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Start Over Places United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865

Francis P. Corbin papers, 1662-1885 5 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 2 oversize folders)

Francis P. Corbin (1801-1867) was a white plantation owner and resident of Paris, France, who married Agnes Rebecca Hamilton in 1825. Collection consists of financial and legal materials and correspondence related to Francis P. Corbin, his family, and the Couper and Hamilton families. Financial and legal papers include deeds, indentures, land grants, and surveys related to land in Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana owned by the Corbin, Couper, and Hamilton families. Slavery papers in the collection document the enumeration, buying, and selling of enslaved people owned by the Corbin, Hamilton, and Couper families. Correspondence between members of the three families covers a variety of topics, including social and family matters, political discussions, plantation and business updates, race horses, theater and opera in Paris, the estate of James Hamilton, and railroad bonds.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Frederick Fraser papers, 1700-1911 and undated 2 Linear Feet

The Frederick Fraser Papers comprises documents of a cotton planter in South Carolina. Papers include correspondence concerning the sale of cotton, some personal correspondence, assorted financial transactions concerning cotton, some miscellaneous personal papers, and a scrapbook that contains a variety of materials related to social life in South Carolina and the Civil War, including: correspondence, newspaper clippings, poems, copies of tombstone engravings, invitations, photographs, and postcards.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Alexander Robinson Boteler papers, 1707-1924, bulk 1836-1889 3 Linear Feet (5 boxes, 1,686 items (incl. 4 vols.))

Correspondence of Alexander's father, Dr. Henry Boteler, for 1776-1837; and family letters of Alexander with information on his career at Princeton College and his courtship of his future wife, Helen Macomb Stockton. Political correspondence, relating to the election of 1860, the Constitutional Union party, and Alexander's travels around the country in 1882-1884 while a member of the U.S. tariff commission. Volumes include Boteler's diary for 1845, regarding his plantation; various scrapbooks and some genealogical materials on the Pendleton, Digges, and Pope families. Among the correspondents are Lewis Cass, Samuel Cooper, John B. Floyd, S. B. French, Wade Hampton, T. J. Jackson, Andrew Johnson, R. E. Lee, John Letcher, W. P. Miles, John Page, Thomas N. Page, Rembrandt Peale, W. N. Pendleton, W. C. Rives, Alexander Robinson, W. H. Seward, J.E.B. Stuart, Jacob Thompson, J. F. Thompson, and Dabney C. Wirt.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

John McIntosh Kell papers, 1735-1944 and undated 9 Linear Feet

The collection includes papers and volumes created by John McIntosh Kell (1823-1900) of the U.S. Navy and his family. Family correspondence includes letters from John McIntosh Kell's period of service in the U.S. Navy, family and buisness papers from the Kell, Nathan Campbell Munroe, and Tabitha Easter (Napier) Munroe families discussing Georgia policitcs and other local events. Volumes in the collection include logs of the U.S. frigate Savannah, the U.S.S. Falmouth, and Shark. There is also an unpublished manuscript by Kell's wife and scrapbooks she maintained. Includes family legal papers, genealogical materials, writings, and miscellaneous papers.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Augustin Louis Taveau papers, 1741-1931, bulk bulk 3 Linear Feet (6 boxes, 1,862 items)

This collection contains family, personal, literary, and business correspondence and other papers (chiefly 1830-1886) of Taveau, of his father, Louis Augustin Thomas Taveau, and of their family. The collection centers around Augustin Louis Taveau and relates to his education, activities as a poet, European travels (1852-1854), career in the Confederate Army, postwar condemnation of Confederate leaders, removal to Maryland (1866), and agricultural efforts. Other subjects include family and legal matters, social life and customs in South Carolina, the education of Southern girls, rice planting before the Civil War, planting in Mississippi and Louisiana (1850s), agriculture and scientific farming in Maryland, Charleston during the Civil War, postwar politics, and other matters. Correspondents and persons mentioned in this collection include William Aiken, Josias Allston, Henry L. Benbow, A. R. Chisholm, Ralph Elliott, Nathan George Evans, J. A. Gadsden, Horace Greeley, William Gregg, Thomas S. Grimké, Robert Y. Hayne, O. W. Holmes, W. H. Huger, Robert Hume, T. J. Hyland-MacGrath, Andrew Johnson, Carolina Olivia Ball Laurens, Eliza G. Maybank, James L. Petigru, J. J. Pettigrew, William Gilmore Simms, Clifford Simons, Keating L. Simons, Admiral Joseph Smith, Horatio Sprague, John R. Thompson, and members of the Girardeau, Swinton, and Taveau families.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

American slavery documents collection, 1757-1878 and undated 2.0 Linear Feet (5 boxes and 5 oversize folders)

Collection of manuscript items relating to American slavery assembled over a number of decades by the staff of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University. Collection contains items documenting the sales, escapes, and emancipations of enslaved people from colonial times through the Civil War, and to a lesser extent, materials relating to slavery in the United States dating from the post-emancipation period.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Alfred and Elizabeth Brand Collection of Civil War and Lee Family papers, 1757-1925, bulk 1838-1868 3.4 Linear Feet 100 Items

Collection consists of two series, Civil War Papers and Lee Family Papers, acquired and assembled by collectors Alfred and Elizabeth Brand. Materials relate to the Lee family, including Francis Lightfoot Lee, Henry Light Horse Harry Lee, Richard Henry Lee, and Robert E. Lee, as well as Civil War history, including battle reports, correspondence between Confederate and Union leaders and officers (such as Braxton Bragg, Jefferson Davis, William T. Sherman, and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson), presidential pardons and oaths of allegiance, and some printed materials.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Thomas Ellison Keitt papers, 1758-1945 and undated 2 Linear Feet (769 items)

Thomas Ellison Keitt was a resident of Clemson, Oconee County, South Carolina. Collection comprises papers of the Wadlington, Bauskett, and Keitt familes of Newberry County, South Carolina. Among the papers are records belonging to Thomas Bauskett, a planter, and J. L. Keitt, a farmer, attorney, and state legislator. Documents include legal and financial papers and volumes; personal correspondence; speeches and pamphlets; and genealogical materials. Topics in the correspondence sometimes touch on slave sales and purchases, cotton mills, smallpox, and refer to life in Charleston, South Carolina. There are also Civil War letters of Ellison Summerfield Keitt, captain in the 29th Regiment of S.C. Troops and later the 19th S.C. Cavalry Battalion, including muster rolls of Company M, 20th Regiment. Correspondents include James Wadlington, Thomas Wadlington, John Bauskett, Caroline (Wadlington) Keitt, Thomas W. Keitt, Thomas Ellison Keitt, Laurence Massillon Keitt, Harriet (Sondley) Wadlington, Ann (Bauskett) Wadlington, and William W. Boyce.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

John McLean Harrington papers, 1760-1922 7.1 Linear Feet 972 Items

Correspondence, diary (1860), and other papers, of Harrington and of his father, James Stephens Harrington, state legislator. The correspondence includes information on public education in Guilford and Chatham counties, the Civil War, post-war activities of the Republican Party in North Carolina, and family matters. Includes weather reports for 1869-1870 and 1879-1882.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Scarborough family papers, 1760-1945, 1996 and undated, bulk 1803-1930 6 Linear Feet Approx. 2300 Items

Family based in Mt. Gilead, Montgomery County, North Carolina; relatives were located in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. Related family names include Clarke, McLeod, Nash, and Smart. Correspondence, legal and financial papers, and other materials dating from the 1700s to the 1940s, relating to the Scarborough family based in Mt. Gilead, Montgomery County, N.C. Papers document rural life in N.C., cotton and tobacco farming, mercantile activities, and the experiences of family members in the Civil War and World War I, and their careers as teachers, local officials, and members of the Republican Party in the 20th century. Includes many letters from friends and relatives who migrated to other Southern states. Bound volumes include account books, court dockets, a scrapbook, a family history, and public school district registers. There are a few items referring to slaves, including two lists of slave names, most likely from N.C. Over 100 Civil War letters were exchanged between family members at home and relatives and friends serving as Confederate soldiers in N.C. locations such as High Point (Camp Fisher), Greenville, Raleigh (Camp Mangum), Tarboro, and Wilmington; Petersburg, Virginia; and Camp Winder and Jackson Hospitals in Virginia. The letters refer to battles, troop movements, camp life, the status of various individuals both at home and abroad, prices of commodities and produce, and life in home towns such as Mt. Gilead, NC, and Bruceville and Warrior Stand, Alabama.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Gregory family papers, 1762-1923 1.2 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 416 items)

Correspondence, diaries, and other papers of the Gregory family and the related Pomfret, Beasley, Davis, Smith families of King William County, Va. and later of Granville County, N.C. Correspondence of the 18th century is largely that of Sally Pomfret Beasley with friends (mostly suitors) and relatives prior to her marriage to Stephen Beasley in 1786. From 1786-1830 the correspondence is with relatives of the Smith and Beasley families who are living in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio. There is a gap in the papers from 1830-1859. After 1859, the papers are largely those of William H. (Buck) Gregory while at the University of Virginia (1859-60), in the Confederate Army (1864-65), and in the merchantile and publishing business in Oxford and Stovall, NC in the 1870's and 1880's. This correspondence contains information on tobacco culture, social life and customs, amusements, and education in North Carolina. In 1888 he married Mary J. Davis, and there is much correspondence of their courtship. Collection includes lists of students at Belmont Academy, 1859, in Granville County and at the Oxford Classical and Grammar School, 1859-60,as well as genealogical information on the Pomfret, Gregory, Smith and Alexander families. Also includes diaries for various years between 1873 and 1903.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Samuel Smith Downey papers, 1762-1965 20 Linear Feet

