Search Collection Guides

Papers (1830 – 2010, undated) [Bulk: 1940-1970] documenting the life of Robert Lee Humber, Jr., who was born 30 May 1898 – and died 10 November 1970, in Greenville, North Carolina; after attending local schools he earned a BA from Wake Forest College, 1921; he then attended Oxford University in the United Kingdom as a Rhodes Scholar, 1921-1923; he then earned a MA from Harvard University in 1936; he moved to Paris, France, in 1926, where he married and served as an American Field Service fellow, 1926-1928, and subsequently earned a fortune as an international lawyer, art dealer, and businessman, 1930-1940, until the Fall of France, in 1940, when he, his wife, and their two sons, John and Marcel, fled the German invasion - his infant daughter Eileen died during their escape - and he returned to North Carolina, where he purchased a farm on Davis Island, established a legal career, and devoted himself to public service and to a wide range of philanthropic causes, as an educator, civic, cultural, political and religious leader; beginning in 1940, he became well-known nationally and internationally for establishing and leading the World Federation movement as a way to promote lasting world peace through international law; statewide for persuading the General Assembly and the Kress Foundation of New York to fund and establish the North Carolina Museum which opened in 1956; also as an art collector and patron of local and regional volunteer organizations; as a Democratic state senator from Pitt County, 1958-1964; as an educator who led the effort to create Pitt Technical Institute (later Pitt Community College); as a leader in the Southern Baptist denomination becoming a member of the Board of Trustees of Wake Forest College and other Baptist institutions; and as an attorney and business leader and developer; additionally, the collection includes historical files documenting the history of the World Federation in the United States, compiled by his son, John Leslie Humber.

Papers (1822-1924) including correspondence, land records, legal papers, financial accounts, receipts and a photograph.

Ledger belonging to Dr. George Kirkman and Dr. Daniel Brower.

Papers (1830-2011, undated [bulk 1830-1973]) relating to the Young – Spicer family of Fredericks Hall, Louisa County, Virginia and related families living in Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana, including correspondence relating to the civil war, businesses, taxes & family matters; journals, photographic prints; genealogical and historical files and a listing of the gravestones in the Young-Spicer Cemetery at the family home, "Locust Grove" at Fredericks Hall, Virginia. Photocopies and original documents.

Interview with Roy H. Lake (1923-2018), a member of the U.S. Navy B-1 Band, the first all-African American Band in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Verso of the audiotape includes the U.S. Navy B-1 Band Reunion Memorial Service at the Baptrist Student Union of East Carolina University on 10/19/2003. Received 11/10/2003.

This collection consists of the family records, photographs, and genealogy records collected by Sarah Westray Bunn of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. She was an East Carolina Teachers' College 1936 graduate and served in the Army Nurse Corps from 1941 to 1966. Included are genealogy notes concerning the Lewis, Suggs, Speight, Powell, Harrison, and Exum families of Eastern N.C.; late 19th century and 20th Century photographs; correspondence (1905-1998); an 1847 book of children's poetry; clippings; genealogy charts; and a tombstone rubbing.

This genealogy collection includes photocopied details on over 50 families in or around Beaufort County, North Carolina, including, but not limited to, family crests, biographies, Official First Families of North Carolina memberships and applications for membership (OFFNC), wills, land deeds, cemetery location information, family newsletters, pedigree charts, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses/deeds, census data, descendant lists, and photographs. Much information can be found for the Blount, Bowen, Bryan, Clark, Godley, Hunter, Little, and Galloway family lines. Extensive information can be found for the Hardy/Hardee and Ross family lines.

This collection contains materials (1940s-2013) related to the interests and activities of Holley Mack Bell II and Clara Bond Bell of Windsor and Eden House in Bertie County, N.C. Mr. Bell served in World War II, worked on several newspapers including the Charlotte News, Bertie Ledger-Advance, and the Greensboro Daily News; and was employed by the U.S. Information Agency as a press attaché at several American embassies in South America. Mrs. Bell worked as a social worker, in Public Welfare, and also with social service organizations while they lived in various South American countries. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bell were active in historic preservation, especially with the Historic Hope Foundation, Friends of Hope Committee, Preservation North Carolina, the Museum of the Albemarle, and the Historic Albemarle Tour (HAT), and were active in the Episcopal Church. Included are Bertie Ledger-Advance newspapers, correspondence, publications, photographs, clippings, pamphlets, notes, and brochures.

This collection contains material (1831, ca. 1910-2010) related to the Edgerton, Cox, and Pearson families who were Quaker families in the Nahunta Community in Wayne County, N.C.; Dow and Brownell families of Clovis, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; Civilian Public Service work during World War II; and the Massey family of Dudley, Wayne County, N.C., including correspondence, photographs, land deeds and publications.

This collection consists of the records of the Long Leaf Opera Company which was founded in 1998 in Durham, N.C., by artistic director and playwright Dr. Wallace Randolph Umberger, Jr., and musical director and composer Mr. Benjamin Franklin Keaton and disbanded in 2012 due to the death of Dr. Umberger. Included are librettos and musical scores, scrapbooks, CDs, DVDs of performances, programs, photographs, promotional material, financial records, correspondence and clippings. A large portion (ca. 1950s-1997) of this collection also documents the pre-Long Leaf Opera Company careers of Umberger and Keaton. Included are manuscripts for plays, novels, musical comedies, and poetry written by Umberger, musical scores for an opera and muscial comedies written by Keaton, programs for productions they participated in, publications, photographs, and correspondence (some is from Paul Green).

The Phoenix Historical Society: African American History of Edgecombe County was founded in 2001 to recover, record, and promote the unique history of Edgecombe County (North Carolina) as experienced by members of its African American community. This collection contains the society's official records, brochures, event programs, and publications related to research, community events and sponsored projects.

Records (1958-1997) for the Greenville [North Carolina] Garden Club include scrapbooks, meeting minutes, yearbooks, correspondence, newsletters, clippings, photographs, and award application packets.

Deep Confessions, (1998) a personal memoir by Anne G. Lee, reflecting twentieth century family life in eastern North Carolina, ca. 1910-1998. (ca. 1998 Anne G. Lee)

Oral history interview with John Gilmer (1925-2014) where he discusses his recollections from the time period 1942-1945 while serving in the United States Navy B-1 Band. See also U.S. Navy B-1 Band Group Interviews OH #213.1-213.4; Interview with Simeon O. Holloway, OH #215; and Interview with Abe Thurman OH #216.

Papers of Randall Jarrell (1913–1992 [Bulk: 1939-1966], undated) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Nashville, Tennessee-born American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, novelist, and educator; including his childhood and education in Nashville, his education at Vanderbilt University, where he studied under Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, and John Crowe Ransom; his career of teaching English Literature at Kenyon College, University of Texas at Austin, Sarah Lawrence College, and the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina; his service, during World War II, in the U. S. Army Air Corps; his numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, in 1947-1948, a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1951, the National Book Award in 1961, and as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1956-1958; including correspondence, literary essays, lists and notes, original art, photographic prints and negatives, manuscript and printed poems, manuscript volumes, oversized materials, audio materials, and loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection.