Inventory of the Elisha Mitchell Papers, 1816-1905

Collection Number 518

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Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Headings
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
plus Detailed Description of the Collection
block Related Collections
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
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Descriptive Summary

Repository
Southern Historical Collection
Creator
Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857.
Title
Elisha Mitchell Papers, 1816-1905
Call Number
518
Language of Materials
Materials in English
Extent
Items: About 150
Linear Feet: 1.0
Abstract
Elisha Mitchell was a native of Connecticut, student and tutor at Yale College, Presbyterian minister, and professor of geology and chemistry and bursar at the University of North Carolina, 1818-1857.
The collection includes family correspondence, scientific notes, manuscript articles, and sermons of Elisha Mitchell, for many years connected with the University of North Carolina. Mitchell's correspondence pertains to his varied religious, academic, and scientific activities, including mountain exploration in North Carolina. Among the correspondents are George E. Badger, William Gaston, Francis L. Hawkes, N. M. Hentz, William Hooper, Levi Silliman Ives, Archibald D. Murphy, James H. Otey, John Stark Ravenscroft, and David L. Swain. Included is correspondence with the North family of Mitchell's wife, Maria North Mitchell, in New Haven, Conn., and from the Mitchell children after they had married and moved to Salisbury, N.C., California, and Texas. Volumes include Mitchell's diary, 1813-1816, begun at Yale and kept irregularly while he was teaching at various places in the North, containing mainly religious reflections and slight personal comment; his private notebook, 1818-1847, containing miscellaneous comments on mathematics, musicology, electricity, the natural sciences, and history, and personal accounts and notes on reading and letters received; the diary, 1878, of Mitchell's grandson, J. N. Howard Summerell, on a voyage to Scotland; Mitchell's journal, letter book, and account book, 1818-1842; and Diary of a Geological Tour by Professor Elisha Mitchell in 1827 and 1828 with Introduction and Notes by Kemp P. Battle, published as part of the James Sprunt Historical Monograph Series by the University of North Carolina in 1905.

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Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access
No restrictions.
Acquisitions Information
Gifts, 1903-1962
Processing Information
Processed by: Staff, 1993
Encoded by: Peter Hymas, December 2004
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Elisha Mitchell Papers #518, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Badger, George Edmund, 1795-1866.
California--Social life and customs--19th century.
Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
College teachers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
Diaries.
Gaston, William, 1778-1844.
Hawks, Francis L. (Francis Lister), 1798-1866.
Hentz, Nicholas Marcellus, 1797-1856.
Hooper, William, 1792-1876.
Ives, L. Silliman (Levi Silliman), 1797-1867.
Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857.
Mitchell family.
Murphey, Archibald D. (Archibald De Bow), 1777-1832.
New Haven (Conn.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
North Carolina--Description and travel.
North Carolina--Intellectual life--19th century.
North family.
Otey, James Hervey, 1800-1863.
Presbyterian Church--United States--Clergy.
Ravenscroft, John Stark, 1772-1830.
Salisbury (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
Scotland--Description and travel.
Sermons.
Summerell, J. N. Howard, fl. 1878.
Swain, David L. (David Lowry), 1801-1868.
University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History--19th century.
Voyages and travels.
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Related Collections

Hope Summerell Chamberlain Papers (#2545), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Biographical Note

Elisha Mitchell (19 August 1793-27 June 1857) of Connecticut was a graduate of Yale who taught at Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y. and at New London, Conn., and was a tutor at Yale before becoming a professor at the University of North Carolina in January 1818. Before leaving Connecticut, he was licensed to preach by the Congregational Church, and, in 1821, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. He married Maria Sybil North of New London, Conn., in November 1819.

At the University of North Carolina, Mitchell first taught mathematics and natural philosophy, but later shifted to chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. He continued the geological survey of North Carolina begun by Denison Olmstead and made botanical and geological excursions through all of North Carolina, publishing the results in pamphlets and periodicals. He measured the height of the mountain now known as Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, but his claim to priority in the measurement of the peak was disputed by Thomas Lanier Clingman, who declared that he and not Mitchell had found the highest point in the range. To settle the controversy, Mitchell went again to the mountains in 1857, andm in the course of this activity, fell down a steep bank into a creek and was drowned. He was buried in Asheville, N.C., and later reinterred on Mount Mitchell.

Mitchell had four daughters: Ellen, who married Joseph John Summerell; Mary, who married Richard Ashe; Eliza, who married Richard Grant; and Margaret, who never married; and one son, Charles, who died in Mississippi without issue. The Summerells lived in Salisbury, N.C., where J.J. Summerell practiced medicine; the Ashes lived in California; and the Grants lived in Texas.

