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The Munford and Ellis families were connected through the marriage of George Wythe Munford and Elizabeth Throwgood Ellis in 1838. The earliest papers from the Munford family center around William Munford (1775-1825) of the first generation, George Wythe Munford (1803-1882) of the second generation, and the children of George Wythe Munford, notably Thomas Taylor Munford (1831-1918), Sallie Radford (Munford) Talbott (1841-1930), Lucy Munford and Fannie Ellis Munford. Papers of the Ellis family begin with those of Charles Ellis, Sr. (1772-1840), Richmond merchant; his wife, Margaret (Nimmo) Ellis (1790-1877); and his brother, Powhatan Ellis (1790-1863), jurist, U.S. senator, and diplomat. Later materials include letters from Thomas Harding Ellis (1814-1898), son of Charles and Margaret Ellis, as well as some materials from their other children and grandchildren. Collection contains family, personal, and business papers of three generations of the Munford and the Ellis families of Virginia. The papers contain information on politics, literary efforts, social life and customs, economic conditions, and military questions principally in nineteenth century Virginia. Includes materials on the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The Ground Observer Corps (GOC) was a civil defense organization run by the U.S. Air Force that enlisted volunteers to watch for and report aircraft movements. The Ground Observer Corps records include materials related to the operation of the Ground Observer Corps in the Durham area from 1952-1959. The collection includes assorted memoranda, correspondence, newsletters, forms, and recruiting materials, as well as manuals, logbooks, maps, posters, brochures, and promotional materials.

Duncan McLaurin was a farmer, teacher, lawyer, and state legislator of Richmond County, North Carolina. Correspondence, bills, receipts, legal and other papers, and printed matter (1822-1872), of McLaurin and members of his family. McLaurin's papers (mainly 1822-1850) relate to economic conditions in North Carolina, South Carolina, and the U.S. in general; the development of infrastructure and education in North and South Carolina; the Civil War; politics in North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia; and national politics, including presidential elections from 1832 to 1848. Civil War topics include camp life, economic conditions, food supplies, the hope for foreign intervention, morale, conscription and desertion, the blockade of Southern ports, the battles of Murfreesboro (Tennessee), Jackson (Mississippi), Port Royal Harbor (South Carolina), Hanover Court House (Virginia), and the siege of Vicksburg (Mississippi). A large amount of correspondence from relatives in Mississippi (circa 1830-1867) concerns frontier conditions, slavery, politics, agricultural and labor problems, sectionalism and nationalism in Mississippi, Reconstruction conditions, and family affairs. There are many references to slavery, particularly in Mississippi: the sale of slaves, runaway slaves, a lynching of an African American in 1839, the fear of slave insurrections in 1856 and 1860; and the abolition movement. Includes an atlas with a list of slaves circa 1864 written on the flyleaf.

Family originally from Connecticut; later settled in Petersburg, Virginia. Correspondence, journals, memorandum books, sermons, an autograph album (1822), and other papers of Abner Johnson Leavenworth and of his son, Frederick P. Leavenworth. Sermons comprise about half of the manuscript collection. Includes pre-Civil War letters from theological students in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York; a tuition ledger for the Van Buren, Arkansas Female Seminary (1860-1862); and genealogical information on the Leavenworth family. Correspondents include Calvin Colton, Harrison Gray, Otis Dwight, Jeremiah Evarts, Samuel Lee, Benjamin Palmer, and Noah Porter.

Jones was a lawyer, collector, Confederate soldier and historian from Savannah, GA. Collection includes correspondence, journals, commonplace books, lecture notes, scrapbooks, autograph albums and other papers. The material ranges in date from 1757-1926.

Correspondence, reports, speeches, drafts of bills, notes, newsletters, printed material, clippings, and other papers, relating to Henderson's service as representative from the 3rd Congressional district of North Carolina, including material relating to his work on the Post Office, Civil Service, and Public Works committees, and to civil rights, minimum wage, federal aid to education, the Vietnam Conflict, anti-poverty programs, foreign aid, tobacco, Watergate, the energy crisis of the early 1970s, and local affairs and projects in eastern North Carolina.

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.

This collection contains materials of the Alpha Phi chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity at Duke University from 1976 to 1985. The Alpha Phi chapter was established at Duke University in 1901 and remained active until 1970. In 1978, it was reactivated. Types of materials include correspondence, chapter evaluations, pledge rosters, scrapbooks, and printed materials pertaining to the Alpha Phi chapter from 1976 to 1985. Major subjects include student life at Duke University, re-establishment of a fraternity, accounting, initiation, community service activities, social activities, general governance, leadership, and public relations.

The Evaporated Milk Association, organized by manufacturers in 1923, issued free publications promoting the use of evaporated milk throughout the United States. This collection consists of publications with recipes, scientific studies, and stories encouraging the consumption of canned evaporated milk. These pamphlets and booklets were donated to Duke University Libraries in the 1930s by the Evaporated Milk Association. Collection also includes engineering documents about the design of evaporated milk facilities.

Correspondence of Peter Eltinge, an officer in the 156th New York Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, relating to his service in the Dept. of the Gulf (1863-1864), Maryland and Virginia (1864), and Georgia and the Carolinas (1865), participation in the occupation of Georgia; and operation of a grocery store in Memphis, Tenn., and speculation in cotton after the war. Topics include politics, temperance, economic conditions, Black soldiers in the Union Army, and Black agricultural laborers during Reconstruction. Also, naval records and other papers of George P. Lord of Camden, Del., brother-in-law of Peter Eltinge, chiefly relating to his duty as a navel officer on ironclads of the Mississippi Squadron (1861-1865), including the U.S.S. Chillicothe, U.S.S. Ozark, and U.S.S. Osage. Topics include the Red River Expedition of 1864 and the regulation of commerce on the Mississippi River.