Manuscript and Archival Collections

Papers of a Mecklenburg County physician. Includes account books, medical journals, correspondence, memorabilia, and writings. Also documents his services as a surgeon in the 37th North Carolina Regiment of the Confederate Army, as well as his general interest in the Civil War.

The collection consists primarily of personal letters written between John A. Alexander and Evelyn G. Galloway while Alexander served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Chiefly correspondence (1860s-1870s) of William Davidson Alexander (1840-1927) of Mecklenburg County; of his wife, Susan Amelia Ramsey Alexander (1843-90); and of her father, James Gettys McGready Ramsey (1797-1884), physician, historian, and entrepreneur of Knoxville.

Material related to American Red Cross drives in Charlotte during World War I. Includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, newsletters, and a letter thanking Robey for her involvement with the Liberty Loan Committee.

Papers of several generations of a family active in the Presbyterian Church.

Items relating to Confederate General and Charlottean Rufus Clay Barringer. Photocopies of newspaper and periodical articles and a copy of Barringer's diary while imprisoned at Fort Delaware in 1865.

Collection consists primarily of letters written by William Wallace Beard, a member of the Mississippi 18th Regiment in the Confederate Army. The letters are written during his time as a soldier in the United States Civil War largely from different sites around Virginia.

Scrapbook, interactive CD and other memorabilia concerning the Berlin Airlift.

Photostatic copy of letter to Dolley Madison praising John Payne Todd, Madison's son by her first marriage, and describing the British Army's advance on New Bern and Washington, N.C., during the War of 1812.

Primarily photocopies of articles published in the Mecklenburg Gazette, Mooresville Tribune, and Lake Norman Magazine about the history of North Mecklenburg and the Lake Norman area. Includes a nine-part article based on the Civil War letters of Joseph and Margaret Brawley Lipe of Iredell County.

Papers of a Spartanburg, South Carolina native relating primarily to his service in the 117th Engineer Regiment, 42nd Division, American Expeditionary Force during World War I.

The collection two real estate plat surveys for property in Henry County, Georgia (dated 1821) and a Confederate war bond (dated 1863).

Clippings from newspapers in Louisville, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, primarily concerning the Civil War and its aftermath.

Collection of Civil War documents relating to the daily operations of the Union Army at their camp at Port Royal, S.C.

Papers of a Charlotte business executive, bibliophile, and benefactor of art museums and libraries in North Carolina. Includes personal and business correspondence, biographical and genealogical materials, subject files, diaries, manuscripts and ephemera, personal and family papers, publications, newspaper clippings, and photographs

The collection contains a small assortment of papers from Elizabeth Gloser DeSantis, who attended nursing school at Michael Reese Hospital in Gary, Indiana in 1938 and 1939, and later enlisted to serve in the 38th Evacuation Unit in 1942. With the 38th Evac, she served in Tunisia and Italy, recording a diary throughout her service. The collection consists of the original diary, a typed transcript of the diary, a photographic scrapbook, some loose photographs and a few other papers.

The collection consists of two circuit photographs of Camp Greene's Base Hospital, in 1917; photographed by THE MOONS Commercial and Home Photographers, of Charlotte, NC.

Primarily photocopies and transcripts of the antebellum and Civil War papers of William Leonidas Faulkner, who served in Company I, 17th South Carolina Volunteers and died in a Union prison camp.

This collection of two items (a diary recorded in 1864 and 1865, and a New Testament) were the property of James H. Evans, of Company F, 7th Wisconsin Volunteers. Evans was taken prisoner and incarcerated at the POW Camp in Salisbury, NC.

Thirty-page typescript transcription of the Civil War memoirs of Nicholas Biddle Gibbon, written between 1861 and 1866, and describing his service in North Carolina and Virginia as a drill master and commissary in the 1st and 28th North Carolina Regiments.

This collection contains correspondence and ephemera from Goforth's life during the Second World War (1943-1945), with a few items from the late 1940s.

Three drafts of a love letter to Goodwin from David R. Autry, a Confederate soldier stationed at Camp Holmes in Raleigh; two poems, presumably by Goodwin; photographs; and genealogical/biographical information.

Papers of a prominent Charlotte family, primarily consisting of photographs and records regarding the commemoration of a bust donated to the U.S. Naval Academy museum in honor of Admiral Halsey.

Collection contains the papers of Leon K. Gutmann, an entrepreneur in Charlotte, North Carolina, who dealt in art and antiques from 1946 to about 1975. This collection contains papers concerning his role in World War II, his art and antique business, gardening, European travels, and his participation in community performing arts.

The collection contains letters to Arthur Grady Hemby Jr. and Samuel Robert Hemby during the times that they served in the Navy. The dates of the letters range from October 19, 1940 to November 23, 1952.

The Irwin Family Papers is a small manuscript collection, consisting mostly of letters, bills of sale (including bills of sale for slaves), real estate deeds and genealogical notes of a family of Charlotte, North Carolina, primarily during the nineteenth century.