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Collection Overview

The collection includes family correspondence, scientific notes, manuscript articles, and sermons of Elisha Mitchell, for many years connected with the University of North Carolina. Mitchell's correspondence pertains to his varied religious, academic, and scientific activities, including mountain exploration in North Carolina. Among the correspondents are George E. Badger, William Gaston, Francis L. Hawkes, N. M. Hentz, William Hooper, Levi Silliman Ives, Archibald D. Murphy, James H. Otey, John Stark Ravenscroft, and David L. Swain. Included is correspondence with the North family of Mitchell's wife, Maria North Mitchell, in New Haven, Conn., and from the Mitchell children after they had married and moved to Salisbury, N.C., California, and Texas. Volumes include Mitchell's diary, 1813-1816, begun at Yale and kept irregularly while he was teaching at various places in the North, containing mainly religious reflections and slight personal comment; his private notebook, 1818-1847, containing miscellaneous comments on mathematics, musicology, electricity, the natural sciences, and history, and personal accounts and notes on reading and letters received; the diary, 1878, of Mitchell's grandson, J. N. Howard Summerell, on a voyage to Scotland; Mitchell's journal, letter book, and account book, 1818-1842; and Diary of a Geological Tour by Professor Elisha Mitchell in 1827 and 1828 with Introduction and Notes by Kemp P. Battle, published as part of the James Sprunt Historical Monograph Series by the University of North Carolina in 1905.

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Arrangement of Collection

1. Correspondence and Other Papers
2. Volumes
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Detailed Description of the Collection

1. Correspondence and Other Papers, 1816-1905 and undated.

About 145 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Family correspondence, scientific notes, manuscript articles, and sermons of Elisha Mitchell, for many years connected with the University of North Carolina. Mitchell's correspondence pertains to his varied religious, academic, and scientific activities, including mountain exploration in North Carolina. Among the correspondents are George E. Badger, William Gaston, Francis L. Hawkes, N. M. Hentz, William Hooper, Levi Silliman Ives, Archibald D. Murphy, James H. Otey, John Stark Ravenscroft, and David L. Swain. Includes correspondence with the family of Maria (North) Mitchell in New Haven, Conn., and from the Mitchell children after they had married and moved to Salisbury, N.C., California, and Texas.
Folder 1
1816-1821

Digital version: Letter from Elisha Mitchell to Maria North, 11 February 1818
Folder 2
1822-1827

Digital version: Letter from Abraham Rencher to Elisha Mitchell, 20 March 1823
Folder 3
1828-1835
Folder 4
1836-1842
Folder 5
1843-1846
Folder 6
1847-1855
Folder 7
1856-1857
Folder 8
1858-1877
Folder 9
1878-1905
Folder 10
Undated

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2. Volumes, 1813-1848, 1878, 1905.

5 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 11
V-518/1, 1813-1816
Diary, kept by Elisha Mitchell, begun at Yale in the spring of 1813 and kept very irregularly thereafter while he was teaching at Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y.; New London, Conn.; and back at Yale as a tutor, ending there on 28 July 1816. Mainly religious reflections with slight comments on personal activity.
Folder 12
V-518/2, 1818-1847
Elisha Mitchell's private notebook: a large volume in which he entered his study notes and thoughts unconnected with his classes. The contents include notes on mathematics, musicology, electricity, botany and other natural sciences, optics, and history; a list of books sent to New York to be bound and a list of books to be purchased; a description of boundaries of a lot; personal accounts; and notes on reading and on letters received.
Folder 13
V-518/3, August 1878
Diary kept by Elisha Mitchell's grandson, J. N. Howard Summerell, of his voyage on the Anchoria (Anchor Line) from New York to Glasgow, Scotland, containing details about the other passengers, daily activities, and thoughts. J. N. Howard Summerell was the son of Joseph John Summerell and Ellen Mitchell Summerell and studied for the Presbyterian ministry at Davidson College and Edinburgh University, Scotland.
Folder 14
V-518/4, 1818-1842
Journal, letter book, and account book of Elisha Mitchell with entries both personal and related to the University of North Carolina. The entries connected with UNC relate to the students, the debating societies, the professors, the library, the laboratories, the building program, and other aspects of University life.
Folder 15
V-518/5, 1905
Paperback monograph in the James Sprunt Historical Monograph series titled Diary of a Geological Tour by Professor Elisha Mitchell in 1827 and 1828 with Introduction and Notes by Kemp P. Battle, published by the University of North Carolina, 1905.

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