This collection contains material documenting the life of James Long Newsom, Sr., (1914-2007) of Durham, North Carolina. A graduate of Duke University and Duke University Law School and attended Syracuse University Law School, he began practicing law in Durham in 1938. Correspondence (1931-1940) documents his post-high school education and courtship of his future wife Frances Martin whom he met at Syracuse. As a member of the United States Naval Reserve, he fought in the South Pacific for the years 1942-1945 during World War II and this experience is covered with extensive correspondence, photographs, souvenirs, programs and military newspapers. After the war, he returned to his law practice and continued his Naval Reserve career. Also included are diplomas, certificates, family-related photographs (back to the 1910s), clippings, and genealogy.
Papers (1925-1978) consisting of a diary, copy of a manuscript, bulletins, newsletters, photographs, and miscellaneous material.
Papers (1929-1961, 1982) including correspondence, photographs, citations, reports, war diaries for USS Zane and Trever, accounts of battles at Pearl Harbor and Guadalcanal, publications, orders, and personal materials.
Papers (1943–1945) including copies of correspondence, personal notations, orders, addresses, photographs, reminiscences, equipment lists, and reports pertaining to his World War II service with the 14th Malaria Control Unit of the U.S. Army Air Corps in New Guinea and the Philippines, 1943–1945, including references to malaria control, military issues, and incidents involving Japanese, American and Filipino forces.
Papers (1930–1963) including correspondence, military orders, engineering notes, weather, handbooks, diaries, reports, newsletters, programs, photographs, clippings, citations, certificates and miscellany.