This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 9.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 3,000 items) |
Abstract | Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard (1873-1956), a white author, art collector, and interior decorator, was related by birth and marriage to the Amis, Hooper, Blanchard, and Butterworth families, many members of which are represented in the collection. Materials include Blanchard's personal correspondence, chiefly with her mother Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper, and notes, memoranda, diary entries, clippings, pictures, and breeding and racing records, relating to Blanchard's book, The Life and Times of Sir Archie: The Story of America's Greatest Thoroughbred. There are also genealogical materials on the Amis and Dulany families and copies of Amis and Cameron family wills. Family letters of the Amis, Butterworth, and Blanchard families, include letters to and from the four Amis sisters after the death of their mother Sarah Greene Davis Amis in 1852, while they travelled in Europe and lived with their Butterworth relatives in New York and Morristown, N.J.; letters among the Amises and Butterworths after the latter moved, in 1864, to California, where Samuel Butterworth was managing a mine at Almaden; letters from Thomas Amis, who went to live with relatives in Madison Parish, La., in 1870; and correspondence to and from the Blanchards after their marriage when they travelled to Japan, 1906. Also of note are letters from Sarah Greene Davis Amis while she was living on a plantation near Columbus, Miss., in the 1830s and 1840s, to her grandomother in Warrenton, N.C., that document people enslaved by the Amis and Davis families. Additions to the collection include scattered correspondence of Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard between 1907 and 1954; the expansive memoir of Mary ("Mamie") Emily Amis Hooper, which mentions several enslaved or formerly enslaved people connected to the Amis family and describes enslaved life at Moorfield (Northampton County, N.C.), Little River (Lowndes County, Miss.), and Fortune's Fork (Madison Parish, La.), from the perspective of a white woman; miscellaneous other papers and volumes; and photographs chiefly depicting friends and family members and places visited. |
Creator | Blanchard, Elizabeth Amis Cameron, d. 1956. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Susan Ballinger, June 1976; Nancy Kaiser, December 2023
Encoded by: Kathryn Michaelis, May 2010
Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, December 2023: Updated abstract, subject heading, biographical note, scope and content note, contents list.
This collection was originally received in two parts, Subcollection 3367(A) and Subcollection 3367(B), which have since been divided into three series. An addition was received in 1993.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard (1873-1956), a white author, art collector, and interior decorator, was related by birth and marriage to the Amis, Hooper, Blanchard, and Butterworth families. Other people represented in the collection include her husband, John Osgood Blanchard (d. ca. 1912); her mother, Mary ("Mamie") Amis Hooper (1843-1943); her mother's three sisters, Elizabeth ("Bettie") Amis (1837-1872), Sallie Amis Nowland (b. 1841), and Julia Amis (1848-1876); the Amis sisters' parents, Thomas Amis (active 1834-1876) and Sarah Greene Davis Amis (d. 1852); and their aunt, Mary Amis Butterworth (active 1855-1880), and uncle, Samuel F. Butterworth (active 1855-1866).
There are several enslaved and free people who have been identified in the collection, including the following:
The collection includes correspondence, chiefly between Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard (1873-1956) and her mother Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper (1843-1943), and notes, memoranda, diary entries, clippings, pictures, and breeding and racing records, relating to Elizabeth Blanchard's book, The Life and Times of Sir Archie: The Story of America's Greatest Thoroughbred. There are also genealogical materials on the Amis and Dulany families and copies of Amis and Cameron family wills. Family letters of the Amis, Butterworth, and Blanchard families, include letters to and from the four Amis sisters after the death of their mother Sarah Greene Davis Amis in 1852, while they travelled in Europe and lived with their Butterworth relatives in New York and Morristown, N.J.; letters among the Amises and Butterworths after the latter moved, in 1864, to California, where Samuel Butterworth was managing a mine at Almaden; letters from Thomas Amis, who went to live with relatives in Madison Parish, La., in 1870; and correspondence to and from the Blanchards after their marriage when they travelled to Japan, 1906. Also of note are letters from Sarah Greene Davis Amis while she was living on a plantation near Columbus, Miss., in the 1830s and 1840s, to her grandomother in Warrenton, N.C., that document people enslaved by the Amis and Davis families. Additions to the collection include scattered correspondence of Elizabeth Amis Cameron Hooper Blanchard between 1907 and 1954; the expansive memoir of Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper, which mentions several enslaved or formerly enslaved people connected to the Amis family and describes enslaved life at Moorfield (Northampton County, N.C.), Little River (Lowndes County, Miss.), and Fortune's Fork (Madison Parish, La.), from the perspective of a white woman; miscellaneous other papers and volumes; and photographs chiefly depicting friends and family members and places visited.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Included in this series are correspondence, genealogical material, poems, miscellaneous manuscripts, and other related materials. The correspondence is chiefly between Elizabeth Blanchard and her mother, Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper. Also included are letters from various artists, including Edward Hopper and John Singer Sargent, and friends interested in the arts.
