This collection includes a scrapbook of clippings (1906-1954) kept by Charlotte Pearl Murphy Wright, the wife of Robert Herring Wright who was the first president of East Carolina University (known then as East Carolina Teachers Training School and later East Carolina Teachers College) in Greenville, North Carolina. Also included are correspondence, announcements related to family affairs, photographs, and genealogy notes (also a few deeds, and bills of sale for enslaved persons) related to the Murphy, and Wright families of Sampson County, N.C., and the Cromartie and Alderman families.
Pearl Murphy Wright (1876-1965) was the wife of Robert H. Wright (1870-1934) who was the first President of East Carolina University which was then called East Carolina Teachers Training School. As such, many of the documents within the collection are keepsakes and records from events related to the school. Many of the events she attended were with other people who were influential on the founding and development of the school including James Y. Joyner (1862-1954).
Pearl was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and many of the documents included in the collection pertain to and document her process of being accepted into this organization. She spent time researching her family's history back to the Confederacy, producing multiple family trees and sheets of notes concerning her family's connection to the Civil War. Many of the letters found in the collection sent to her discuss the family's Confederate history and detail her relatives' experience and positions in the Confederate Army and Navy.
Included in this collection are documents pertaining to slavery, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, domestic life of the family, official correspondence and documents from East Carolina Teachers College, and genealogy notes for the Wright, Alderman, and Murphy families. The documents pertaining to slavery include two bills of sale for enslaved people. These bills of sale include the names and ages of the people sold, one from 1844 for a single person named Virgil (1818) and the other from 1853 for five people named Aisley (1838), Frank (1843), Nelly (1825), Isabella (1850) who is the daughter of Nelly, and Handy (1845). It is somewhat rare to find the names of those sold on documents related to their sale.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy records include several letters. Domestic documents include a scrapbook, photographs, personal correspondence, deeds, sympathy cards, invitations, placeholders, a valentine, birth and marriage announcements, a postcard, newspaper clippings, a war ration book, remembrances, and a fashion show program. The East Carolina Teachers College records include speeches and correspondence. Genealogy records include notes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, family trees, obituary, and a record of Confederate military service. A small portion of the documents in this collection relate to the career of Robert H. Wright, first President of East Carolina Teachers Training School.
October 21, 2021, 0.50 cubic feet; This collection includes a scrapbook of clippings (1906-1954) kept by Pearl Murphy Wright, the wife of Robert Herring Wright who was the first president of East Carolina University (known then as East Carolina Teachers Training School and later East Carolina Teachers College) in Greenville, North Carolina. Also included are correspondence, announcements related to family affairs, photographs, and genealogy notes related to the Murphy and Wright families of Sampson County, N.C. A few older items include deeds (1912, 1915) and bills of sale for enslaved persons (1844, 1858) related to Sampson County. Transferred from the University Archives.
July 13, 2022, 0.15 cubic feet; This addition contains a few Cromartie and Wright family photographs; genealogy notes about the Alderman and Wright families; correspondence (1934); "An Appreciation" for Mary Wright Parker (1907-1937), daughter of Robert H. Wright and wife Pearl Murphy Wright, probably written by Mrs. Kate R. Beckwith "Bar" (the Lady Principal from 1909 to 1925 at East Carolina Teachers Training School and after its name changed to East Carolina Teachers College); and a composition book belonging to Pearl Murphy Wright containing 1934 accounts, listing of contents of moving boxes and barrels, and a short sketch of the life of Dr. William Bailey Murphy. Transferred from University Archives.
Transferred from East Carolina University Archives
Processed by Casey Harwick, October 2022
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.