Search Collection Guides

Papers (1921-1966) including correspondence, reports, citations, orders, photographs, clippings and miscellaneous items documenting the naval career of Rear Admiral Kenneth Charles Hurd.

Papers (ca. 1890-2008, undated) of Vice Admiral Robert Lee Ghormley, a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1906, including correspondence, orders, diaries, memoirs, photographic prints and negatives, certificates and commissions, legal papers, printed forms, ephemera, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, maps, museum objects, broadsides and posters and publications related to his education, family and personal life, in Tacoma, Washington, Moscow, Idaho, and Washington, D.C.; his naval career; his life in retirement, 1946-1958; and also including genealogical and historical essays compiled by his son, Commander Robert Lee Ghormley, Jr. (U.S. Navy ret.). Vice Admiral Ghormley served in China, Nicaragua, World War I, and in Haiti. Between the world wars he had several appointments and also served as commander of the destroyer USS Sands and the battleship USS Nevada. During World War II, he saw service as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Special Naval Observer in Europe, August 1940-April 1942; as Commander, South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force, and the battle for Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, April-October 1942; as Commander of the Fourteenth Naval District and the Hawaiian Sea Frontier, 1943-1944; and as Commander of United States Naval Forces in Europe, 1944-1945.

Papers (1884-1967) including correspondence, organizational publication, photographs, newspaper clippings, typescripts, Civil War events, Women's club, songs, jewelry, bank books and notebook.

Yukon gold rush diary (1898 - 1899) (Photocopy [117 p.]) and typescript copy with introduction by Frank Moss [January 1998, 44 p.] and copies of photographic prints of Yukon gold rush [15 p.] Original diary withdrawn 5/9/2002, in possession of the donors.

Papers (1930–1963) including correspondence, military orders, engineering notes, weather, handbooks, diaries, reports, newsletters, programs, photographs, clippings, citations, certificates and miscellany.

Papers include photocopies of transcriptions of correspondence (1863-1864) written by Josiah Robert Peele Ellis of Wilson Co., North Carolina, to his wife Elizabeth Grimes Ellis while he was serving in Company C of the 43rd N.C. Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. The letters were transcribed in 1977 by Hugh Buckner Johnston who also provided supplementary information. Also included are genealogy records for the Ellis and Hill families of Eastern North Carolina.

The collection includes materials (1898-1959) documenting the work of Shackleford Banks native Josiah Clark Chadwick working on freighters running from North Carolina to New York, and then with the Army Corps of Engineers in North Carolina (1927-1959) working the Eastern N.C. federal waterway projects on diesel engines and then inspecting dredges. Included are family history, Chadwick's work history, training materials, engineers' level books, logbooks, and inventories of engineering property in Chadwick's charge.

Autobiography of Joseph Greene Boyette's life from his childhood (born 1929) upbringing in eastern North Carolina until 1952 when he got out of the U.S. Navy and headed to Duke University to take classes. Boyette actually starts his memoir with some information on the extremely hard upbringing his mother (born 1903) had and also includes a section of notes that his mother wrote about the childhood experiences of her 3 boys.

Journal (1905-1906) consisting of reminiscences, historical, genealogical notations, insurance, autobiographical sketch, textbooks, journal entries of salaries, etc.

Papers (1860-1919, 1943) of John L. Bridgers family of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, including correspondence, photographs of the family home "Hilma," family members, and farm scenes, 1869 tax receipt, and a pardon signed by U.S. President Andrew Johnson.

Diary (Sept. 1943-Dec. 1944) of Joseph John Valinsky, a sailor aboard the USS Monterey, kept during World War II duty in the Pacific, along with correspondence, certificates, and military service identification cards.

Papers (1945-1950) including correspondence, military pamphlets with description of army forces, commentaries, letter of sympathy.

"Duties of Boys to their Country" (13 February 1944) an address by Lt. Carl Forsyth of the U.S. Coast Guard Station at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to the Boy Scouts of the Greater Albemarle and the citizens of the township of Elizabeth City, N.C., at Sheep School Auditorium; also includes the orders (11 January 1944) of his commanding officer, R. L. Burke, to deliver the talk.

Papers (1830-2014, undated) [Bulk: 1895-1970] of the Humber Family, documenting the lives of Robert Lee Humber, Jr. (1898-1970) and his extended family, including the papers of his father, Robert Lee Humber, Sr. (1864-1952), a businessman and inventor and his mother, Lena Clyde Davis Humber (1870-1936) and her family, of Kinston, Greenville and Davis Island, North Carolina; his siblings, John Davis Humber, MD (1895-1991), Leslie Mumford Humber (1907-1925), and Lena Dye Humber Smith (1902-1973); also including his wife, Lucie Julie Jeanne Berthier Humber (1895-1982) and the Berthier family of Villeneuve and Paris, France, and their children and grandchildren, families, educations, careers, activities, and writings; including correspondence, files, ephemera, museum objects, published materials and oversized materials, arranged generally in alphabetical order by the donors.