Folder 1a |
Original finding aid |
Folder 1 |
Correspondence, 1925-1930 |
Folder 2 |
Correspondence, 1931-1938 |
Folder 3 |
Correspondence, 1939-1940 |
Folder 4 |
Correspondence, January-September 1941 |
Folder 5 |
Correspondence, October 1941 |
Folder 6 |
Correspondence, November-December 1941 |
Folder 7 |
Correspondence, January-June 1942 |
Folder 8 |
Correspondence, July-December 1942 |
Folder 9 |
Correspondence, 1943 |
Folder 10 |
Correspondence, 1944 |
Folder 11 |
Correspondence, 1945 |
Folder 12 |
Correspondence, January 1946-July 1947 |
Folder 13 |
Correspondence, August 1947-1949 |
Folder 14 |
Correspondence, 1950 |
Folder 15 |
Correspondence, 1951-1954 |
Folder 16 |
Correspondence, Undated |
Arrangement: by content, then chronological.
Acquisitions information: Accessions 93040, 93162
Scattered correspondence of Elizabeth Hooper Blanchard to and from relatives, friends, and business associates, between 1907 and 1954. Included are letters to Blanchard from Edmund Quincy, American painter, written 1932-1953, and from General and Madame R. Hely d'Oissel of France, most of them undated and all written in French. Several letters are among the last Blanchard received from her mother, Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper, who died in 1943.
Folder 124 |
Correspondence, 1907-1909 |
Folder 125 |
Correspondence, 1910-1916 |
Folder 126 |
Correspondence, 1917-1919 |
Folder 127 |
Correspondence, 1920-1927 |
Folder 128 |
Correspondence, 1933-1945 |
Folder 129 |
Correspondence, 1946-1954 |
Folder 130 |
Edmund Quincy correspondence, 1932-1953 |
Folder 131 |
General and Madame R. Hely d'Oissel correspondence, 1915-1939 and undated |
Folder 132 |
Correspondence, undated |
Folder 133 |
Materials relating to art exhibits and auctions, 1916, 1926 and undated |
Folder 134 |
Materials relating to the Blanchards' trip to Europe, 1926 |
Folder 135 |
Miscellaneous invitations, 1915, 1937, 1939 |
Folder 136 |
Materials relating to the Woman's Roosevelt Memorial Association, 1933-1935 |
Folder 137 |
Miscellaneous materials |
Arrangement: by subject.
This subseries contains research notes and a typed draft of Elizabeth Blanchard's book The Life and Times of Sir Archie: The Story of America's Greatest Thoroughbred. The typed draft of the book comprises volumes 1-7. The remaining volumes primarily contain information on Sir Archie's bloodlines.
