fluvanna Co., Va., and of the Winn (Wynn) family. The papers of the elder Winn relate to bounty claims of Revolutionary veterans, personal and business affairs, and include information about "Bremo," the plantation of Gen. John Hartwell Cocke. The papers of Philip James Winn relate to his education at the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, his career in medicine, the service of his brothers in the Confederate Army, and family activities, and include a description of the religious service of the Dunkards, records of the invention and patenting of a "new gate latch," and a letter of William H. Winn describing the battles of Bethel (1861) and Gettysburg (1863). More than half the collection consists of receipts and bills connected chiefly with John Winn's work in Revolutionary bounty lands and with Philip James Winn's invention. Twenty-seven volumes include post office accounts of John Winn and of his successor, Philip James Winn; a letter book concerning the "New Gate Latch"; accounts of the estate of Samuel Kidd; letter books; ledgers; medical notes; and records of births and deaths of slaves.

Family and business correspondence of John Winn (d. 1844); of his wife Lucy Winn; and of their numerous children, including Philip James Winn. The correspondence of John Winn, farmer, lawyer, postmaster at Winnsville, captain in the War of 1812, and agent for General John Hartwell Cocke, includes information on Bremo, the plantation of the latter, including also a list of periodicals subscribed to by Cocker and legal cases relative to Revolutionary bounty land.

Correspondence centering around Philip James Winn includes information on the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, both of which he attended; one letter with a description of the unusual religious services of the Dunkards; a deed for land purchased by a free Negro; records of the invention and patenting of a 'New Gate Latch' by Philip J. Winn; and the interest of various members of the family in law, medicine, agriculture, mechanics, business, religion, and the operation of a stagecoach line between Richmond and Staunton, Virginia.

Collection also Includes a letter of William H. Winn containing detailed descriptions of the battles of Bethel, 1861, and Gettysburg, 1863, in which he participated as a Confederate soldier. More than half the collection consists of receipts and bills connected chiefly with John Winn's work in Revolutionary bounty lands and with Philip James Winn's invention. Twenty-seven volumes include post office accounts of John Winn and of his successor, Philip James Winn; a letter book concerning the 'New Gate Latch'; accounts of the estate of Samuel Kidd; letter books; ledgers; medical notes; and records of births and deaths of slaves.

Collection

John W. Williams papers, 1822-1835 and undated 0.1 Linear Feet — 32 Items

John W. Williams was a Philadelphia lawyer. A small collection of legal papers, correspondence, and clippings chiefly concerning an 1835 lawsuit in which Robert Aitken of Baltimore alleged that a mulatto girl living in Philadelphia was Emily Winder, the daughter of Milly Winder. Milly Winder was Aitken's former slave whom he had freed in 1824, while keeping her daughter as his slave. Aitken claimed that the child had been stolen from him and given to Jacob Gilmore and his wife, free African Americans, to raise as their child. John W. Williams handled Aitken's suit for the girl's return. Includes affidavits, subpoenas, and notes on the testimonies of both black and white witnesses for the defense and the prosecution, including the testimony of Milly Winder, who told of her attempts to locate her daughter after she was freed.

Samll collection of legal papers, correspondence, and clippings chiefly concerning an 1835 lawsuit in which Robert Aitken of Baltimore alleged that a mulatto girl living in Philadelphia was Emily Winder, the daughter of Milly Winder. Milly Winder was Aitken's former slave whom he had freed in 1824, keeping her daughter as his slave. Aitken claimed that the child had been stolen from him ten years earlier and given to Jacob Gilmore and his wife, free African Americans, to raise as their child. Gilmore claimed that the defendant could not be the slave Aitken was searching for, in that he claimed that a woman gave the girl to him and his wife several years before Aitken's slave went missing.

Papers include the notes and evidence compiled by John W. Williams, the lawyer for the plaintiff Aitken, to present the case before the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The lawyer for the defense was David Paul Brown. Witnesses for the defense claim to have known Emily as a little girl in Philadelphia prior to 1825, and believed her to be white, while witnesses for the prosecution claimed Emily was Aitken's missing slave. Includes the testimony of Milly Winder, who told of her attempts to locate her daughter after she was freed and who claimed that the woman in question could not be her daughter that went missing. This case occurred before the passing of the Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which removed the possibility of a court trial prior to the removal of an alleged fugitive slave.

Collection arranged chronologically within one folder.

Collection

Benjamin S. Williams papers, 1792-1938 4 Linear Feet — 859 Items

Confederate Army officer, planter, and official of Hampton County, S.C. Mainly personal letters of Williams and his family, concerning his Civil War military service in the 25th and 47th Georgia Infantry Regiments, his efforts to become a planter after the war, his personal life, and his work as sheriff and auditor of Hampton County, S.C. Includes early land deeds, and letters from a physician who served in Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.

Papers of Benjamin S. Williams, Confederate soldier, cotton planter, businessman and local politician, consisting of land deeds; a marriage license; several papers relating to the sale of slaves; clippings; correspondence; general orders of the South Carolina militia in 1877; and commissions of Williams for various offices. Civil War letters from Benjamin S. Williams, from his father, Gilbert W. M. Williams (d. 1863), Baptist minister and colonel in the 47th Regiment of Georgia Volunteer Infantry, and from A. D. Williams describe camp life; Colonel Williams's duties as commander of the 47th Regiment; deserters; Abraham Lincoln; military activities in Georgia from 1861 to 1862, in Mississippi in 1863, around Chattanooga (Tennessee) during 1863, and Smithfield (North Carolina) in 1865; charges against the 47th Regiment; the death of Sergeant Albert Richardson; and the disbanding of the Brunson branch of the South Carolina militia. Other correspondence discusses the destruction in South Carolina after Sherman's troops passed through; the behavior of the freedmen; articles written by Benjamin S. Williams regarding his war experiences; Tillmanism; the United Daughters of the Confederacy; affairs of the Confederate Infirmary at Columbia; South Carolina; the United confederate Veterans; Williams's pension claim; efforts of William A. Courtenay to write a history of the battle of Honey Hill, South Carolina; the service of Dr. Abraham Dallas Williams, brother of Benjamin S. Williams, in Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War; the activities of the "red shirts" in South Carolina; and an investigation of the financial condition of Hampton County, South Carolina, in 1906.