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Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick was a white professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina, 1854-1856, and U.S. Patent Office official, 1861-1886. Collection consists chiefly of letters to Hedrick. The early correspondence is between Hedrick and Mary Ellen Thompson, his future wife. Other correspondence concerns life at the University of North Carolina, Hedrick's dismissal from the University in 1856 for his Republican and anti-slavery opinions, and his life in the North during the Civil War period. Many of the post-1861 papers relate to Hedrick's position as chemical examiner at the Patent Office. Other topics include Reconstruction, the economic plight of the South, and politics, including Hedrick's attempt to win political office in North Carolina (1868). Correspondents include Kemp P. Battle, Daniel R. Goodloe, Horace Greeley, Hinton Rowan Helper, David L. Swain, John Torrey, and Jonathan Worth.