Acquisitions information: Accessions 93040, 93162
Folder 138 |
Volume 11: Address book |
Folder 139-140
Folder 139Folder 140 |
Volume 12: Recipe book and enclosures |
Folder 141 |
Volume 13: Scrapbook |
Folder 142 |
Volume 14: Scrapbook, 1930s |
Acquisitions information: Accession 100737
Folder 143 |
Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper scrapbook, circa 1870s-1880sChiefly handwritten recipes; also includes newspaper clippings, reprint of "The Influence of Chemicals in Stimulating the Ripening of Fruits," 1909 by A. E. Vinson. |
Folder 144 |
The Hugenot, publication no. 6, 1933 |
Folder 145 |
Julia Amis sketchbook, circa 1861Includes sketches, pressed leaves, printed line illustrations pasted in. |
Folder 146 |
Gladstone on MacLeod and Macaulay: Two Essays (New York: R. Worthington, 1877) |
Acquisitions information: Accession 20230915.1
Folder 148 |
Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper memoirThe memoir of Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper (1843-1943), the mother of Elizabeth Amis Cameron Blanchard, as detailed to her family friend (and distant relative through marriage) Elizabeth Randol Baker. The memoir is handwritten, and approximately 220 single-sided notebook pages long. the creator of the document numbered the pages, although a few may have been numbered incorrectly toward the end of the sequence. Some pages are torn along the spine side. The memoirs chronicle the life of Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper. Topics include Amis family history, including emigration as Huguenots from France to Virginia; the story of her birth in Warrenton, N.C., in 1843 to Thomas Amis and Sarah Greene Davis Amis; her family's migration from their plantation Moorfield in Northampton County, N.C., to Lowndes County, Miss., where they established plantations (her father's "Little River"); plantation social life and customs for wealthy white families; descriptions of interactions with enslaved people from the perspective of a white woman; the practice of enslavers naming enslaved newborns; enslaved quarters at Fortune's Fork, including buildings for childcare and storage of food provisions and clothing alotments; moving with her sisters to New York in 1851 to live with their aunt and uncle, Mary Amis Butterworth and Samuel Butterworth, after her mother's death; her travels to Europe, including as a teenager for schooling in Paris, Dresden, and Rome, and later as a young adult; Mary's reflections on living in Paris during the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, while the Civil War was beginning in the United States; returning to the United States four days after the Battle of Gettysburg to tend to a wounded relative; moving to New Almaden, Calif., with her aunt and uncle Butterworth; a violent conflict with Apache people in Arizona; her marriage to Joseph Hooper (1840-1873); being widowed with two young daughters (Ethel and Elizabeth ("Bee")); living a few years in Europe but ultimately settling in the Bay Area of California (St. Helena and San Rafael). Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper mentions her husband briefly and only once in the entire text. Much of the remaining document seems to chronicle her subsequent life in California and her travels elsewhere, as well as those of various family and friends. The death of Mary's daughter Ethel in 1912 prompted her to relocate from California to New York to be closer to her other daughter Elizabeth ("Bee"), and she ultimately settled in Virginia until the end of her life. The text is replete with proper names, family histories and legacies, geographies, anecdotes, and observations of social customs and norms, although dates are infrequently mentioned. The memoirs mention many individuals with whom Mary interacted briefly or continuously over many years, including several people who were enslaved by the Amis family or later employed by them:
Other people mentioned include an unidentified Indigenous person who came for a cup of salt every day to the Amis house in Columbus, Miss.; an enslaved person at Moorfield plantation in North Carolina who stood guard at the crossroads and invited travellers to dinner at the Amis's home; Jose, a child probably of Mexican descent, who was raised by the Amis family in California; "John," who was Chinese and employed as a cook by Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Butterworth, and his wife Sue; and Gung and Lon who were Chinese and employed as gardeners at the San Rafael place of Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Butterworth. |
Digital Folder DF-3367/1 |
Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper memoir (transcription) |
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly correspondence between various members of the Amis family.
NOTE: in December 2023, archivists reviewed folders 40-46 to locate information about enslaved people who are documented in this collection.
