Collection (1852-2014) includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed materials, and other items compiled by retired East Carolina University English professor emeritus Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives (1930-2016) relating primarily to the Hardee - Rives and related families of North Carolina and the United Kingdom, the history of Eastern North Carolina (especially Halifax County and the town of Enfield), the United Methodist Church in Eastern North Carolina, state and local and national politics, and his charitable and philanthropic interests. The earliest original documents cover the period from 1852 through the Civil War and World War I.
Mrs. Booth (1916-2004), the owner of the Booth Guest House in Manteo, N.C., discusses her childhood memories, family life and history on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and in Norfolk, Virginia. She also talks about her father, Alpheus W. Drinkwater, the telegrapher who relayed the news of the successful first airplane flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903.