Samuel Smith Downey (1792-1851) was an Irish American, plantation owner, and enslaver of Granville County, N.C. The early portion of this collection is made up of the papers of Ephraim Macquillen, a merchant of Richmond, Va., containing letters, bills, and receipts from business firms in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston to which he sold flour and tobacco and from which he bought supplies. The papers of Samuel S. Downey, which also contain the papers of James Webb Alexander, John Granville Smith, Thomas Downey, James Downey, and son-in-law Isaac H. Davis, concern S. S. Downey's administration of the estate of John G. Smith and the many suits involving the estate; management of plantations in Mississippi and North Carolina including correspondence and legal papers dealing with hiring enslaved people to build a railroad from Natchez to Jackson, Miss., in the 1830s; letters from factories in Richmond, Va., concerning Downey's tobacco; and the Civil War letters of Downey's sons, for the most part describing the effects of the war on civilians.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Samuel S. Biddle papers, 1764-1895 and undated 2 Linear Feet Approx. 3,500 Items

Planter and merchant families of New Bern (Craven County), North Carolina. Business and personal correspondence of four generations of the Biddle and Simpson families of New Bern, N.C. Most notable are the papers of John Simpson (1728-1788), locally a prominent Revolutionary figure; his son, Samuel; and his great-grandson, Samuel Simpson Biddle (1811-1872). Topics include financial affairs, including deeds, property in Boston, and the shipment of goods; activities of the Baptist Church in the New Bern area; agricultural and business interests; education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and children's education in the 19th century. Many letters were written during the Civil War and revolve around the activities of S.S. Biddle, Jr. and James W. Biddle, containing brief descriptions of campaigns, troop movements, traitors, fortifications in South Carolina, camp life, and epidemics. The collection also has 12 volumes of plantation and personal accounts, bills, and receipts, loose deeds and notes, as well as information from the estates of Samuel Simpson and William Biddle.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Louis Manigault papers, 1776-1883, bulk 1840-1878, bulk bulk 3 Linear Feet (6 boxes (2,042 items))

Collection contains correspondence, account book, memorandum book (1858), notebook (1852), prescription book (1852), plantation records, and other papers (chiefly 1840-1878), of Louis Manigault and of members of his family. The papers contain information on Charleston, South Carolina, including social and economic conditions, student life at private schools, and the fire of December, 1861; management of a rice plantation, with comments on the transition from slave to free labor; and travel in Paris, London, Brussels, and other places in Europe. Includes a few Civil War letters, an account book of Manigault while at Yale, and letters from a family member at school at the Lyceé Impérial in Paris.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Fowler family papers, 1779-1870 4.2 Linear Feet (9 Boxes; 1 volume)

Included in this collection are records, 1779-1809, of a mercantile business run by Stephen Fowler, Fairfield, Connecticut, and after 1805 of Trenton, Jones Co., North Carolina, which engaged in trade between New York and North Carolina. Stephen's son Joseph about 1820 engaged in the export of lumber, naval stores, tobacco, grain, and blackeyed peas from North Carolina to Bermuda; and later in coastal trade from New Bern to New York. There is also correspondence relating to his duties as U.S. deputy marshal, Pamlico District, N.C., 1831-1860. Family correspondence predominates between 1840 and 1860. For the Civil War years there are many letters from Joseph S. Fowler, Jr., written largely from the Confederate Commissary Office, Kinston, N.C. The collection also includes two Yale university diplomas; a ledger of Joseph S. Fowler, (1817-1834), 1836, 1866, 1 vol.; financial and legal papers, 1800-1860; the logbook of Absalom Fulford kept on the Neuse River lightship, 1845-1849, recording weather and the passage of ships; and business letters to DeWitt C. Fowler and Brother, Bay River (N.C.) general store and liquor merchants.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Patrick H. Cain papers, 1783-1940 6 Linear Feet Approx. 2,904 Items

Merchant, tobacco merchant, landowner, distiller, and State Representative, from Mocksville and Settle (Davie Co.), N.C. Personal, legal, business, and financial papers of Patrick H. Cain and the Cain family, from Davie County, N.C. Included are letters describing life and social customs in Georgia; the education of women; student life at Normal College (later Trinity College, then Duke University) and at the University of North Carolina; Western migration; prices of products and services, the value of slaves, and the wages of freedmen; and the life of Confederate soldiers and military actions at First Manassas and Gettysburg. Legal papers consist of land grants, deeds, mortgages, arrests and summonses for debts, promissory notes, and material relating to the administration of various estates. Financial records include tax receipts and accounts. There is one volume of patient accounts, 1906-1925, belonging to Dr. John Cain. Correspondents include George Burgess Anderson, Francis Asbury, Samuel Ashe, Kemp P. Battle, John Joseph Bruner, D. R. Bruton, Lyman Copeland Draper, David Moffatt Furches, William H. Hayes, William Hill, Hamilton C. Jones, Leonidas Polk, Zebulon Vance, and Jonathan Worth.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

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

William T. Richards papers, 1788-1923 and undated, bulk 1845-1903 0.5 Linear Feet Approx. 342 Items

