HIST 2297: History of North Carolina, 1500-Present

Papers of a family that settled in Charlotte in the 1850s. Contains extensive records involving the purchase and operations of gold mines, mills, and other businesses owned by the family and by their Renwick and Smedberg relations in North Carolina and South Carolina beginning in the 1820s. Also contains papers of Admiral Charles Wilkes (1798-1877), and of his son, John Wilkes (1827-1908). This series contains various subject files including correspondence, journals, legal documents, reports, scrapbooks, and slave records.

Papers of a Charlotte dentist, minister, and civil rights activist, who was the first African-American to run for governor of North Carolina. Consists chiefly of clippings and correspondence documenting his involvement in the desegregation of schools, public accommodations, hospitals, the North Carolina Dental Society, and the Shrine Bowl. Also includes information on voter registration projects, gubernatorial campaign files (1968 and 1972), material concerning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a dissertation about Hawkins by Dr. Gregory Davis.

Papers documenting Alexander's service with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, including the Charlotte branch, his presidency of the North Carolina State Conference of Branches, and his membership on and chairing of the national board of directors. Includes minutes, correspondence, reports, speeches, programs, news releases, membership records, documentation on NAACP-initiated court cases, and material on voter education projects. Also includes material on the 1965 bombing of his home, the Charlotte Area Fund, health care, school desegregation, and housing.

Papers of Hugh Torance (1743-1816) and his descendants, including especially his son, James Galbraith Torrance (sic) (1784-1847), and his grandson Richard Allison Torrance (1833-1927), concerning their extensive mercantile, planting, and milling operations at Cedar Grove plantation in northern Mecklenburg County. Includes account books, Revolutionary War service records, family correspondence, land and estate records, information on slaves, contracts with overseers, and two acrostics by George Moses Horton ("the slave poet of Chapel Hill").

Papers of the Rev. Samuel Caldwell Pharr (1825-84) and of his descendants, particularly his son, Walter Springs Pharr (1856-1932), and his daughter-in-law, Mary Jane (Jennie) Estelle Walker Pharr (1858-1914). Includes 19th and early 20th century deeds and contracts for land in Mecklenburg County; the Rev. Pharr's lecture notes (1842) from Joseph Henry's class in natural philosophy at Princeton University; papers (1847-1914) of Jennie Walker Pharr, including letters (1854-59) by her father, the Rev. James McCullough Walker, minister at Sardis Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and by her brother, Edgar Harris Walker, while a student at Davidson and Erskine colleges (1869-71); papers of Mary Estelle Pharr (1894-1982), containing correspondence, legal records, and genealogical information; contracts for the sale of family land to George Stephens for the development of Myers Park; and photographs. Also includes material on the related Alexander, Dinkins, Harris, Hunter, Springs, and White families.

Papers of the first woman to practice medicine in the South. Includes letters she wrote to her father, Dr. John Brevard Alexander, while a student and intern at the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia (1884-85); patient records; financial accounts; essays on medical topics; and newspaper clippings.

Frank McNinch was the mayor of Charlotte, NC from 1912 to 1917, and later was appointed to serve on the Federal Communications Commission in 1930, becoming its Chairman in 1933. In 1937, President Roosevelt appointed McNinch to be the Chairman of the Federal Power Commission. The collection contains mostly the papers he generated while working for these two federal commissions.