Search Collection Guides

Papers (ca. 1793-2002, undated) of the history of the Grady family, of Duplin County, North Carolina including correspondence, legal papers, financial documents, clippings, and photographs relating to various members of the Grady family; also including biographical information on John Grady, who fought in the American Revolution and who is known as the first North Carolinian to die in the war; Benjamin Franklin Grady who fought in the Civil War for the Confederate States of America, and who served in Congress from 1890-1894; and John K. Grady who fought in World War I.

Papers (undated, 1935-2000) of New Bern, NC public figure, Mutual Life Insurance Company executive, including speeches, radio talks, biographical and historical information.

This collection (1880s-1980s) concerns the Holt family of Smithfield in Johnston County, North Carolina, and the Henderson family in Conecuh County, Alabama, and the Wilson family of Harrison and Detroit, Michigan who are related through marriage. The Holt family material mainly concerns William and Nancy Holt and their children and includes correspondence, diaries, school records, 16 mm films, photographs, and documents such as oil and gas leases in Texas related to William's work with The Texas Company (part of Texaco). The larger portion of the material is related to the other two families and includes correspondence, photographs (tintypes through color snapshots), ledger books and deeds (many related to timber purchases in Alabama and Michigan), and undated plat books for Michigan.

Collection (1942-2005) of materials belonging to Wray Raphael Herring, a member of the U.S. Navy B-1 Band which was the first all-African American Navy Band during World War II. Included are programs, clippings, sound recordings, yearbooks, concert programs, poems, and sheet music.

Papers (1938-1994) of Captain James P. Lynch (USN ret.) a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1941, including correspondence, programs and leaflets (1938-67); clippings (1944-94); printed forms (1940-75); and photographic prints (1943-68).

The Louis Orr Collection contains a set of forty-eight prints of the original fifty-one print set (and one replacement print) made from etchings of North Carolina historical landmarks and architectural sites. The etchings were created from 1939 to 1952 by artist Louis Orr, a world-renown etcher, at the behest of North Carolina resident Robert Lee Humber who wanted to preserve North Carolina's heritage by providing the artwork to schools, colleges, public libraries and institutions throughout the state.

Papers (1941-1965) including photographs, clippings, certificates, memos, orders of U.S. Naval officer, USNA Class of 1941, official winners, luncheons, ceremonies, parties, interpreter and translator.

Papers of Kelly Cherry (1972-1999 [Bulk: 1995-1999]) documenting the life and literary career of the prolific Baton Rouge, Louisiana-born American novelist, poet, essayist, educator at University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Virginia among other universities, and poet laureate of Virginia 2010-2012; consisting of typescripts of Paula: An Odyssey: A Novel, Parts 1 – 4) (1995-1999), an unpublished volume; a broadside of her poem Loneliness: Words for a Secular Canticle (1980); also including loose manuscript items transferred from Kelly Cherry's works in the Stuart Wright Book Collection Augusta Played: A Novel (1978-1979), Conversion (1980), and Sick and Full of Burning: A Novel (1972-1989).

Photograph album documenting the travels (1951) of the USS Seiverling through stops in Pearl Harbor, Midway, Japan, and probably Hong Kong, participation in the Taiwan Strait Patrol, and bombardments near Songjin, North Korea. Photographs depict not only the activities of the sailors, but also activities of the local people. Also included are photographs of other U.S. Navy ships, and small boats carrying surrendering North Koreans.

In 1972, Evelyn McNeill was offered a position as an assistant professor of anatomy at East Carolina University School of Medicine (renamed Brody School of Medicine in 1999). She was hired to teach neuroanatomy to medical students as well as physical and occupational therapy students. During her career at the medical school (1972-2001), Evelyn opened her home to students. She began traditions of hosting an end-of-first-year party and another for Halloween. Included in this collection are personal photographs from these parties, historical photographs of the growth and development of the school of medicine, newspaper clippings of medical student announcements, and medical school class photos and rosters during the period of 1972 to 2004.

Papers (1780-1969; bulk 1808-1924) including correspondence, land records, legal papers, financial papers, ledgers, etc., of two prominent Eastern North Carolina families--Grimes and Bryan--related through marriage. Other material concerns the Wharton and Conrad families of Clemmonsville, North Carolina, in Davidson County, who are also related by marriage to the Grimes family.

Papers of Lewis W. Green (1945-1984 [Bulk: 1984]) documenting the life and literary career of the Haywood County, North Carolina-born, journalist at the Asheville, novelist, newspaper publisher, and educator; consisting of manuscript materials relating to his novel The Silence of the Snakes (1984) which, like many of Green's stories concerned mountain people and was set in the 1930s; a biographical sketch of Green; and sheet music for the song David (Frances Frost) (1945).

The Watson and Boomer families of Beaufort and Hyde Counties, North Carolina, were connected through marriage. Included are original deeds from the early and mid-1800s; birth, death, and marriage dates and genealogy notes; baby book-type notes about the lives of 2 children (1885-1888) of William I. Watson (his mother was a Boomer) and wife "Ms. Charlie" Sidney Archbell Watson; World War I letters (1917-1918) written by William E. Watson to relatives in Aurora (Beaufort County), North Carolina, from Camp Sevier and Fort Jackson in South Carolina; and photographs (late 1800s-early 1900s).

Papers (1896-1978) including correspondence, minutes, reports, records, maps, charts, newspaper clippings, trustee and law files, pamphlets, and miscellaneous.