Merchant in Augusta, Georgia. Chiefly correspondence of William T. Richards and his family and friends. Richards was a New England native, and three early letters from the 1840s are from a sister in Danbury, Connecticut. One letter from Chattooga County, Georgia (1865 Aug. 31) speaks of the devastation in that area from the Civil War. An early item is a power of attorney of 1833 from the merchant Joseph Ganahl to Francis Ganahl. Also includes a bill for goods bought in New York, N.Y. in October, 1865; invitations; announcements; and clippings which relate to William Hill, once Secretary of State for North Carolina. One item is an announcement of William T. Richard's retirement in 1903 as treasurer and paymaster of the Georgia Railroad. Some materials relate to the Hill and Thomas families in N.C., but their relation to the Richards family is unknown.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

James Southgate papers, 1794-1944 and undated, bulk 1851-1935 2.4 Linear Feet 1926 Items

Educator, insurance agent, and civic leader, of Durham, N.C. Family, business, and personal correspondence (chiefly after 1851) of Southgate and of his family. The material concerns Southgate’s insurance business, life in North Carolina, the establishment of Durham, N.C., and of Duke University; the Southgate family in the Civil War, Reconstruction in North Carolina, education and civil activities in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and schools in Durham; and the activities and genealogy of the Southgate family. Correspondents and persons mentioned include Mattie Logan Southgate Jones, Delia Haywood Wynne Southgate, James Haywood Southgate, and Myra Ann Muse Southgate.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Joseph Belknap Smith papers, 1802-1916 5 Linear Feet 1305 Items

Speculator and one of the founders of the Columbia Mining Company in Columbia Co., Ga. Collection (672 items; dated 1802-1872, bulk 1845-1872) includes personal and business letters, letterpress books (1849-1855), scattered diaries (1845-1907), miscellaneous business record books, and other papers of Smith and members of his family, mainly concerning Smith's speculative enterprises in mining, railroads, cotton planting, the Columbia Minining Co., and grain mills in Georgia, Tennessee, and other parts of the nation. The bulk of the material is of the period 1845-1872. Includes information on gold mining in Georgia and Tennessee, business conditions in the South before and after the Civil War, and the development of the railroad system in the South.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Hughes-Gray Family papers, 1805-1926 3.6 Linear Feet 1,114 Items

Family with publishing connections in Maryland. Ezekiel Hughes was editor of the HERALD in Frederick, Maryland. Jeremiah Hughes owned the NILES NATIONAL REGISTER, and other publishing concerns. Principally correspondence of the Hughes and Gray familes of Baltimore, Annapolis, and Frederick, Md. Pervasive topics include personal and family matters, Md. and national politics, and religion. Topics occurring less frequently include finances related to the publishing business and the marketing of volumes, the Civil War, city missions for the poor, dealings with Native Americans, and Communism. The collection also includes 31 volumes of notes and diaries compiled by Ellis Hughes, chief anatomist at the University of Md., over the period of roughly 1830-1865. His 1865 diary makes reference to Lincoln's assassination and the capture of Jefferson Davis. The remaining five volumes were compiled by Jeremiah's daughter Susanna Hughes, who herself entertained literary aspirations. These volumes are a mixture of diary, devotional, literary copybook, scrapbook, and original composition.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Henry Muhlenberg Hiester papers, 1807-1928 (bulk 1872-1919) and undated 4 Linear Feet 3,978 Items

Lawyer of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Correspondence, personal, and business papers of Henry Muhlenberg Hiester and sister Maria C. M. Hiester. Contains much genealogical information. Also includes the correspondence of Dr. Joseph M. Hiester and letters from H. W. Freedley concerning his service in the Union Army during the Civil War. There are a number of account books for various milling operations run by the Hiester family, including Millmont Mills, Montgomery Mills, Hiester and Hain, and Hiester and Shippen.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

C. C. Clay papers, 1811-1925 20 Linear Feet

Clement Claiborne Clay (1816-1882) was a lawyer, U. S. Senator, Confederate diplomat, planter, and enslaver from Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. He was married to Virginia Carolina (Tunstall) Clay (1825-1915). His father, Clement Comer Clay (1789-1866) was a U.S. Congressman and Governor of Alabama. Collection includes personal, business, and political correspondence, bills of sale for enslaved people, accounts, diaries, memoranda, college notes, scrapbooks, and clippings of Clement Claiborne Clay, and of his father, Clement Comer Clay; his mother, Susanna Claiborne Withers Clay; his wife, Virginia Caroline Tunstall Clay; and brothers, Hugh Lawson Clay and John Withers Clay. Letters deal with family matters, including Alabama and Washington, D.C., social life, education, the management of cotton plantations, bills of sale for and correspondence regarding enslaved people, civic affairs in Huntsville; state and national politics and elections; Clay Sr.'s governorship; Clay Jr.'s service in both the U.S. and Confederate senates; ante-bellum politics; the organization of the Confederacy; Reconstruction politics, including Clay Jr.'s arrest, imprisonment, and his wife's efforts to obtain his release; Clay Jr.'s efforts to retrieve his property and re-establish farming operations, and to settle his father's estate; Virginia Clay's dissatisfaction with Reconstruction period social life, her tour of Europe, 1884-1885, and her efforts to operate the plantation after her husband's death.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Goodrich-Baker family papers, 1811-1952 and undated 0.4 Linear Feet Approx. 300 Items

