Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Willis Ellis Papers, #242, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from John Ellis Knowles of New York, N.Y., 1932 and 1959.

Additions received from Noble J. Tolbert, March 1964; John Ellis Knowles Wisner, executor for the estate of John Ellis Knowles, July 1978; Jean Littell Winslow of Wilmington, Del.,February 1991 (Acc. 91037)1932, 1959, 1964

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The 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.

• Diaries.
• Ecuador--Foreign relations--United States.
• Ecuador--Social life and customs.
• Ellis, John Willis, 1820-1861.
• Governors--North Carolina.
• Knowles, John Ellis.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1775-1865.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865.
• Political campaigns--North Carolina.
• Secession.
• Tolbert, Noble J.
• United States--Foreign relations--Ecuador.
• White, Philo, 1796-1883.

John Willis Ellis (1820-1861) was a Salisbury, N.C., lawyer, Democratic Party leader, and governor of North Carolina, 1858-1861.

The collection includes personal, professional, and official correspondence, a diary, and other papers of John Willis Ellis, including volumes, 1844-1861, containing manuscript notes and clippings of materials used in Ellis's campaigns for the North Carolina state legislature and for governor. Materials include political speeches and official messages; notes and speeches on internal improvements; official papers and correspondence, pertaining particularly to Secession and the beginning of the Civil War; personal and political correspondence including a series of letters, 1853-1858, from Philo White, United States minister in Ecuador, discussing social life in Ecuador and diplomatic relations with the United States; a brief personal diary, October 1860-February 1861; and 20th-century papers of his grandson, John Ellis Knowles of Connecticut, concerning a biography of Ellis. There are also two letters, one from Ellis, 1859, related to a proposition to have the remains of Revolutionary War general Francis Nash of Hillsborough, N.C., moved from Valley Forge, Pa., for reburial in the state of North Carolina. A small part of the collection consists of microfilm, photoprints, and manuscript copies of manuscripts in other repositories, gathered by Noble J. Tolbert for The Papers of John Willis Ellis (Raleigh, 1964).

• Oversize papers (OPF-242/1)