Search Collection Guides

Collection (1942-2005) of materials belonging to Wray Raphael Herring, a member of the U.S. Navy B-1 Band which was the first all-African American Navy Band during World War II. Included are programs, clippings, sound recordings, yearbooks, concert programs, poems, and sheet music.

Papers (1890-1914, 1948, 1982) including correspondence, organizational publications, newspaper clippings, advertisements, blueprints, a contract, and miscellany.

Papers (1743 – 1985) of the descendants of Martin Whitford and Nancy Purifoi (Purifoy) Whitford, of Craven County NC, including David Purifoi Whitford, Susan Cox, Addison Purifoi Whitford, Pamela Toler and Edna Whitford Fisher, and consisting of land, legal and business records, genealogical charts and a family history, a photographic print, and the constitutions of the Mt. Lebanon Church and the Broad St. Church & Secondary School 100 Per Cent Loyalty and Service Club.

Collection (1862-1994) containing correspondence, service records, photographic prints, newspapers, newsletters and clippings, scrapbook, publications, pamphlets and other miscellaneous papers relating to the American Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I and World War II; also relating to the U.S. Navy, its ships, stations, and personnel; donated by various individuals to the U. S. Naval Memorial Foundation and transferred to its collection at various times; arranged in original order.

Correspondence & Financial Records (ca. 1845 - 1917, undated) of merchants, shipbuilders and mercantile family from Elizabeth City and Weeksville, Pasquotank County, NC. Individuals include Woodson Bradford Fearing, Enoch Pratt Fearing, Lizzie Parker Fearing, George Fearing, Pratt Fearing, Woodruff Fearing, Emily Fearing, Emily Ramsay Commander, M. E. Fearing, Joseph Commander and Walter J. Rhode.

Collection (1936, 1941-1942) consisting of a photograph album of the S.S. ZamZam, an Egyptian-owned ship, its crew and passengers, including 120 American missionaries (from 21 different denominations), tobacco buyers and other passengers traveling from New York to Alexandria, Egypt, via Capetown, South Africa, who survived sinking by the German raider Tamesis 17 April 1941, including newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, periodicals, correspondence, and photocopies of an autobiographical account.

Papers (1863-1864) consisting of diaries with activities of battle.

Included is a logbook/scrapbook kept by Henry A. Phelon (1831-1902) who served as an acting Master in the Union Navy (1862-1865) during the Civil War. Orders, holograph letters, dispatches, handwritten copies of documents, and newspaper clippings glued into this scrapbook chronicle his wartime service under Rear Admiral Samuel P. Lee with the Blockading Squadron off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina on the U.S. Steamers Shawsheen, Monticello, and Daylight, and U.S. Ironclad Steamers Canonicus and Atlanta. Later clippings (through 1900) and documents pertain to his post-war years, most of which was spent in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

The bulk of the Raymond J. Kragness Papers (1943-1946, 2000, 2004) pertains to Mr. Kragness's service in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theatre in World War II aboard the USS Escambia. Personal items include rites of passage membership cards (such as crossing the Equator), draft board notification, photographs, post cards of San Francisco Bay, course certificates, separation from service records and a brief family history. The remaining items pertain to his service on the USS Escambia, a fleet oiler. Included are the ship's history and directory, newsletter "Eighty Times," a list of ships fuled by the USS Escambia, plans of the day, congratulatory messages from Admiral Halsey, and invitations and tickets for commissioning and decommissioning ceremonies.

This collection contains correspondence (1928-2013) between Hattie Lou Cannon Schneider in Tampa, Florida, and her mother and sister and other family members in Pitt County, N.C. The earliest letters were written by Hattie Lou as a child living in Pitt County and a few letters were written to her before and right after her marriage to Charles Leland Schneider, Sr., in 1945 when she was stationed as a WAVE at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Also included are photocopies of two photographs, family history charts, and an autograph book which belonged to Hattie Lou Cannon when she was a member of the 1935 Senior Class at Winterville High School in Pitt County, N.C.

Papers (1858-1957) of Rev. John C. Wooten including correspondence, clippings, photographs, postcards, printed materials, and ephemera dealing with the American Civil War, telegraph operations, missionary experiences in Japan, Korea, and China, twentieth-century family life, and other topics.

This collection (1791-1960) documents the horse and mule business, farm operations, land transactions, saw mill operation, and other business enterprises of Edward Cyrus Winslow (b. 1886) of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. Included in the collection are correspondence, financial and legal records such as account books, ledgers, bills and receipts, contracts with other mule dealers, promissory notes, agricultural liens and chattel mortgages, deeds, and lease and rental agreements. Also included are superior court records, blueprints of farm tracts and dairy equipment, printed material, business and family photographs, and a small quantity of family correspondence.

Collection contains a variety of items relating to Eastern North Carolina especially including a photograph of East Carolina Teacher's College scene (ca. 1940's); a theater Program (ca. 1933/34) for a play presented by The Episcopal Junior Guild, Austin Building, East Carolina Teacher's College; and a Measles in Quarantine Keep Your Babies Away From Measles Broadside (4/7/1934) posted on the home of Ella Viola McGowan when she had the measles. Also included are photographs (some unidentified) of World War II era of which several pertain to military bases such as the 657th Engineer Topographic Battalion (40th Infantry Division, U.S. Army), and one is of Cecil May in U.S. Marine corporal uniform; a photocopy of a letter (1913) containing reminiscences of Confederate veteran John W. Vernelson (of N.C. State Troops) war service and describing the Veterans Reunion at Gettysburg, PA; receipts (1909-1910) for sales by Crown Bottling Works in New Bern, NC; Pitt County, NC, land grants and deeds (1782-1837) related to the Boyd, Edwards, and Nobles families; Bible Records and birth and death records for the Eldridge, Wilder/Hatsell, Pittman, Moore, Sewell, and Davis families; and the book (2011) "One of the Lucky Ones," Edgar Cannon's Contributions in World War II. Other materials (1856-2001) consist of manuscripts, research clippings, notes, photocopies, photographic prints, programs, notebooks, and newspapers, relating to the history and genealogy of Eastern North Carolina, especially Robersonville and Williamston in Martin County, NC. Also included are a 1941 color silent 16mm film about Greenville and slides (ca. 1970) documenting tobacco and old houses in Pitt County, NC.

William and Harry Whittaker were brothers who both served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. William mainly served in West Germany while Harry was sent to Vietnam in 1967. Their letters to each other cover the years 1964 to 1968 and discuss both basic training in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and their service in West Germany and Vietnam. Also included are numerous photographs taken by Harry while he was stationed in Vietnam.

This collection (1937-2015) is related to Edith Doughtie Warren's personal life and to her time as the representative for the 8th District (composed of Martin County and part of Pitt County) in the North Carolina House of Representatives (January 1, 1999-January 1, 2013). Included are six binders related to her political career containing correspondence, photographs, speeches, committee material, clippings, campaign ephemera, and also materials related to the "Fried Chicken Caucuses" held 2001 to 2007. Five more binders document Edith Warren's long career as an educator and her family history, particularly concerning the Doughtie Family of Bethel and Mayo's Crossroads areas of Pitt and Edgecombe Counties. Also represented are photographs and documents concerning her husband Billy N. Warren's family, and Billy and Edith Warren's family together.