The Goodrich and Baker families hailed from Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa and Illinois. Collection comprises letters, with a few other items, mostly to and from members and friends of the Baker and Goodrich families of Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa and Illinois, chiefly in the 19th century. Included are letters to Union soldiers and letters from Turkey and India in the 1870s and 1880s.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

William Holland Thomas papers, 1814-1900s and undated 30 Linear Feet

White agent and representative for the Cherokee, merchant, lawyer, and trader, of Haywood Co., N.C. Collection includes correspondence, account books, day books, ledgers, and other papers, relating to Thomas's life in western North Carolina; the removal of the Cherokee and the status of those who remained; the development of intrastructure including turnpikes and railroads in North Carolina; Civil War fighting in east Tennessee; postwar administration of Indian affairs; and his private business operations as a white trader among the Cherokees. Includes records of Thomas's five stores in Haywood and Cherokee counties, and business correspondence and accounts of Thomas's son, also William Holland Thomas, a merchant and farmer of Jackson County, N.C.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Beverly Preston Morriss papers, 1814-1947 1907 items

Beverly Preston Morriss was a physician of Amherst Co. Va. Collection includes correspondence and personal and professional papers of Morriss and of his family (chiefly 1848-1947). The material refers to the Civil War, medical administration in the Confederate Army, enslaved people, professional and family matters, and politics. Includes printed matter (mainly 1850-1875) concerned with politics and social reform.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Joseph Starke Sims papers, 1819-1903 and undated 2.4 Linear Feet 295 Items

Correspondence, financial records, legal documents, clippings, account books, commissions, addresses and speeches, and a diploma. Correspondence concerns chiefly cotton growing, trade and prices; slaves who worked in cotton fields; financial matters; Washington, D.C. politics, with references to Henry Clay and John Calhoun; state and national politics; descriptions of newly settled areas of Mississippi and California; and a cholera outbreak in Charleston (1832). Civil War letters detail problems at Fort Sumter (1861), and often refer to economic difficulties and shortages in South Carolina. Other Civil War letters are also written from Manassas, Alabama, and Mississippi. One letter from Mississippi details the desperation of women left alone and unable to flee before the advancing Union Army. Post-war letters reveal the problems of Reconstruction in South Carolina. Many of the letters are to Sims' wife Jane Emily Sims (Farnandis).

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Nycum Family papers, 1825-1912 and undated 12.1 Linear Feet

Family from Ray's Hill, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Papers of John Nycum and John Q. Nycum include the letters of Philip Weisel concerning family matters and the sale of mineral water, and the correspondence and papers of several members of the Nycum family concerning the management of general merchandise businesses; business conditions; family matters; and the Civil War, including descriptions of camp life in Pennsylvania and Louisiana and the Confederate raid on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 1864. The collection also contains bills, receipts, legal papers, and miscellaneous items, including advertisements, circulars, political material, and reports, 1850-1856, of several teachers in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, listing pupils and their records. Volumes include mercantile daybooks and memorandum books of John Nycum, Simon Nycum, and Philip Weisel; record books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ray's Hill, Pennsylvania; account books of public schools of Bedford County; and a mercantile ledger of D. Eshleman and Company.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

George M. Brown Papers, 1829-1880 0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Chiefly incoming correspondence to George M. Brown, doctor and farmer in Richmond and Cumberland County, Virginia and for a short time in Ringgold, Georgia. Correspondence spans the period before, during and after the Civil War. The topics discussed include slavery, the price of slaves and other commodities, and John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry. Some correspondence is regarding medical issues including the treatment of tuberculosis. Topics in the post-war correspondence deals with potential properties for purchase in Florida, Texas, and Mexico.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

William Righter and Mary Wager Fisher papers, 1830-1934 4.5 Linear Feet 2,850 Items

The papers of the lawyer and educator William Righter Fisher and the journalist Mary Wager Fisher consist primarily of correspondence, but also include photographs (several of them tintypes and cartes-de-visite), financial papers, diaries, clippings, printed material, and writings and speeches. Among correspondents are many journalists, physicians, educators, and other notable figures of the late nineteenth century including Lucy Abbott, Mercy Baker, Jennie Chapin, Mary L. Booth, W.S. Burke, James Gowdy Clark, M.E. Dodge, Weston Flint, P. Girard, S. D. Harris, Albert Leffingwell, Henry C. Olney, W. Trickett, George Boyer Vashon, and Frank J. Webb. The collection also includes letters from James B. Hazelton of the First Regiment, New York Artillery. Hazelton's letters describe battles and political events of the Civil War, including Lincoln's re-election campaign and the anti-draft riots. The papers are particularly rich in documentation of women in medicine and women's medical education in the second half of the nineteenth century; the Freedmen's schools in the Reconstruction South; the movement for women's rights; and friendship among American women in the late Victorian era.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

John Hobart Davis papers, 1832-1920 1 Linear Feet 400 Items

The papers of John Hobart Davis span the years 1832-1920, but the bulk of the collection is the Civil War correspondence, 1862-1865. Davis chiefly wrote the letters to his sister, Elisa E. Davis, with a few letters to other family members, such as his brother Frank. Private Davis was stationed at Camp Beaufort, Me. (1861, Dec. - 1862, Feb.); Ship Island, Miss. (1862, Mar. - 1863, Feb.); Fort Jackson, La. (1863, Feb. - Aug.); Pass Manchoc, La. (1863, Aug. -Sept.); Fort Stephens, La. (1863, Oct. - 1864, July); and Washington, D.C. (1864, Aug. - 1865, Apr.).

