William N. Still Jr. Papers
1862-2017
Manuscript Collection #139- Creator(s)
- Still, William N., Jr. (William Norwood), 1932-
- Physical description
- 39 Cubic Feet, 78 boxes,
- Preferred Citation
- William N. Still Jr. Papers (#139), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
- Repository
- ECU Manuscript Collection
- Access
- No restrictions
Material (1862-2017) including correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, narrative reminiscences, and a muster roll (1862) and other original documents related to Dr. William N. Still, Jr.'s career as a well-known and respected maritime historian and author. His research topics included shipbuilding in North Carolina, maritime history, and Naval history in the American Civil War through World War II.
Biographical/historical information
William Norwood "Bill" Still Jr. was an American maritime historian, who served as a faculty member in East Carolina University's Department of History from 1968 until 1994. In 1982, he helped create the school's Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology Program in the History Department and became its founding director. He was also involved with establishing ECU's Manuscript Collection in Joyner Library. Still published numerous books and articles related to maritime and Naval history from the Civil War through World War II and related to North Carolina shipbuilding from its earliest years as an English settlement. After Still retired from ECU in 1994, he was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Hawaii, and he remained active in the fields of maritime history and archaeology until his death on January 8, 2023, at the age of ninety.
Still was born in 1932 in Columbus, Mississippi, to William Norwood Still, Sr. and Helen Morris Still. He earned his Bachelor's Degree at Mississippi College and received his Doctorate at the University of Alabama. He served two years in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Lake Champlain. Dr. Still married Mildred Boling in 1953 and they had four children: Susan Jannuzzi, Kathy Barton, Norwood Still, and Robert Still.
Source: Obituary for William Still at www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/reflector/.
Administrative information
Custodial History
December 18, 2023, (unprocessed addition 21), 0.75 cubic feet; This addition includes correspondence (1938, 1970-1974, 1985-1992, 2017), newsletters, ephemera, official memos, photographs, biographical information, and personal remembrances related to Squadron 40-T concerning the USS Omaha and the USS Trenton during World War II, and operations in European waters between World War I and World War II. Narratives related to the time between the two world wars discuss service aboard the USS Denebola in Turkish waters, USS Scorpion, USS Pittsburgh, and the USS Reid. Other material concerns the wooden schooners Hauppauge and Commack built during World War I at the Naul Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Confederate States Ships (CSS) Alabama, Tallahassee, Shenandoah, and Florida. Gift of Robert Still (son of William N. Still, Jr.)
January 18, 2024, (unprocessed addition 22), 0.25 cubic feet; Correspondence (1992) between the University of Alabama Press and Dr. Still related to a proposed but never completed publication titled "Southern Maritime Heritage: The Seaboard States" with Dr. Still being the compiler and editor. Also included are printed chapters written by noted researchers and authors in the field. Transfer by Dr. Nathan Richards, director of the Program in Maritime Studies in the History Department at East Carolina University.
Source of acquisition
Gift of Dr. William N. Still Jr.
Gift of Robert Still
Transfer by Dr. Nathan Richards
Processing information
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Copyright notice
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
Metadata Rights Declaration
Key terms
Personal Names
Still, William N., Jr. (William Norwood), 1932-Corporate Names
North Carolina (Battleship : BB-55)U.S.S. North Carolina Battleship Commission
Topical
Fisheries--North CarolinaShipbuilding industry--Confederate States of America
Shipbuilding industry--North Carolina
Shipbuilding--Confederate States of America--History
Shipbuilding--North Carolina
Underwater archaeology--United States