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Madame de Staël (1766-1817) was a French literary figure whose writings were highly influential in late 18th and early 19th century Europe. She was a political polemicist whose famous confrontation with Napoléon Bonaparte led to her exile from Paris until the Bourbon Restoration. This letter was written in 1814 towards the end of her life. She writes from Paris to the prominent New York mercantile firm LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers concerning a financial transaction in the amount of $20,000. She states that she has transferred the sum to McEvers in London, and wishes to confirm that they will, in turn, transfer it to her account with another firm. At the time she wrote this letter, Madame de Staël owned a large tract of land in upstate New York. Her father originally purchased the land in the event that the family wanted to escape France's instability and settle in America. Although she and her children never moved to the United States, de Staël both increased her land holdings and invested in developing her property. LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers represented Europeans purchasing property in New York State, so it's highly likely that the $20,000 was used to either increase or develop Madame de Staël's American land holdings. This letter is evidence of a degree of financial and business independence that was highly unusual for a woman at the time.

ANS. An autograph signature sample.

President of the Seamen's Friend Society of Wilmington, N.C. Chiefly financial records and other papers of the Seamen's Friend Society, with a few items relating to charitable contributions around 1918. Several items also concern the United Laymen's Association of Wilmington.

Dr. Henry Call Sprinkle was a Methodist Minister from Mocksville, North Carolina, and graduate of Duke University and Yale University. Henry married Margaret Louise Jordan in 1930. The Sprinkle family spent the majority of their lives travelling the world for missionary work. The collection contains diaries and notebooks detailing the travels of Dr. Henry Call Sprinkle and his wife, Margaret Jordan Sprinkle. Main subjects are family life in North Carolina, Duke University events, European politics, WWII, and missionary travel throughout Europe, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Materials range in date from 1935 through 1986.

Hertha Sponer, 1895-1968, was a German physicist who immigrated to the United States and came to Duke University in 1936, where she became the first woman on its Physics Department faculty. She conducted research and taught at Duke until 1965, supervising thirty-five masters and doctoral degree graduates. The Hertha Sponer Papers span the years 1917-1967 and comprise the correspondence, research, speeches, writings, and teaching materials of German physicist Hertha Sponer, who in 1936 became the first woman appointed to the faculty of the Duke University Department of Physics. The collection primarily documents her American career, especially her work in the areas of chemical physics, spectrum analysis, and molecular spectroscopy. Arranged in five series: Correspondence, Printed Materials, Professional Files, Research Files, and Writings and Speeches. The Correspondence Series covers the final two decades of her career, from the late 1940s to 1967, and primarily consists of letters about research with her numerous collaborators and co-authors. Some of her final letters discuss death of her husband, physicist James Franck, in 1964, and also allude to the death that same year of her Duke Physics Department associate and fellow German refugee, Hedwig Kohn. The Printed Materials Series holds offprints and reprints of Sponer's articles from the 1930s-1960s, plus a few articles by Franck. Sponer's teaching and administrative files, including correspondence with graduate students, appear in the Professional Files. The Research Files make up the largest series in the collection; these files document her research on many topics and articles and also contain much of the collection's correspondence. The Writings and Speeches Series gathers several papers and talks from the last half-dozen years of Sponer's professional career.

Helayne Spivak is an advertising executive and educator based in New York and Richmond, Va. Collection includes awards, clippings, correspondence, print advertisements and other printed materials as well as audiovisual materials (audio tapes, videocassettes, 16mm films, optical disks, video reels). Companies and agencies represented include Ally & Gargano, Barneys department store, Cadbury, Club Med, Commodore computer, Dunkin' Donuts, Federal Express, J. Walter Thompson, Pan Am, Schweppes, and Travelers. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Advertising executive at several U.S. agencies, including McCann-Erickson, Backer Spielvogel Bates, Interpublic Group, and Saatchi & Saatchi. Served as U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia during the Clinton Administration.

ALS. Expressions of gratitude.

ALS to a client. He quotes prices for various optical and astronomical instruments and describes the manufacture of microscopes in the mid-nineteenth century.

Hersey Everett Spence was a minister, educator, and writer. After graduating from Trinity College in 1908 he spent ten years in the pastorate before returning to his alma mater in 1918 as Professor of Religious Education and Biblical Literature. The collection contains correspondence, writings (poems, plays, eulogies by Smith), clippings, a sound recording, and other printed material reflecting the opinions and career of H.E. Spence. The materials in the collection range in date from 1794; 1904-1973; with the bulk of the materials dating from 1938 to 1970.

Marshall Turner Spears, a white lawyer who practiced in Durham, was born in 1889. He joined Duke's Law faculty in 1927 and served on it until 1936. Spears served as a superior court judge in Durham from 1935 to 1938. This collection consists of three lease agreements drafted by Spears between the Washington Duke Operating Company and Pritchard-Bright & Company, as well as three group photographs featuring Spears.

Collection comprises a volume (179 pages) containing minutes of meetings of the board of directors (1908-1914), along with original minutes for meetings of the board of directors and annual stockholders' meetings, 1911-1914.