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

William Swinton Bennett Hopkins papers, 1834-1946, bulk 1852-1898 3.5 Linear Feet 1657 Items

Collection consists largely of correspondence between family members, friends, and business associates spanning three generations, as well as some Civil War and early Reconstruction letters relating to Hopkins' activities in New Orleans. Correspondents include Hopkins' daughter, Elizabeth; her husband Alfred Lawrence Aiken, a prominent banker in Boston; the Gadsden family of Charleston, S.C.; and the Peck family, relatives of Hopkins' wife, Lizzie. An information folder chronologically lists a portion of the collection. Also included in this collection are a few legal papers, financial papers, addresses and writings, pictures, and a miscellaneous folder that includes some genealogy. Subjects mentioned in the letters include travel in the U.S. and Europe, marriage and family life, illness, Williams College, Yale College, politics, law,"bloodletting with leeches," Civil War activities, and The Worcester Continentals.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Braxton Craven records and papers, 1839-1882. 9.2 Linear Feet

Braxton Craven (1822-1882) served as an administrator and educator during the nineteenth century evolution of Trinity College (Randolph County, N.C.). Craven was Principal of Union Institute (1842-1851), President of Normal College (1851-1859), and President of Trinity College (1859-1863, 1866-1882). In addition, Craven actively participated in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Order of the Masons in North Carolina. Collection includes correspondence, sermons and addresses, diaries, legal and financial papers, teaching materials, subject files, and photographs and portraits of Braxton Craven. Correspondents include John Wesley Alspaugh, Charles Force Deems, David Lowry Swain, David Settle Reid, Henry Toole Clark, and Calvin H. Wiley. Subjects include the Methodist Episcopal Church, college financial affairs, and the activities of the Trinity Guard, a unit of student-soldiers that Craven formed during the Civil War. English.
  1. Duke University Archives

Charles Anthony Hundley papers, 1841-1921 2.5 Linear Feet (5 boxes, 2,436 items.)

Business and family correspondence and papers of Charles Anthony Hundley and of Daniel W. Owen, his son-in-law. Hundley's papers relate to his student days at Emory and Henry College, a proposed expedition to California in 1849-1850, business dealings in the Midwest (1850s), post-Civil War business affairs, and the settlement of Hundley's estate. Owen's papers begin about 1880 and chiefly concern politics and agriculture, but also include information on the higher education of women and World War I. Correspondents include Elisha E. Hundley, father of Charles, Claude A. Swanson, and P. B. Owen. Formerly known as the Hundley-Owen Papers.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Confederate States of America collection, 1850-1876 and undated 17.5 Linear Feet 13160 Items

The Confederate States of America (CSA) was formed in 1861 by eleven states in the southern United States that declared secession from the U.S. in order to protect their right to own slaves. The CSA collapsed in 1865 after its defeat in the American Civil War by Union forces. Collection was assembled from various sources and includes a variety of materials originating from administrative bodies within the Confederate States of America, including the Army, Executive Department, Congress, state governments and agencies, and the Navy. In addition to official records, the collection also includes some personal correspondence and miscellany.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

John Hendricks Kinyoun papers, 1851-1898 .5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Chiefly consists of correspondence of John Hendricks Kinyoun (1825-1903), physician and surgeon in the Confederate Army. Correspondence between Kinyoun and his wife, Elizabeth A. (Conrad) Kinyoun, during the Civil War discusses camp life; the health of the troops; supplies; his work in Winder Hospital, Richmond, Virginia; troop movements and military engagements, especially of the 28th North Carolina Volunteers and the 66th North Carolina Infantry; the Siege of Petersburg; and his views on the Confederacy and its cause. The earliest letter, 1851, from Kinyoun while a student in college, describes a meeting of the American Colonization Society. There are also letters written to the Kinyouns after they moved to Missouri; and a folder of writings which includes a political speech, 1896, by Kinyoun criticizing the Cleveland administration and espousing the free silver doctrine.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Lois Wright Richardson Davis family papers, 1851-1912 and undated 0.75 Linear Feet

