Southern Sources

The latest group of updated and encoded legacy finding aids has just been posted online. Some of the notable collections in this group are:

Elizabeth S. Martin Papers, #1023-z

Elizabeth S. Martin (fl. 1841-1849) was a resident of Pocotaligo, S.C. Her cousin, Ellen Galt Martin (fl. 1841-1849), lost her ability to hear and speak when she was four or five years old. The collection contains letters to Elizabeth S. Martin from Ellen Galt Martin in New Orleans, La., concerning the latter’s schooling, travels to the North, attempted cures, local events, and family news.

Calvin Stowell Books, #1117-z

Calvin Stowell (born 1836) was a newspaper writer, federal soldier in the Civil War, and state legislator of Illinois. The collection includes a diary and two scrapbooks. The diary, 1856, contains records of daily activities and events at Oberlin College, where Stowell was a student, January-May, records of farm work and other activities near Chillicothe, Ill., May-August, and personal financial accounts, January-July. The scrapbooks contain clippings of descriptive articles Stowell wrote between 1910 and 1912 about race relations, Confederate memorial activities, and other matters in Savannah, Ga.; a description of Stowell’s Civil War service with the 11th Illinois Infantry; a few Civil War letters; a few later letters; and other items.

James Fountain Heustis Logbooks, #1199-z

James Fountain Heustis (died 1891) of Cahaba, Ala., was a surgeon in the United States navy. The collection includes books kept by Heustis as surgeon on the “John Adams,” including notes on weather, work, the ship’s position, prescriptions, quarterly reports of cases of illness on board, medical notes, poems, and notes on church history. The logbooks were kept while Heustis’s ship was stationed near Norfolk, Va., at sea, and cruising off the west coast of Africa.

Trenholm Family Papers, #1238

William Lee Trenholm (1836-1901) of Charleston, S.C., was a banker and Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, 1886-1889. His daughter, Kate Trenholm Abrams of Washington, D.C., was active in the women’s suffrage movement and an organizer of the District of Columbia branch of the League of Women Voters. Her daughter, Katherine T. Abrams, was chief yeoman, Fitness Report Section, Bureau of Navigation, United States Navy Department. The collection includes six essays or speeches by Colonel William Lee Trenholm about the South, “King Cotton,” the silver issue, and other matters; a play and other papers by Kate Trenholm Abrams; a scrapbook of invitations, calling cards, etc.; and a scrapbook of World War I correspondence, photographs (including one of Josephus Daniels), memorabilia, and other items of Katherine T. Abrams.

Charles K. Gallagher Papers, #1569-z

Charles K. Gallagher (1833-1893) was a druggist who during the Civil War served as captain of a Beaufort County company in the 4th North Carolina Regiment, Confederate States of America. The collection includes Civil War papers, mainly military, of Gallagher while serving in Virginia. Items include enlistment papers, papers relating to Gallagher’s exchange as a prisoner of war in 1862, commissions, passes, orders, the roster of the regiment, and items relating to Gallagher’s release from service because of deafness in 1864. Also included is a pocket diary kept by Gallagher on a trip to France in 1859, with notes on dining, wines, and wine-making, and a letter on wines written from Reims.

A complete list of all updated and encoded finding aids can be found here.

The latest group of updated and encoded legacy finding aids has just been posted online. Some of the notable collections in this group are:

J. L. M. Curry Papers, #197-z

J. L. M. Curry (1825-1922) was a Southern educator. The collection includes two letters from Grover Cleveland, and one each from James Bryce and Wade Hampton, to Curry concerning Curry’s work with the Slater Fund for the education of freedmen. Also included are a description of an incident in the Confederate Congress, written by Curry, and a hymn written for his memorial service. This collection has been digitized and is available through the collection’s finding aid, which is linked above.

William B. Burke Papers, #105

William B. Burke (1864-1947) was a Methodist missionary in Shanghai, China. The collection includes letters to Burke and his wife Addie from his mother and his father, John William Burke, publisher and stationer of Macon, Ga. Topics discussed include the yellow fever epidemic in Florida, 1888; American politics and immigration legislation affecting the Chinese, 1890; and the business depression in the United States, 1891. Volumes are a handwritten sketch of the life of John William Burke, by George G. Smith, and two scrapbooks of a newspaper column, “Life’s Reflections.”