President of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1923-1952. NC Mutual is the oldest currently active African American-owned insurance company in the United States, founded in 1898 and headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. The collection contains photographs, miscellaneous business papers, programs, speeches, clippings related to C. C. Spaulding, black civil rights, and to African American life more generally, in addition to administrative materials and various publications created by and related to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. These papers document the growth of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in the mid-twentieth century, Spaulding's and the company's connection to the community, and their involvement in African American issues (local and beyond) and livelihood. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

Asa T. Spaulding was an insurance executive in Durham, N.C. and an activist in civil rights, education, employment, and other work related to minorities' rights. He held various positions in the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company for almost thirty-five years, beginning as its actuary in 1933 and serving as its fifth president from 1958 through 1967. Elna Bridgeforth Spaulding was an activist in civil rights for minorities and women and involved in local politics in Durham, N.C, serving as a Durham County Commissioner for five terms, from 1974 through 1984. The Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers, 1909-1997 and undated, bulk 1935-1983, document an African American family's lifelong involvement in the business, political, educational, religious, and social life of Durham, N.C. The collection consists of correspondence, writings and speeches, printed materials, clippings, photographs, audiovisual items, and memorabilia that reflect the Spauldings' work with the following organizations and groups: North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company; Mechanics and Farmers Bank; Durham County Board of Commissioners; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; National Urban League; Women-in-Action for the Prevention of Violence and Its Causes, Inc.; North Carolina Central and Shaw universities; White Rock Baptist Church (Durham, N.C.); and the Lincoln Community Health Center. The collection is divided into two subgroups. The Asa Spaulding Subgroup is arranged in nine series: Correspondence, Writings and Speeches, Organizations, North Carolina Mutual Files, Insurance Files, Subject Files, Photographic Materials, and Audiovisual Materials. The Elna Spaulding Subgroup is arranged in six series: Correspondence, Writings and Speeches, Organizations, Subject Files, Photographic Materials, and Audiovisual Materials.

American medical student in London. Papers generated during Spalding's stay in London include letters, a journal, lecture notes, and a printed advertisement for "Passage, packet and pleasure boats on the Grand Junction Canal." Correspondence from Edward Augustus Holyoke, Benjamin Waterhouse and Edward Jenner relate to Spalding's efforts to secure "vaccine matter" for both Holyoke and Waterhouse back in the United States. Spalding's journal includes a meticulous record of expenses, under various headings, e.g. "amusements", "barber", and "washing woman and shoe black". Spalding took notes on medical school lectures in London by William Babington (72 pp.), Henry Cline (113 pp.), Astley Cooper (20 and 112 pp.), Fox [?] (116 pp.) and John Haighton (176 pp.). Acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University.

34 ALS, including 2 photostats. Most are addressed to Spalding. Correspondents include: Ezekiel Porter, Arthur Livermore, S.L. Mitchill, Nicholas Rousselet, B. Waterhouse, S. Ricketson, W.H. Woodward, Clement Storer, G. Richards, W.D. Peck, N. Potter, Ebenezer Lerned, J.C. Warren, C. Wistar, J. Langdon, J.A. Smith, G.C. Shattuck, H.U. Onderdonk, J.L.E.W. Shecut, J. De La Motta, William Eustis Langdon, and S.N. Trevett. Matters discussed include: the cause and prevention of yellow fever and the promotion of the Pharmacopoeia. Reference is also made to medical periodicals, e. g. The New England journal of medicine, The medical repository, and the Medical and philosophical journal and review. Letters from U. Parsons, Sir Robert Perceval and M. Rouviere offer a view of European medicine, referring to J. Abernethy, Sir E. Home, Sir C. Bell, Sir W. Lawrence, W.T. Brande and J.P. Frank, and of the influence of books by Americans such as J. Gorham, P. Cleaveland and B. Rush.

Vice-Consulate of Spain based in Savannah, Ga. Largely communications directed to the Spanish Vice-Consulate in Savannah, Ga., by the Madrid government, by Spanish ministers, consuls, and vice-consuls in the U.S., and by governing officials in Puerto Rico and Cuba. The central theme is Spain's constant preoccupation that American or Cuban expeditions, operating from the U.S., would wrest the island from the Spanish crown. Includes references to political developments within Spain, Spain's commercial relations with her West Indian possessions and with the U.S., and Spain's naval war with Chile and Peru (1865-1866); and routine records relating to shipping, customs service, and commerce.

Collection contains correspondence, logbooks, shipping and passport registers, crew lists, and an inventory of consular property. Communications in the collection are chiefly directed to the Spanish Consulate in Charleston, S.C., by the Madrid government, by Spanish diplomats and consular representatives in the U.S., and by governing officials in Florida, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. The papers of the 1790s and early 1800s are largely concerned with Spanish interests in Florida. The papers of the 1830s, except those dealing with routine commercial matters, are largely concerned with political affairs in Spain. Later papers relate to Spain's concern that the U.S. will aid Cuban insurgents; reports of American filibustering for Spanish possessions before and after the Civil War; revolutionary movements in Cuba; Spain's diplomatic approach to the U.S. during the Civil War; Spain's naval war with Chile and Peru (1865-1866); Charleston's trade with Spanish West Indian possessions during most of the 19th century; and occasionally to Spanish diplomatic relations with nations other than the U.S. Bound volumes in the collection include letter books, shipping and passport registers, logbooks, crew lists, and an inventory of consular property.

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.