Working-class New England family that was involved with both the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The mother, Lois Wright was born in Northfield, Massachusetts and died in Lowell, Massachusetts. She had at least seven children with her first husband Luther Richardson. The bulk of the collection is made up of letters between Davis and her children during the Civil War. In the late 1850s two of Lois Davis' daughters moved to Mobile, Alabama and their husbands served in the Confederate Army. Two of Lois Davis' sons fought with Massachusetts regiments, Charles Henry at first with the 6th Massachusetts Infantry, and then both Charles Henry and Luther with the 26th Massachusetts Infantry. Includes letters written from Ship Island, MS (1861-1862) and New Orleans, LA (1862-1864); and material on the riots in Baltimore, MD, and battles at Manassas, Malvern Hill, Petersburg, Winchester, VA, and the Shenandoah Valley, Baton Rouge and Port Hudson, LA, Sabine Pass, TX, and along the Mississippi and Red Rivers. The letters include descriptions of living and working conditions; illnesses; deaths; and thoughts on politics, race, and religion. Also includes letters about life after the Civil War. Daughter Eunice, whose husband died while serving the Confederacy, remarried to William Smiley Connolly, an Afro-Caribbean and mixed-race ship captain. They married in Dracut, Massachusetts, and she moved with him to Grand Cayman Island. Her letters, 1870-1875, describe their life in Grand Cayman. There are additional papers relating to Charles Henry Richardson's life in Lowell, Massachusetts where he worked in a textile mill and served as an Alderman.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Marcy Randall papers, 1856-1890 0.25 Linear Feet 60 Items

Marcy Randall (1798- ) was a farmer's wife living in Visalia and Grant's Lick, Campbell County, Kentucky during and after the American Civil War. This collection chiefly contains letters from Marcy Randall, Campbell County, Kentucky, to her brother, Allen Hawkins, in West Glocester, Rhode Island. The letters primarily refer to matters of health, family activities, and religion. Many of the letters dated during the 1860s include Randall's commentary about the Civil War. Acquired as part of the George Washington Flowers Collection of Southern Americana.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

W. Stump Forwood papers, 1857-1863 71 items

ALS. This body of correspondence, almost exclusively letters to Forwood and written immediately before and during the early part of the Civil War, relates to questions of race, e.g. "the Negro problem", intermarriage and consanguinity. The mechanics of editing and publishing a medical journal also form a topic of discussion. Principal correspondents are Samuel Worcester Butler and Washington Chew Van Bibber. Other correspondents are Sylvester David Willard, John H. Van Evrie, J.P. Evans, Joseph Leidy, S.M. Bemiss, James A. Bayard, and Samuel A. Cartwright.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

United States Army materials relating to the American Civil War, 1860s-1890s 0.5 Linear Feet

The United States Army, also referred to as the Northern, Union, or Federal army, fought against the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. This collection was assembled by Rubenstein Library out of miscellaneous and disparate archival and manuscript collections, including: U.S. Army units and regimental records, inventories, and orders; as assorted letters and correspondence from various Army soldiers and officers; maps, letterheads, and blank forms, all created or produced during the Civil War era. Many materials relate to troop movements; inventories of supplies, equipment, troops, and food; enlistment, pay, and service histories of various members of the U.S. Army; activities of particular regiments; action or battles against the Confederacy; examples of personal letters to and from soldiers' family members; reports and summaries of war conditions in Southern territories (poverty and hunger in Southern towns, destruction and seizure of property, and the difficult circumstances facing newly-freed Black populations); and other assorted bureaucratic and administrative Army records.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Joseph Fulton Boyd papers, 1861-1869 and undated 20 Linear Feet 12,356 items and 16 vols.

Joseph Fulton Boyd was Chief Quartermaster in the Army of the Ohio during the Civil War. Papers relate mainly to Boyd's activities in the Army of the Ohio and the Quartermaster's Dept., operating in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. Formats include routine correspondence, miscellaneous letters, general orders and circulars, strength reports, consolidated quartermaster reports (1861-1863), account books, forage records, invoice books, records books, and a lecture notebook. Subjects covered include supplies, transportation, civilian labor, and the Secret Service.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

William Hyde papers, 1861 and undated. 16 items

Miscellaneous documents found in Hyde's daybooks, 1851-1861, which are part of the library's bound manuscript collection. Documents include foolscap bearing sums owed and names of clients. Of particular interest are three drafts of a petition, 1861, Conn., to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, that the Crittenden measures, introduced by Kentucky legislator John Jordan Crittenden, be adopted by all states in order to peacefully preserve the Union. Of related interest is a page bearing biblical passages regarding slaves.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Edward W. Kinsley correspondence, 1862-1889 0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Correspondence, chiefly incoming, concerns Edward W. Kinsley's activities on behalf of societies aiding emancipated slaves, in lobbying for Congressional action to grant equal pay to African American troops in the Union Army, and personally assisting former slaves. Civil War letters, sent from white and African American soldiers, aid workers, and notable political and military men, document the service of the 55th Massachusetts Regiment during its service in South Carolina and Georgia, with mention of the 54th Massachusetts, and the 35th Regiments of U.S. Colored Troops; life in New Bern, N.C. during its occupation; and engagements with Confederate troops. Reconstruction letters from a variety of sources comment on efforts to educate and provide for the freed slaves; citizen reaction to having an African American officer, James Monroe Trotter, in charge of enforcing peace and emancipation in Orangeburg, South Carolina; and politics in the 1870s, especially in Massachusetts.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Lane family papers, 1862-1916 and undated 0.5 Linear Feet 7 Items