Jackson's six page, handwritten essay is a commentary on the visit of President Theodore Roosevelt to Charlotte on October 19, 1905.

Letters from soldiers to Bleeka Ritch during World War I and letters to Helen Johnston from soldiers during World War II. Includes financial accounts, deeds, and a piece of canvas from a WW I German airplane.

A parole, signed by John Kimbrough and witnessed by O. H. Williams, swearing Kimbrough’s pledge to no longer take up arms on behalf of the King of England, against the United States, dated April 11, 1781.

The Knox family papers is a small collection generated by the Knox and related families (including the Dunlap, Lowrie, and Porter families) documenting much of their daily activities, mostly from the mid nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Includes the ownership of slaves and events during the Civil War.

Collection consists primarily of letters written to his family in Charlotte by Clarence O. Kuester, Jr., a member of the US Army 38th Evacuation Hospital Unit while stationed in North Africa and Italy.

The collection contains four items: a letter (and a handwritten copy), dated April 24, 1885; An Extract From General A. P. Hill’s Report of the Battle of Gettysburg; and a handwritten item entitled “Our Confederate Dead / Mecklenburg County, NC. / Roll of Honor,” collected by General James H. Lane.

Bulk of the collection concerns local history, such as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the Museum of the New South.

Collection of 96 letters written by Private Joseph B. Mathews of the base hospital at Camp Greene to his girlfriend, Eva La Flamme in Massachusetts.

This collection contains papers and photographs generated by the McCoy and related families in Mecklenburg County, NC from 1796 to 2001. Includes The letters, papers and photographs that the McCoys generated and accumulated during WWI.

The collection consists of materials associated with the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

Papers related to Mitchell's service in the U.S. Air Force Reserve with the 323rd Troop Carrier Squadron (Reserve) at Morris Field, Charlotte, North Carolina, and with the 302nd Troop Carrier Wing (Reserve) at Marietta Army Air Field, Marietta, Georgia, from 1947 to 1949.

Collection is a small assortment of materials generated by the officers of the 11th North Carolina Infantry Regiment (also known as the 11th North Carolina Troops) between 1862 and 1863. These papers illustrate routine activities involved in commanding a Confederate regiment.

Diary of a Charlotte native documenting his participation in the Bataan Death March and his confinement in POW camps in the Philippines and Japan during WWII.

Material related to American Red Cross drives in Charlotte during World War I, including aid to the Belgians.

Photographs of an unidentified Confederate soldier (ca. 1861-1865) and child laborers in a North Carolina cotton mill (ca. 1910).

Bound volume of typescripts of 112 letters written to his parents in Salem, N.C., while a student at Nazareth Hall, a Moravian boarding school in Pennsylvania (1858-60); a Confederate Army soldier in eastern North Carolina and Virginia (1863-65); a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania (1865-67); and a student and traveler in Europe (1867-69).

Collection is a small assortment of papers and scrapbooks produced by Winifred Barbour Simpson, from 1931 to 1984. The most notable items in the collection are her scrapbooks (which mostly concern her attendance of Charlotte Technical High School) and the papers that she and her (future) husband produced during WWII.

Two-sided, State of North Carolina Soldier's Application for pension, act of March 8, 1921.

Three-page letter (12-15-1864) from Andrew Baxter Springs to Confederate Congressman F. B. Sexton. In the letter, Springs expresses his optimism about the Civil War, with specific references about Union general William T. Sherman and Confederate commander Robert E. Lee.

Two letters written by Private Samuel J. Stuart (also spelled “Stewart”) to his sister (otherwise unidentified), dated May 25, 1862, and April 20, 1863, concerning camp life with Company C of the 37th NC Infantry Regiment.

Thompson was a decorated pilot in WWII, shot down and buried in Europe. His wife, Mary Neal Overcash, later married again to Joseph R. Sparling, Jr. This small collection includes correspondence, financial papers, biographical material about Thompson, rationing supplies, and papers about the Overcash family.

Papers of Hugh Torrance and his descendants, including, his son, James Galbraith Torrance, and his grandson Richard Allison Torrance. Includes account books, Revolutionary War service records, family correspondence, land and estate records, information on slaves, and contracts with overseers.

Records of a medical unit, formed in 1940 by doctors at Charlotte Memorial Hospital (now Carolinas Medical Center) to support front line aid stations during World War II in North Africa and Italy. Contains official reports, a unit history, photographs, correspondence, and maps of encampments.

Photographs taken by an unidentified member of one of three companies of troops organized in Charlotte for service in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Papers of Kenneth Wilson Whitsett, a Charlotte historian, artist, and co-founder of Pictorial Engraving Co. Also includes World War I correspondence of Whitsett and his brother.

Papers, scrapbook, photo album, photograph and moving images (transferred onto DVD) from Col. Raymond W. Whittier, of the 38th Evacuation Unit, from 1942 to 1946.