Search Collection Guides

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.

Collection (1899-2010, undated) of manuscripts, clippings and printed materials, etc. relating to Mamie Ella Pittman Hardee, 1880-1962, who taught in the Enfield and Whitakers, N.C., public schools, 1901-1925, and to the Hardee, Pittman and related families of Enfield, Halifax County, North Carolina.

Papers (1952-1986 [Bulk: 1984-1986], undated) documenting the life and literary career of Eleanor Clark (1913-1996), the noted Los Angeles, California-born American travel writer and novelist, who was married to the iconic poet, historian, and literary critic, Robert Penn Warren (#1169-014), and who was mother of poet and scholar, Rosanna Phelps Warren (#1169-079) and of sculptor Gabriel Warren; consisting of manuscripts, proofs, oversized materials, and loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection and relating mainly to her travel book Tamrart: 13 Days in the Sahara (1984); her novel Camping Out (1986), her short story The Fortress and Raggedy Ann (1982); and her travel book Rome and a Villa (1952).

Papers of Wright Morris (1950-1985, undated) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Central City, Nebraska-born American novelist, photographer, and essayist, including his correspondence with William Cole, who edited his novel Man and Boy; also uncorrected proofs of the third installment of his autobiography, A Cloak of Light: Writing My Life, photographic prints, printed materials, and loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection.

This collection contains the records (1873-2010) of the fraternal secret society Knights of Pythias Grand Lodge, Domain of North Carolina. Records include biennial and annual reports of local lodges, the Records of Proceedings for the annual sessions of the Grand Lodge, financial records, minute book, constitutions and bylaws, publications and items such as the 1909 Pythian Service Book.

Oral history interview with William B. Martin, Professor Emeritus from the College of Education at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, relating to his experiences (1941-1945) in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including his participation in the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944.

This collection includes a copy of a typescript of the autobiographical sketch written in 1893 by Eastern North Carolina physician and educator Richard Henry Lewis, Sr. (1832-1917). It refers to important family history in his background and describes important events in his life up until 1893.

Papers of Lincoln Fitzell (1958) documenting the life and literary career of noted the San Francisco, California-born poet, who also worked as a longshoreman; consisting of manuscript typescripts of his literary essays, short stories, poems, and a novel The Sword and the Dragon (1958).

Oral interview (1987) conducted by Radm Frank J. Allston with VADM Kenneth R. Wheeler.

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

Collection (1844-1972) of material related to Craven Co., N.C., or to maritime topics. Cemetery records for Craven Co., N.C., list 800 tombstones and include some hand-drawn maps and local historical notes. Records of the New Bern Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, New Bern, N.C., include a minute book (1954-1966), membership roll calls, correspondence, clippings, notes, reports, resolutions, and other materials. Postcards, stereographs, and sheet music concern naval and maritime themes and include World War I patriotic sheet music. Scrapbook (1919-1922) contains clippings on the construction of concrete ships at the Newport Shipbuilding Corporation of New Bern, N.C., and on the New Bern Bears baseball team. Other postcards and printed materials concern the North Carolina Outer Banks ferries; Bethlehem Steel Corporation; and the U.S. Navy, including the USS Maine, early submarines USS Porpoise and USS Shark, the USS San Francisco, and a compilation of articles written during WWI for the onboard newspaper of the USS George Washington entitled The Hatchet of the United States Ship George Washington by Captain Edwin T. Pollock and Lieutenant Paul F. Bloomhardt.

This collection contains correspondence (1841-1937) received by members of the May family of Farmville, Pitt County, N.C., including letters written from Michigan and Tennessee; receipts, promissory notes, and judgments (1813-1910); financial documents (1820s-1920), and account books (1819-1830s). Other material includes grade reports and tuition receipts for Farmville Academy (1899-1900), Farmville Seminary (1887-1888), and Farmville High School (1891, 1900); deeds and other land records (1760-1891), some of which refer to the Flake and Shivers families in Pitt County; a list Black enslaved men, women, and children that includes their birthdates (1830s-1850s) and their mothers' names; catalogs for Trenton High School (1897), St. Mary's School in Raleigh (1842), and Trinity School in Chocowinity (1907/1908); and a 1900 reward poster for the man who robbed R. L. Davis & Brothers of Farmville. Miscellaneous publications include among others The Primitive Baptist (1853-1860, 1870-1872), almanacs, telephone directories (1934 Greenville, 1930 Farmville), a 1919 Chicago war camp community service publication, and The Southern Women of the Second American Revolution . . . by H. W. R. [Jackson, 1863].

The majority of the collection relates to Captain Leslie Avery Shaw's military service in the U.S. Army, especially during World War II when he served in the 11th AAA, 49th AAA Brigade, VII Corps, U.S. First Army in Europe. Included are maps and overlays concerning operations at Utah Beach at Normandy, orders, citations, reports, photographs, letters, postcards, military ribbons and insignia, and items from his personal military file. Additional items including many photographs document his personal life after the war. Photographs, printed material and memorabilia from the 1950s and early 1960s relate to the early years of his son Robert Avery Shaw's life in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.