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Collection consists of the personal and professional correspondence of James Hinton Pou, Sr., lawyer, politician, and land developer of Raleigh, North Carolina. Topics cover late 19th and early 20th century North Carolina politics and legal system, business and land development in North Carolina, the history of Raleigh, N.C. and Wake County, and the Pou-Bailey families.

Colonel, 2nd Maryland Eastern Shore Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army. Chiefly Civil War papers belonging to Colonel Robert Rodgers, including military correspondence; telegrams; muster rolls; rosters of officers and staff; lists of deserters, recruits, reenlistments, and voluntary enlistments; reports of sick, wounded, and convalescents; inventories of personal effects of the deceased; hospital and army paroles; morning reports; ordnance returns, invoices, requisitions, issues, and transfers; quartermaster papers; letter book containing routine military correspondence; and general and special orders. After 1863 there are references to African American contrabands. There is also a fragmentary account of the regiment's war experiences concerning the actions in Maryland in 1862 and 1863, including the battle between the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia, and in Virginia and West Virginia in 1864. Also included in the collection are papers relating to the Rodgers family of Maryland, including Rodgers's son Robert Slidell Rodgers, practicing law in Missouri following the Civil War.

Educator, gay rights activist, and author of many works on sexuality, identity, and sex education, and the history of homosexuality and the gay rights movement in the United States. The James T. Sears Papers span the dates 1918-2011, with the bulk of the material covering the period between 1950 and 2004. The papers are arranged into the following series: Audiovisual Material; Other Activities; Personal Papers; Photographic Material; Professional Papers; the largest series, Research and Writings; Jack Nichols Papers; and Oversize Material. The Research and Writings series is divided into subseries for major works by Sears, as well as subseries for other writings and editorial work, research files, and a small set of writings by other individuals. Formats include but are not limited to correspondence, research files, writings, interviews, recordings, serials and newspapers, photographs, and diaries. The collection also houses the personal papers of Hal Call (1917-2000) and Jack Nichols (1938-2005), both early activists for gay rights. Taken as a whole, the collection offers a deep and rich source of information on gay, lesbian, and bisexual culture in the United States, especially in the South, and its representation in literature and in the press, both positive and negative; the history of the gay rights movement in the U.S. and abroad, including the evolution of organizations such as the Mattachine Society and related gay movement publications; sexuality studies in the U.S. and teaching sexuality in primary and secondary classrooms; gays in the military; drag queen, lesbian, and bisexual communities; and many other topics relevant to sexual identity in society.

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.

Lithography company founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in about 1847. The Strobridge Lithographing Company Advertisements span the years 1910 through 1954, documenting much of the company's printed poster advertising work from that era. All images are black and white. The core of the collection, the Image Files Series, consists of around 1000 8x10 photographs ("A" images) of advertising designs, and a similar number of smaller printed cards (approx. 5x7 to 5x8, "B" images) of outdoor advertisement designs. The images are accompanied by three different Access Files to be used to browse the collection. These files are in the form of image photocopies ( "job tickets" ) and catalog cards. Most images are of poster (billboard or transit card) designs, but there are also some photographs of tabletop display advertising, window cards and other point-of-purchase displays. The collection documents advertising during a time when transportation was changing in America, and the automobile was gaining in popularity. Billboards began to replace smaller posters, accommodating a more mobile public. It was then that Strobridge turned from its emphasis on circus and theater posters (not represented in the collection) to billboard ads for mass-produced products. Many different products are featured, but perhaps the two most prominent and well-represented campaigns are those for Camel cigarettes and Palmolive soaps. The images form a valuable reference collection of advertising designs, relevant for researchers from a variety of disciplines including commercial artwork, advertising history and design, and popular culture. The collection documents outdoor advertising design during the first part of the twentieth century for what were mostly national brands. Numerous examples are from the era of hand-drawn and painted designs, often signed by artists including Norman Rockwell, Howard Scott, and Dr. Seuss (see his designs for the product Flit). Rarely, an artist is listed on the back of the image. Later designs from the 1940s and 1950s include photographic images, often peppered with celebrity likenesses including John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, and Charlton Heston. Many of the celebrity advertisements promoted tobacco products. Some designs are clearly war-era, such as advertisements depicting a 1943 female factory worker, or one from Schlitz (1942) mentioning war bonds.

This collection contains business and personal correspondence, orders, price bulletins, and other papers, relating to the tobacco business of James Thomas, the tobacco industry in general, and the economic life of Virginia (1850s). Includes information on Thomas' assistance to the Virginia Baptist Seminary (now the University of Richmond). Correspondents and persons mentioned include J. L. M. Curry, George Frederick Holmes, and Basil Manly.

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.

Basil Lee Whitener (1915-1989) was a U.S. Representative from Gastonia, N.C. Collection includes correspondence between Whitener and his constituents, other congressmen, and government officials, legislative materials, drafts of bills, financial papers, speeches, invitations, printed material, clippings, photographs, and other papers, chiefly from congressional files (1957-1968), relating to issues of national importance during the 1960s, including the Vietnam War, crime legislation, gun control, riots, civil rights legislation, foreign aid, social security, and the Taft-Hartley Act. Correspondents include Sam Ervin, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, and Strom Thurmond.

Planter, Confederate Army officer, and North Carolina state senator. Correspondence, tax books, military order book, postwar plantation records, and legal papers relating to Whitford's planting activities before and after the Civil War, his service as a colonel in the 67th Regiment of North Carolina Troops, and his position as state senator. Includes Whitford family letters and papers.