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Items from Jean Penn Walker Doss' education, professional, and personal life that were donated by her niece Susan Boyd.

The collection includes papers and publications produced or related to the administration of John Decatur Messick. Materials include biographical records, correspondence, articles, newspaper clippings, administrative records, and other miscellaneous items.

This collection (1980s-2010s) contains material related to the life of Michael J. Hamer, an English professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, from 1986 through 2013, and a prolific songwriter, singer, and band leader who died in 2017. Included are notebooks containing his handwritten lyrics, poems, photographs, reel to reel tapes, clippings, and other material pertaining to his musical career.

Collection (1942-1945, 2006) of documents, maps, printed materials, etc., relating to his service as a Quartermaster 3d Class aboard the USS Ann Arundel (AP-76) during World War II, including autobiographical accounts of four voyages, and descriptions of its actions during the Normandy invasion of 6 June 1944.

This collection contains material (1831, ca. 1910-2010) related to the Edgerton, Cox, and Pearson families who were Quaker families in the Nahunta Community in Wayne County, N.C.; Dow and Brownell families of Clovis, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; Civilian Public Service work during World War II; and the Massey family of Dudley, Wayne County, N.C., including correspondence, photographs, land deeds and publications.

Matthew W. Ransom letter, recounting the Battle of Second Gum Swamp (22 May), Kinston, 5/25/1863; photocopy of letter; transcript of letter.

The Gerda Nischan Papers contains letters (1930, 1946-1947), handwritten in German between Otto Baumann and his wife, Barbara Hock, all but one written during the time Baumann was a German soldier in a French prisoner of war camp, 1946-1947, and typescripts in English by Baumann's daughter, Gerda Nischa, including an explanation of the letters, and 7 poems inspired by the letters. In 2010 Gerda Nischan wrote a book based on the letters titled Briefe an einen Kriegsgefangenen, an English translation written in 2014 (Letters to a Prisoner of War), and a novel in German (2013) called Dieses neue Leben which are included in these papers.

Collection (1916-1918) includes 14 silver gelatin photographs and 4 printed postcards that belonged to Emil Görling, a German soldier in the 3rd Landwehr Division during World War I. The majority of the images document the 1918 German Spring Offensive in Northern France, specifically the Noyon campaign (April-August 1918). Included are images of the devastation in the area, the battlefields between the towns of Noyon and Lassigny in France, and the unit at work, at leisure and in retreat in the Lorraine area. Many of the photographs and postcards have comments written with pencil or ink in German.

Papers (1705-1928) of Alamance County, North Carolina, native William L. Spoon (1862-1942) consisting of correspondence, a diary, pamphlets, almanacs, maps, photos, reports on weather, tax receipts, and land records. Spoon was a surveyor who was supervisor of public roads in Alamance County and worked as an agent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as a teacher, inventor, and traveling salesman.

Papers of Rosanna Warren (1964-1989, [Bulk: 1981-1984], undated) documenting the life and literary career the Fairfield, Connecticut-born American poet and educator at Boston University, who was the daughter of writers and poets Robert Penn Warren (#1169-014) and Eleanor Clark (#1169-070); consisting of an uncorrected proof of Each Leaf Shines Separate: Poems (1984); also loose manuscript items transferred from her works in the Stuart Wright Book Collection, including from Each Leaf Shines Separate: Poems (1984), Joey Story: A Ten Year Old Girl's Story of Her Dog (1964), Snow Day (1981) and from New England Review, Vol. 4, no. 2 (1982).

Letter (May 12, 1909) written by G. P. Stevens, a missionary representing the Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Presbytery, in Suchien, China, describing his experiences in Suchien.

Collection (ca. 1876-1942) of manuscripts, photographs, and printed materials relating to Vice Admiral Niblack (1858-1929) and his family, especially his naval, engineering, and scientific careers. Included are his work with the Smithsonian Institution; services in the USS ALABAMA, USS BOSTON, USS CASTINE, USS CHICAGO, USS COSMOS, USS IROQUOIS, USS LACKAWANNA, USS MICHIGAN, USS PATTERSON, USS PITTSBURGH, USS TACOMA, USS UTAH, and the USS WINSLOW; as Director of Naval Intelligence, 1919-1920; and his services ((beginning in 1896) as naval attaché to the U. S. Embassies at Berlin and Rome and to the U. S. Legation at Vienna. Topics covered include combat at the Battle of Manila (1898) during the Spanish American War, involvement of the USS BOSTON in the Battle of Iloilo (1899) in the Philippine Islands during the Philippine-American War, the Occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914, and during and after World War I, 1917-1919, 1921-1922. Other materials relate to the naming and launching (1937-1942) of the USS NIBLACK.

Papers (1862-1914) concern the life of Benjamin Holt Ticknor (1842-1914) of Boston, Massachusetts, after he enlisted in the 45th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Co. G, in 1862 during the Civil War. Included are thirteen letters written to his father during the war with nine (November 1863-March 1864) of them written from Fort Totten in New Bern, N.C. Several documents relate to a court martial and trial he participated in; other documents relate to his postwar involvement in the Loyal Legion and genealogy research. Also included are photographs of his funeral procession. Transferred (not purchased) from Denning House Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts.

Papers (1806-1950) consisting of correspondence, letters, receipts, photographs, genealogical information, financial papers, etc.