Search Collection Guides

Collection consists of a two volumes titled "Journal of a Cruise from Norfolk, Virginia to the Pacific Ocean in the United States Frigate United States, Isaac Hull, Esq'r, Commander" kept by Philadelphian midshipman Lawrence Penington from 4 December 1823, through 22 April 1827. United States was one of six frigates authorized to be constructed by the Naval Act of 1794 and it served as the flagship for Commodore Hull who was head of the American naval squadron on the Pacific Coast of South America. Penington documents navigation statistics, weather reports and daily ship life, along with the larger issues of interaction between the American naval squadron and British, Spanish, Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian naval and military counterparts.

Diaries, journals and letters (1897-1906, 1986-1988) of Mormon missionaries in Eastern North Carolina (1897-1906), including William A. Adams, 1900-1902, James Godfrey, 1899-1901, William M. Hansen, 1897-1898, William R. Hobbs, 1901-1903, Lewis Johnson, 1903-1905, William A. Petty, 1905-1906, and James Taylor, 1900-1902, along with Memoirs, Notes, clippings, anecdotes and other materials compiled by Joel Grant Handcock, for use in the book Strengthened by the Storm.

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

Records (1892-1903, undated) including correspondence, accounts, expense lists, repairing the engines, and miscellaneous.

Records (1903-1998, undated [Bulk: 1987-1998) of the Robeson House Preservation Association, reflecting their to preserve the historic Robeson – Whichard - Taylor house in Pitt County, North Carolina, including correspondence, reports, photographs, drawings, grant applications, etc.

Collection contains Greenville and Pitt County, North Carolina, related photographs and ephemera (1917-2007) concerning the Pickwick Book Club, Girl Scouts, Greenville High School, and the Greenville Rotary Club, as well as documents commending the 7th Division American Expeditionary Force for their service in World War I. A large portion of the collection relates to the genealogy of the Goree, Kittrell, Hardee/Hardy, Tull, Proctor, and Hinton families, especially in Eastern North Carolina.

Diary and military records of Carter Berkeley Simpson (1915-1944). Includes a typescript of a diary and a facsimile of the diary. The facsimile includes photographs, military records, receipts of letters, correspondence, and a description of daily routine activities during Simpson's service and as a prisoner of war.

Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867 near Millville, Indiana and his brother Orville was born in 1871. The boys owned a bicycle shop before using their experience, tools, and equipment to experiment with flight. The collection is circa 1920 and includes a pamphlet titled Essais de Wilbur Wright, Le Mans - 1908: La Conquete de l'Air / Wilbur Wright's Trial: The Conquest of the Air. The strength of this collection is the introduction and postcards detailing Wilbur Wright and his 1908 experimental and demonstration flights in Le Mans, France.

John L. Wooten's daily physician log from 1962.

Papers of Theodore Weiss (1971, undated) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Reading, Pennsylvania-born American poet, educator, and editor, who was one of the founders of the Quarterly Review of Literature, in 1943; consisting of an advance reader's copy of Breath of Clowns and Kings: Shakespeare's Early Comedies and Histories (1971), a collection of literary essays, by Weiss; also including an envelope containing a collection of 25 bookmarks distributed by the New York Quarterly (undated) with a quote from poet John Keats' letter to J. H. [John Hamilton] Reynolds (1794-1852), dated 17 April 1817, each bookmark was autographed by a leading contemporary poet, writer, or other literary figure.

Collection (25 November – 21 December 1862) including holograph letters written by 1st Lt. Frank W. Adams, Company B, 51st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, to his sister Elizabeth in Massachusetts, describing in great detail on the regiment's departure from the Boston Harbor aboard the Steamer Merrimac, voyage to North Carolina, their arrival in Newbern [New Bern], N.C. their encounter with the 43rd Massachusetts and their participation in the Battles of Kinston and Whitehall (present day White Hall), North Carolina as part of General John G. Foster's Goldsborough [Goldsboro] Expedition; also transcript of the holograph letters and one additional letter; also folios that formerly contained the letters and transcripts. Note: the letter dated 10-21 December 1862 also contains an envelope containing remnants of the ribbons once used to bind the letters; the folder that held the transcripts is stamped inside the font cover: "Robert W. Adams Oct. 1, 1947".

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.

Diary (1 January - 25 March 1865) of a sergeant in Company C, 110th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 6th Corps during the Petersburg - Appomattox, VA campaign.

Papers (1918-2005) relating to Greenville and Enfield, North Carolina boy scout leader including his World War I Diary recounting his service in the 14th Company, 4th Training Battalion, Depot Brigade and the 218th Ambulance Company in the American Expeditionary Force in France, 1918-1919, camp schedule, list of letters received and answered, addresses of French women, debts, English - French phrase, movements, places visited, and observations on daily military activities; memorials after his death; biographical sketches and clippings; letters and clippings describing him; and photographic prints of him in his World War I uniform. In English and French language.

Papers (1832, 1883-1921) including letters, marriage and death records, school census.