July 30, 1981, 203 items; Papers (1905-1964) of Greenville, N.C., artist, including correspondence, daybooks, photographs, clippings, programs, art work, etc.

January 29, 1982 (addition), 10 items; Artist's record book, daybook, clippings, and miscellaneous. Gift of Mrs. Alison Hearne Atkins, Hays, Kansas.

July 23, 1982 (unprocessed addition 1), 5 items; program, clippings, and catalog. Donor: Mrs. Alison Hearne Atkins.

No restrictions

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Georgia Pearsall Hearne Papers (#430), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

Gift of Mrs. Alison Hearne Atkins

Processed by C. Cook, April 1982
Encoded by Apex Data Services

Georgia Pearsall was born in Rockingham and grew up in Red Springs, N.C. She studied art and music at Southern Presbyterian College in Red Springs (later Flora Macdonald College) and continued her art education at Washington College and at the Art Students' League in New York City. While in New York, she studied music under Gustav L. Becker. As early as 1916, Miss Pearsall taught art and music in eastern N.C. communities, including Greenville, Rocky Mount, and Smithfield. In 1926 she married Closs Hearne. The couple settled in Greenville, where Georgia continued to teach. Her portraits of prominent North Carolinians, including Sallie Southall Cotten and Governor Angus Wilton McLean, earned her state-wide recognition as an artist.

The bulk of the collection pertains to Mrs. Hearne's art- and music-related interests. Daybooks and memoranda books (1919-1977) deal with her art and music students and list expenses, receipts, and portraits painted. Another volume (430.2s) contains a lengthy list of Mrs. Hearne's commissions, and a diary for 1960 (430.2.r) describes her routine activities and artistic endeavors, including commissions she received from East Carolina College in Greenville.

Mrs. Hearne collected numerous programs for various art exhibits and concerts, particularly when she was studying in Red Springs, Washington, and New York. They pertain to her recitals and exhibitions as well as those of others. Programs of recitals given by her students and her daughter in Greenville also are included in the collection.

Among her art-related material are sketches, newspaper clippings, notes for lectures, memoranda concerning Mrs. Hearne's 1948 show and her prices for portraits, and a pamphlet describing the Art Students' League (1920-1921).

Photographs— the most significant portion of the collection— include many views of portraits painted by Mrs. Hearne, including residents of Greenville and East Carolina College teachers and administrators. The collection also contains photographs from which Mrs. Hearne painted portraits. A photograph album (1904-1906, undated) contains views of friends, relatives, and scenes in Red Springs, including Pearsall residences. Other of the album's photographs show a gypsy camp (1904), a log corn crib, a ferry at Movis Landing(?), the aftermath of a fire in Red Springs (1905), gunboats and soldiers' quarters in the Philippines, and Filipino natives and their houses. Additional photographs depict an art class at Southern Presbyterian College (ca. 1903) and Gustav Becher (1907). (See also photographs in oversize files.)

Personal correspondence in the collection (1905-1965, undated) mainly consists of letters from family members and friends. Many of them discuss routine family life and activities in Red Springs. A letter of aspiring playwright Ted Harris (Aug., 1926) discusses his writing activities in New York City. Several letters mention the 1932 presidential election and the Hearnes' decision to vote for the Socialist candidate, Norman Thomas. A file of business correspondence (1935-1938) pertains to a dispute between the Hearnes and others over the A. B. Pearsall estate in Red Springs.

Additional material concerns Flora Macdonald College. It consists of a program of the college's fiftieth anniversary celebration (1946), an address by Malcolm Seawell calling for the preservation of the college as a separate entity (1957) and two publications concerning Charles Graves Vardell, the first president of the college (1958?, 1960).

Among the miscellany in the collection are publications pertaining to Jarvis Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church in Greenville (1926), the Red Springs charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church ([1919?]), and the End of the Century Book Club in Greenville (1930), and a genealogy of the Bryan, Smith, and Whitfield families.

Oversize material includes artwork, Miss Pearsall's diploma from Southern Presbyterian College, photographs of the Pearsall home in Red Springs and a George Washington birthday party at Washington College, and a lengthy newspaper article concerning the WPA Art Gallery in Greenville (1941).

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog.

Geographic Entries

Autograph Entries

Subject Entries

Genealogy Entries

Date Entries

Images below are listed alphabetically by subject. This list reflects only those portions of the collection for which negatives have been prepared.

AGRICULTURE— Farming
Description: Log corncrib
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1900s
Call Number: p-430/4

AGRICULTURE— Negroes— Labor
Description: Black farm hand
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1900s
Call Number: p-430/16

BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE— Business District
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1900s
Call Number: p-430/13

BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE— Dwellings
Description: First home in Red Springs; Georgia & Sallie on steps; Grandma Hall seated, left
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1880-90
Call Number: p-430/14

BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE— Dwellings
Description: Pearsall home
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1907
Call Number: p-430/1, 5, 11, 12

BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE— Residential District
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1906
Call Number: p-430/8, 9

CONSERVATION— Water Supply
Description: Water tower
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1900s
Call Number: p-430/9, 10

ETHINIC GROUPS— Gypsies
Description: Gypsy camp
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1904
Call Number: p-430/6

LABOR— Domestic Service
Description: Miss Julia
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1900s
Call Number: p-430/15

SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS— Family Life
Description: Father and son
Location: Moore's Landing
Date: 1907
Call Number: p-430/2b

TRANSPORTATION— Carriages
Description: Family in buggy
Location: Red Springs, NC
Date: 1907
Call Number: P-430/1b

TRANSPORTATION— Ferries
Location: Moore's Landing, NC
Date: 1907
Call Number: p-430/2a

TRANSPORTATION— Ferries
Description: Horse and buggy crossing river on flat
Location: Moore's Landing, NC
Date: 1907
Call Number: p-430/1a

U.S.— MILITARY— Navy— Ships— USS BALTIMORE
Location: Philippine Islands-Manila
Date: 1890s
Call Number: p-430/3