This collection contains over 100 letters (1885, 1892-1897) written to Sallie Dromgoole Cotten (1876-1972), daughter of Sallie Swepson Southall Cotten and Robert Randolph Cotten, either while she was at home at Cottendale in Falkland, Pitt County, North Carolina, or at Notre Dame of Maryland Preparatory School and Collegiate Institute in Baltimore. The letters are written mainly by Sallie's female friends, but also some male friends in the 1890s (1892-1897) The correspondents are family, associates, and friends, especially schoolmates. Topics are mainly related to interests of college women and men. Also included are ephemera such as dance cards and dance invitations especially to "German" dances which were large popular events among wealthy white families in Eastern North Carolina tobacco towns in the 1890s.
Papers (1914-1988, undated) of David Balcombe, an enlisted man in the 1st Battalion, 4th Queen's West Surrey Territorial Regiment (Reserve) in India during World War I, 1914-1917; he later served as an instrument mechanic in India and Egypt in the Royal Flying Corps, 1917-1918. Consists primarily of correspondence (1914-1919) from David Balcombe to his parents in South Norwood, Surrey, England, plus clippings, ephemera, and photographs of India. Also included are letters (1928-1935) from Walter George Courtice to his sister Ruby R. Courtice, during his residency in Durban, South Africa.
Collection (1917-1933, bulk 1918-1919) mainly consists of correspondence (29 May 1918-29 April 1919; 115 letters) between U.S. Army Pvt. Roscoe Jackson and his wife Lucile E. Jackson of Barnesville, Belmont Co., Ohio, and also with his father, mother-in-law, and grandfather during World War I. He writes from Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio, Camp Mills in Long Island, New York, and from France where he is serving with the 138th U.S. Infantry, A.E.F.