Folder 40 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1836-1839Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 41 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1840-1847Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 42 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1851-1852Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 43 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1855-1856 |
Folder 44 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1857Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 45 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-June 1858Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 46 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, July-December 1858Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 47 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1859 |
Folder 48 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1860-1861 |
Folder 49 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1862 |
Folder 50 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-October 1863 |
Folder 51 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, November-December 1863 |
Folder 52 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1864 |
Folder 53 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1865 |
Folder 54 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-April 1866 |
Folder 55 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, May-December 1866 |
Folder 56 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1867 |
Folder 57 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1868 |
Folder 58 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-June 1869 |
Folder 59 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, July-December 1869 |
Folder 60 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-July 1870 |
Folder 61 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, August-December 1870 |
Folder 62 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-June 1871 |
Folder 63 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, July-December 1871 |
Folder 64 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1872 |
Folder 65 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1873 |
Folder 66 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-July 1874 |
Folder 67 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, August-December 1874 |
Folder 68 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1875-1876 |
Folder 69 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1877-1892 |
Folder 70 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1893-1897 |
Folder 71 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-July 1898 |
Folder 72 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, August-December 1898 |
Folder 73 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-March 1899 |
Folder 74 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, April-June 1899 |
Folder 75 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, July-August 1899 |
Folder 76 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, September-October 1899 |
Folder 77 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, November-December 1899 |
Folder 78 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-March 1900 |
Folder 79 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, April-May 1900 |
Folder 80 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, June-July 1900 |
Folder 81 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, August-December 1900 |
Folder 82 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1901-1902 |
Folder 83 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-July 1903 |
Folder 84 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, August-December 1903 |
Folder 85 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1904 |
Folder 86 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1905 |
Folder 87 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1906 |
Folder 88 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-March 1907 |
Folder 89 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, April-June 1907 |
Folder 90 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, July-September 1907 |
Folder 91 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, October-December 1907 |
Folder 92 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-March 1908 |
Folder 93 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, April-June 1908 |
Folder 94 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, July-December 1908 |
Folder 95 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1909 |
Folder 96 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1910-1921 |
Folder 97 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1922-1923 |
Folder 98 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1924-1925 |
Folder 99 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, January-May 1926 |
Folder 100 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, June-August 1926 |
Folder 101 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, September-December 1926 |
Folder 102 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1927-1929 |
Folder 103 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1930-1931 |
Folder 104 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1932-1941 |
Folder 105 |
Amis family correspondence and related material, 1942-1943 |
Folder 106 |
Letters from Bettie Amis, undated 1860s-1870s |
Folder 107 |
Letters from Sallie Amis Nowland, undated 1860s-1870s |
Folder 108 |
Letters from Julia Amis, undated 1860s-1870s |
Folder 109 |
Letters from Mary Emily ("Mamie") Amis Hooper, undated 1860s-1870s |
Folder 110 |
Letters from Thomas Amis, undated 1860s-1870s |
Folder 111 |
Letters from Aunt Mary Amis Butterworth, undated 1850s-1860s |
Folder 112 |
Letters between Elizabeth ("Bee") Blanchard and her husband John ("Jack") |
Folder 113 |
Letters from Mrs. John Henry (Emily?) Hammond, undated |
Folder 114 |
Letters from Josephine Hopper, undated |
Folder 115 |
Letters from Dodge MacKnight and Louise MacKnight, undatedLetters from Louise are in French. |
Folder 116 |
Miscellaneous undated correspondence, chiefly 1860s and 1870s |
Folder 117 |
Miscellaneous undated correspondence |
Folder 118 |
Mrs. Hooper's letters and verses, undated |
Folder 119 |
Miscellaneous papers, undated |
Folder 120 |
Miscellaneous papers, undated |
Folder 121 |
Miscellaneous papers, undated |
Folder 122 |
Newspaper clippings |
Folder 123 |
Bettie Amis commonplace book, beginning 23 November 1867 |
Oversize Paper Folder OPF-3367/1 |
Mary Amis and Thomas Amis passports, 1858, 1860Mary Amis, issued by the State Department, 7 December 1858 Thomas Amis, issued by the United States Legation to France, 9 June 1860; in French |
The 26 image folders are filed in three image boxes.
Arrangement: by subject.
Acquisitions information: Accessions 93040, 93162