Search Collection Guides

Collection (1903-2004) of materials relating to Wilbur and Orville Wright and the origin and development of flight in Italy, especially the Wright Brothers activities in Italy (1909-1910), acquired from the Gianni Caproni Museum, at Trento, Italy. Included are photographic and printed materials, stamps, videocassettes, and original art, assembled for a temporary exhibit for the centennial of the first flight at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, 13-17 December 2003.

Collection (12 February 1864) consisting of a letter from Pvt. James Addison Lowrie, Company D of the 57th North Carolina Infantry, at Kinston, NC, to his brother Robert [of Brunswick County, NC], reporting on his good health, the poor mail service, the lack of news, the growing dissatisfaction among "the boys", the recent desertion of 14 men from the 21st Regiment North Carolina Infantry, and the Kinston Hangings, the hanging, on 12 February 1864, of five men who had deserted the Confederate Army and been recaptured: Amos Amyett, Mitchell Busick, Lewis Bryan, William Irving and John Staley; after deserting, the men had joined the 2nd North Carolina Union Volunteers and been captured on 1 February 1864, at Beech Grove; also transcript of letter; also digital copy.

This collection (1823-1999) contains the papers of Robert "Bob" Boyd Robinson III. Robinson, born in 1948 in Halifax County, N.C., was a member of various groups including the Sons of the Revolution in the State of North Carolina. His papers include materials related to various families of Northeastern North Carolina and Southeastern Virginia.

Genealogical materials given by Martha Mewborn Marble including Bible records, photographs, notes, legal documents, land records, and clippings concerning families in Greene, Lenoir, Jones, and Pitt counties, North Carolina. Some of the families included are Mewborn, Kilpatrick, Albritton, Pugh, Cannon, Batchelor, Howell, Ormond, Carr, Hardison, Taylor, Sutton, Jackson, Frye, Ham, Hartsfield, Dupree, Faulkner, Rouse, Phillips, Franklin, Joyner, Bryan, Hatch, Cox, McCoy, and Abbott families. Also included are Le-Nea, the first yearbook (1938) for Contentnea High School, Graingers, Lenoir County, North Carolina, autograph books, and a ledger (1888-1892) of Wilbar General Store, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina. The Kayaitchess (1924) Vol. 1, published by the students of Kinston High School, Kinston, North Carolina, and the Connecting Link Commencement Issue 1926, published every other week by students of Kinston City Schools under the Supervision of Committee of Teachers have been transferred to the North Carolina Collection and have been catalogued.

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].

Papers (1859-1898) of Johnston County family, including correspondence relating to the election of 1860, conditions in Petersburg and Richmond, Va., in December 1862, the Battle of Fredricksburg and the Union raid on Mount Olive, N.C., agricultural conditions in North Carolina and Indiana; a crop lien, etc.

This pocket diary was kept by Union soldier James F. Shapleigh of 43rd Massachusetts Volunteers, Co. D, from January 1, 1863, through July 20, 1863. He was mustered out at the end of July 1863. During this period the 43rd Massachusetts Volunteers served in North Carolina with the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 18th Army Corps. Camp Rogers in New Bern, was home base. Included in the diary are good details related to the Battle of Washington, North Carolina, that covers March 30 to April 19, 1863, as well as everyday life for soldiers. Later scattered entries in the diary go through January 1864.

Holocaust Memories (1/31/1987) by Mrs. Helen Kahan, an Auschwitz Survivor, taped at Seminole Middle School, Seminole, FL, an autobiographical account of the life of a Rumanian Jewish girl, 1936-1945. Notes: 1 audio cassette. 0.5 hr. (Side A only) Gift to ECU by Beth Tanner, March 1987.

Willard and Daisy Rowe Papers (1963-2006) contain newsletters,clippings, publications and a poster documenting the work of the Evangelical Baptist Mission in Franklin County, North Carolina, and in Guatemala.

Collection (2001–2002) of materials concerning the American destroyer USS Emmons (DD-457/DMS-22), which was the last American naval fighting ship to be commissioned prior to U.S. entry in World War II, and which sank on 5 April 1945, after being badly damaged by Japanese kamikaze attacks to the north of Okinawa. Compiled by a veterans' association, the collection includes a membership roster, historical clippings, photocopies of the association's newsletters, videotape cassettes, including 1 documenting the rediscovery of the ship's resting place, on 19 February 2001, and 2 videotapes by Japanese television network, NNN, broadcast on 1 July 2001.

Records 1956-1968) of Greenville, NC garden club, including 3 volumes of scrapbook materials (loose-leaf), 1956-68; 1 volume of yearbook materials (loose-leaf), including constitution, officers, calendar of events, membership, committee, projects, 1962-68; 1 volume of text (mss typescript) and color photographs entitled "Ward 3) Description of Beautification Project," [1960-65]; and 1 volume of records (loose-leaf), including membership, minutes of meetings (1956-68), executive board membership and executive board minutes of meetings (1956-66).

The U. S. Navy B-1 Band was the first all-African American band in the U. S. Navy during World War II. See also U.S. Navy B-1 Band Group Interviews OH #213.1-213.4; Interview with John Gilmer, OH #214; and Interview with Simeon O. Holloway, OH #215.

Papers (1969-1984) including 4 research papers, 1 master's thesis, statistics on ratios of blacks and whites, etc.

Cyrus A. Powers letter on Pamlico operations; digital reproduction of letters; transcriptions of letters, 2/1 and 3/28/1862.

Papers (1831-1946) including correspondence, legal and financial papers, newspapers, articles on local business, hotels, banks, and miscellaneous.