H. C. Kendrick Papers, #397-z

H. C. Kendrick (died 1863) was a Confederate soldier who served in the 8th Georgia Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia. The collection includes letters from H. C. Kendick to his parents, brothers, and sister while serving in the Civil War. Letters were written from camps at or near the following locations: Daleville, Va.; Winchester, Va.; Manassas, Va.; Centerville, Va.; Camp Sam Jones; Savannah, Ga.; Gordonsville, Va.; Fredericksburg, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Suffolk, Va. Kendrick’s letters contain little discussion of major battles. They give excellent views of camp life, food, sickness among the troops, rapid marches, and other aspects of military life, including troop morale, the importance of mail from home, hatred of Yankees, drills, the superiority of southern soldiers, patriotism, kindness of the local populace (particularly the ladies of Virginia), scenery, northern degeneracy, and homesickness. Some minor skirmishes are described. A final letter is from Kendrick’s commanding officer to Kendrick’s parents describing Kendrick’s death at Gettysburg.

Caroline O’Reilly Nicholson Papers, #537-z

Caroline O’Reilly Nicholson (born circa 1812) was the wife of A. O. P. Nicholson (1808-1876), United States senator and chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. The collection contains “Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (Mrs. A. O. P. Nicholson),” typescript (43 pages), written circa 1894, by Caroline O’Reilly Nicholson, and one letter. The reminiscences cover social activities, religious life, and town events in Columbia, Tenn., and Nashville, Tenn., 1820s-1840s; politics and elections in Tennessee, 1830s-1840s; social life in Washington, D.C., 1840s; and A. O. P. Nicholson’s political activities, including his personal and political friendship with James K. Polk.

Waddy Thompson Papers, #718-z

Waddy Thompson was a South Carolina politician and United States minister to Mexico. The collection is chiefly correspondence of Thompson while he was United States minister to Mexico, 1842-1844, including letters to his wife, Emmala Butler Thompson, and letters received from American political friends in the United States, the Republic of Texas, and Mexico, concerning yellow fever epidemics and general living and working conditions in Mexico, and diplomatic relations among Mexico, Great Britain, and the United States. Also included are some business papers related to sugar and cotton planting and the slave trade in Alabama and South Carolina.

A complete list of all updated and encoded finding aids can be found here.

The latest group of updated and encoded finding aids has just been posted online. Some of the notable collections in this group are:

Edwin Björkman Papers, #3070

Edwin Björkman (1866-1951) was a Swedish-American literary critic, translator, newspaperman, and author, and, from 1925, a resident of North Carolina. The collection includes literary, personal, and business correspondence, chiefly from 1907, writings and collected writings, of Edwin Björkman. His correspondence is divided into two series: Professional (literary), and Personal. The Professional series includes letters from many significant twentieth century authors, including Zoe Akins, Van Wyck Brooks, James Branch Cabell, Olive Tilford Dargan, John Galsworthy, Francis Grierson, Archibald Henderson, Henry Goddard Leach, William Lyon Phelps, Upton Sinclair, Freeman Tilden, and Allan Eugene Updegraff. Topics include Björkman’s work as a translator of Swedish literature and drama, his World War I experiences in Sweden as an employee of the British Department of Information and the American Committee on Public Information, and his work in North Carolina as literary editor of the Asheville Times newspaper and, after 1935, as director of the North Carolina Federal Writers’ Project. The Personal series consists of correspondence of and writings of Björkman’s family, including his four wives.

Thomas F. Hickerson Papers, #3809

Thomas F. (Thomas Felix) Hickerson was a professor of civil engineering and applied mathematics at the University of North Carolina and an expert in highway design. The collection includes professional and technical correspondence related to Hickerson’s work as professor at the University of North Carolina; papers, photographs, and genealogical and other data connected with the writing of his two books about the history and families of the Happy Valley area in Wilkes county and Caldwell county, N.C.; and about fifty items concerning the slaying of William C. Falkner (great-grandfather of the novelist William Faulkner) at Ripley, Miss., in 1889.

William Calk Diary, #131-z

William Calk (fl. 1775) traveled from Prince William County, Va., to Boone’s Fort on the Kentucky River in 1775. The collection is a typescript copy of a daily journal, 13 March 1775-2 May 1775, kept by Calk while on this trip.

A complete list of all updated and posted legacy finding aids can be found here.