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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.

Papers (1890-1977, undated) including clippings, correspondence, speeches, photographs, programs, clipping documents of public life, invitations, scrapbooks, biographical information, letter of recommendations, etc.

Collection (1942 – 2019, undated) of documents, programs, notes, correspondence, interviews, and photographic prints documenting the history and membership of the U. S. Navy B-1 Band, the first All-African American band to serve in the U. S. Navy during World War II. Material includes historical and biographical sketches of the band and ites members, and photographs of the band, rosters, the music and lyrics, interviews, and documentation of race relations in North Carolina, the United States, and the United States military during the 20th century.

Papers of John Crowe Ransom (1904-2000, undated) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Pulaski, Tennessee-born American editor, poet, literary critic, and educator, including correspondence, manuscripts, photographic prints, proofs of published materials, printed material, audio recordings, loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection and oversized materials, by or about W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, T. S. Eliot, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Ghormley Eberhart, Randall Jarrell, Katherine Anne Porter, William Styron, Allen Tate, Peter Hillsman Taylor, and others, in English and French language.

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.

The collection is comprised of papers written by William Jasper and collected over his career, focusing on dental health, along with class notes from the University of Pennsylvania and articles he wrote.

Papers (1943-1958) of a professor of Geography at East Carolina University, including correspondence, military service records, clippings, historical accounts, photographic prints, postcards, scrapbooks, maps, and printed materials especially relating to his World War II service as a Technician Fifth Grade, in Company B, 361st Engineer Special Service Regiment in Arizona, California, France, The Philippines and Japan.

Papers (1942-1963) including correspondence, orders, service file, pamphlets, a poster, 2 sets of song sheets.

This collection includes many letters written during the American Civil War by Dr. Charles James O'Hagan, an Irish immigrant who settled in Pitt County, North Carolina, and served in the North Carolina State Troops as a surgeon, to his daughters; and letters written by Confederate soldiers to his eldest daughter. Also included are letters (1840s) from family in Ireland and testamonials written to help Dr. O'Hagan find employment; letters written in the post-Civil War era 1860s through 1882; and letters, photographs, and obituaries concerning the related Laughinghouse and Grimes families of Pitt County, N.C., in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Papers (1788-1869, 1965) Hoyle J. Windley, of Bath, NC, a teacher, postmaster, and lieutenant in the NC militia, and his children, consisting of correspondence, store accounts, receipts, promissory notes, wills, summonses, bill of sale, special events-major fire, tournaments, coronation Ball, etc.

Papers (1929-1974) of Rear Admiral Wilson Durward Leggett, Jr., U.S. Naval Academy graduate of 1920 and Tarboro, North Carolina, native, including correspondence, photographs and photograph album, newspaper clippings, an order book, newsletters, journals, scrapbook, etc., documenting his Naval career and work with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Science and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.

Papers (1861 - 2025, undated) documenting the archaeological excavations of the Confederate defensive fortifications, river obstructions and fish trap on the River Neuse below Kinston, NC, and the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Neuse, relating to Capt. Joseph H. Price, commander of the CSS Neuse, and relating to Lenoir County, N.C., history in general including correspondence, notes, photographic prints and negatives (black and white), and publications.

Papers (1976-2011) of Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Executive Director of the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund and lobbyist for Conservation Council of North Carolina and the Sierra Club, North Carolina Chapter, including correspondence, newsletters, pamphlets, handbooks, magazines, legislative summaries, memos, reports, newspaper clippings on microfilm and miscellaneous documents relating to environmental issues.

Papers of Stuart Wright (1783-2020, [Bulk: 1945-2014], undated) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Roxboro, North Carolina-born American educator, chiropodist, author, translator, bibliographer, editor, historian, publisher, musician and collector, vendor and donor of literary and musical manuscripts and published materials; consisting of correspondence, holograph and typescript manuscripts of published materials, clippings, loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection; also original art, audio recordings, proofs and advance review copies of published works, photographic materials and oversized materials; including materials in English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.