Search Collection Guides

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.

Rep. Howard Chapin Papers (1947-2000) primarily pertaining to his nine terms in the North Carolina General Assembly from Washington, NC, 1974-1992, including personal correspondence, clippings, materials relating to his service on committees, and artifacts he received relating to the bicentennials of Washington, NC and the United States, 1975-76.

A typescript of "Three years, three months and nine days", a memoir of a U.S. Navy enlisted man as a Japanese POW. (undated)

Papers (1941-1945) of U.S. Naval officer, USNA Class of 1941, including an autobiographical account, a letter describing experiences aboard the USS West Virginia during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a letter explaining terms used in letters to avoid censorship, several speeches to civic organizations on his experiences during World War II and his relationsip with Admiral Hyman George Rickover.

Letters and ephemera (1926-1929) related to the life of Agnes Wadlington [Barrett], who was born in Trigg County, Kentucky in 1902, before she took a job at East Carolina Teachers College (now East Carolina University) as secretary to the president of the college. Also found with these papers are many photographs of members of the Putnam family of Murray, Kentucky. The only connection between Mrs. Barrett and the Putnam family appears to be that both she and Louise Vey Putnam Carter's husband Herbert Leland Carter both worked at East Carolina University. An 1982 engagement calendar kept by Mrs. Barrett documents her life during retirement in Greenville, North Carolina.

This pocket diary was kept by Union soldier James F. Shapleigh of 43rd Massachusetts Volunteers, Co. D, from January 1, 1863, through July 20, 1863. He was mustered out at the end of July 1863. During this period the 43rd Massachusetts Volunteers served in North Carolina with the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 18th Army Corps. Camp Rogers in New Bern, was home base. Included in the diary are good details related to the Battle of Washington, North Carolina, that covers March 30 to April 19, 1863, as well as everyday life for soldiers. Later scattered entries in the diary go through January 1864.

Records (2008-2016) document the history of the Perry-Weston Educational and Cultural Institute, Inc., from its founding in 2008 by Mr. C. Rudolph Knight, Dr. Florence A. Armstrong, and Dr. Lawrence W. S. Auld to promote African American history, genealogy, culture, and arts, particularly in Edgecombe County (Princeville and Tarboro) and North Carolina, until its dissolution in 2016. Included are programs, invitations, circulars, posters, correspondence, clippings, and articles of incorporation and dissolution that document exhibits, historic talks and presentations, tours, a Nonagenarian Tea, and publications.

Papers and artifacts, primarily notebooks, account books, journals, instruments, and devices of three generations of Alfred F. Hammond's, all physicians in eastern North Carolina.

This collection contains twenty-four pages of genealogical notes related to Beaufort County, N.C., families including Bonner, Snoad, Smallwood, and Latham written by Lucretia Hughes of Washington, N.C.; and a scrapbook of "About Town" columns (1946-1947) written by Penelope Bogart (Rodman) as a teenager for the Washington Daily News published in Washington, N.C. Also included are two typescripts of interviews done in 1938 with a mill worker at Glen Raven Cotton Mill in Burlington, N.C., and with a woman who ran a lodging house in Raleigh, N.C.; and an undated typescript titled "Description of Mill Village" about life on Factory Hill where many of the Asheville Cotton Mill workers lived. The interview with the woman in Raleigh also includes her experiences during the Civil War in Wake County, N.C. In addition, there is an errata of corrections to Van Camp's Images of America: Washington, North Carolina and a Bible containing family history information.

Papers (1907) including doctor's notes, medical orders, nurse's notes.

Collection (1947-1951, undated) of programs relating to various organizations at Greenville High School, Greenville, NC. Organizations include the glee club, Dramateers and the football team.

Papers, 1937-2001, of U. S. naval officer, including diaries, scrapbooks, orders, photographs, biographical accounts, and other materials, compiled by Commander Charles P. Trumbull (USN ret.), documenting his naval career from his appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, as a member of the Class of 1941 to his retirement from the Navy in 1961, and his post-retirement life, 1937-2001.

The Edward Baxter Billingsley Collection (1817-1819, 1938–1999, undated) consists of historical research materials, drafts, and a typescript copy (643 pages) of One Destroyer and World War II: A History of the U. S. S. Emmons (DD457-DM22), by Edward Baxter Billingsley, that he later published as The Emmons Saga: A History of the U. S. S. Emmons (DD457 – DM22). Also included are photographic prints, photocopied naval documents, and microfilm reels concerning his research, and correspondence (1817-1819) related to his dissertation on Chilean and Peruvian wars of Independence.

Papers of Robert Penn Warren (1885-2008 [Bulk: 1940-1989], undated) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Guthrie, Kentucky-born American poet, novelist, playwright, biographer, and educator, who played a major role in the rise of the Fugitive and Agrarian literary movements and in the spread of the New Criticism during the mid-20th century, and who became the first poet laureate of the United States, including correspondence; manuscripts, photographic prints, proofs of published materials, printed material, loose manuscript items from the Stuart Wright Book Collection, audio recordings and oversized materials, by or about Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, John Ciardi, Annie Dillard, Fred Chappell, Richard Ghormley Eberhart, Robert Frost, George Garrett, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, Bernard Malamud, Albert J. Montesi, John Crowe Ransom, Theodore Roethke, William Carlos Williams, and others; in English, Dutch, and Latin language.