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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.

Correspondence, contracts, ship plan drawings, manuals, photographs, brochures, and other files pertaining to the construction, repair, and marketing of vessels, both military and civilian.

Papers (ca. 1867-2007, undated) including photographic negatives, prints, slides and manuscript materials; also video cassettes and moving picture film reels produced during his career as a professional photographer for the Greenville Daily Reflector newspaper, 1952-1972; as bureau chief for the Raleigh News and Observer in Eastern North Carolina; and as news director for television stations WITN-TV, WNCT-TV, 1972-1997; also including personal materials relating to his family and to William W. Speight.

Papers (1830-2014, undated) [Bulk: 1895-1970] of the Humber Family, documenting the lives of Robert Lee Humber, Jr. (1898-1970) and his extended family, including the papers of his father, Robert Lee Humber, Sr. (1864-1952), a businessman and inventor and his mother, Lena Clyde Davis Humber (1870-1936) and her family, of Kinston, Greenville and Davis Island, North Carolina; his siblings, John Davis Humber, MD (1895-1991), Leslie Mumford Humber (1907-1925), and Lena Dye Humber Smith (1902-1973); also including his wife, Lucie Julie Jeanne Berthier Humber (1895-1982) and the Berthier family of Villeneuve and Paris, France, and their children and grandchildren, families, educations, careers, activities, and writings; including correspondence, files, ephemera, museum objects, published materials and oversized materials, arranged generally in alphabetical order by the donors.

Papers (1908 – 1986, undated [bulk: 1964 – 1986]) of John Porter East, including biographical, genealogical, and historical materials relating to his life (b. 5 May 1931 – 29 June 1986) ; his marriage to Priscilla Sherk East and their children; his service as an officer in the U. S. Marine Corps; his battle against poliomyelitis and the paralysis it caused; his graduate studies in political science and as a professor of Political Science at East Carolina University, 1964 – 1980, including his teaching files for each of his classes, his academic and professional publications, speeches, interviews; and also his conservative Republican political beliefs and affiliations and political career, including his several unsuccessful attempts to win political office in North Carolina, 1966 – 1976, culminating in his successful campaign for and election to the United States Senate in 1980; but the bulk of the collection focuses on his service in the Senate, where he was aligned with Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and a member of Helms' political organization, the Congressional Club; including his mailing lists, correspondence and constituent cases and projects files; his office and staff files, including files of this administrative assistants, press secretaries and legislative assistants; his political patronage and nomination files, committee and legislative activities; his voting records, newsletters, voluminous clipping files, press and public relations files, including publications, audio and video of interviews, speeches, and political events; his frequent bouts of ill health due to poliomyelitis, hyperthyroidism, urinary tract blockages, and depression, and their side effects which may have contributed to his death by suicide; also including photographic prints and negatives, microfilm of committee records, correspondence, case and general files, voter registration files; and also oversized materials, 1981 – 1986, undated.