The Lane family were residents of Wallingford, Connecticut. This Civil War collection consists of a diary, correspondence, a scrapbook, and other materials. The diary belonged to Oscar B. Lane, who enlisted in June of 1861 and served as the drummer boy for the 5th Connecticutt Volunteers. The diary (1862, May 3-Sept. 10) contains entries concerning the Battle of Winchester during Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign and the Battle of Cedar Mountain of the second Bull Run Campaign. Correspondence (1863, Sept. 5-Dec. 18) from Theodore, Josiah, and Oscar Lane to their sister Harriet were written from Portsmouth, Va., while the three of them served with Harland's Brigade. Letters describe the shooting of deserters, camp life, and the social life in the city of Norfolk, Va. The scrapbook contains clippings concerning Veteran's Drum Corps, the Grand Army of the Republic, photographs, badges, a survivors roster for the 5th Regiment of Conn. Volunteers, postcards, and clippings concerning Wallingford, Conn. Other papers include programs for a veterans' reunion and a convention of the Conn. Fife and Drum Corps.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

John Franklin Heitman papers, 1863 - 1911 2.6 Linear Feet 1500 Items

John Franklin Heitman (1840-1904) was professor of Trinity College in Randolph County from 1883 to 1892, and Acting President of the school from 1884-1887. He later served as Headmaster of Trinity High School from 1892 to 1895. He also published several periodicals during his career. The John Franklin Heitman Papers contain correspondence, bound volumes, printed material, and financial and legal documents. Topics include college finance, the U.S. Government's sponsorship of education for Cherokee Indians, the Civil War, publications such as the North Carolina Education Journal and the North Carolina Home Journal, Trinity College administrative issues, and Trinity High School administrative issues. Major correspondents include Julian S. Carr and John W. Alspaugh. English.
  1. Duke University Archives

Phebe Ann Palmer letters, 1864, 1865 0.1 Linear Feet (2 items)

Collection comprises two letters (1864 January 3 and 1865 October 13) Phebe Ann Palmer wrote to unidentified recipients. Topics include the weather, health of family members, visitors and visiting, the local school teachers, the Clinton County Fair, the Civil War and its related deaths and sacrifices. She added at one point "I have told you all the gossip I know," and she writes at length about her thoughts and feelings regarding other people and situations.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

A private journal kept by me... of a voyage to... the West Indies to New York and Cape Ann, 1865 Feb. 21-1889 Feb. 23 0.1 Linear Feet

Thomas C. McCollom was a resident of Cambridge, Mass., b. May 9, 1847. Collection comprises the journal (104 pgs.) McCollom maintained daily while voyaging to and from the West Indies, Feb 21-May 18, 1865, when he was between the ages of 17 and 18. The ship was the schooner D. L. Sturgis; with five crew members and its captain, Daniel Deasy. It appears McCollom undertook the journey for the improvement of his health, and the majority of his entries detailed the depression, homesickness, and boredom he experienced during the trip, "I can't tell why but I feel homesick and blue. I have such days now quite often though not so often as formerly. I shan't be sorry to get home I know. I don't know what to do with myself when I feel so. I find that writing home or in this journal is about as good a cure as anything. I feel better to express my feeling somehow if only to write them down here (pp. 25-26)." McCollom also described crew members' activities (including one man's drowning after an accident, p. 5), the weather and wind patterns, the difficulties of the Atlantic Ocean crossing and vagaries of the Caribbean Sea, and any birds and animals seen. He also identified any ships encountered, usually with their nationality, destination, and any cargo being transported.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Otelia Carrington Cunningham Connor papers, 1889-1968 and undated 1.2 Linear Feet Approx. 2468 Items

Otelia Carrington Cunningham Connor was a writer and "enforcer of manners" at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The collection contains a variety of items such as newspaper clippings of articles by and about Otelia Connor, including clippings about "An Evening with Otelia Connor" given at Howell Hall in March, 1963, and items from "The Chapel Hill Weekly"; letters and postcards from her; other personal correspondence with her children and friends; typescripts; correspondence with newspapers to which her articles were sent; genealogy of the Cunningham family; pamphlets; other articles; will of John S. Cunningham; copies of her column in "The Daily Tar Heel"; addresses; tributes to her; an article on the Civil War career of Henry Alexander Carrington; lists showing the division of her mother's china and silver among her four daughters; and other items.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Herbert Clarence Bradshaw papers, 1922-1976 35 Linear Feet (70 boxes.)

Herbert Clarence Bradshaw (1908-1976) was a white American author, historian, and journalist. This collection documents his personal and professional life through his subject files, which include a great deal of correspondence. A retired editor of the Durham Morning Herald, he was murdered in his home during a series of random shootings in Durham by a single individual in December 1976.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

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