World War I and Camp Greene

Mecklenburg county native Annie Alexander was the first woman to practice medicine in the South in 1887. During World War I, Alexander became a first lieutenant in the army and worked in North Carolina with the U.S. Health Service, serving as acting assistant surgeon at Camp Greene in Charlotte.

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

Three-term Charlotte Mayor Ben Elbert Douglas, Sr. was born in Iredell County, N.C., on September 2, 1894. During the World War I, he served to the rank of first lieutenant in a machine gun battalion (1917-19).

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.

Primarily minute books from 1890 to the consolidation of the city and county school systems in 1960.

Material and family papers collected by Judge Francis Osborne Clarkson. This collection contains family papers and material about Charlotte, as well as 9 bound volumes containing 94 pamphlets about history and politics of Charlotte and North Carolina, patriotic societies, World War I and its aftermath.

Erastus C. McAlpine (1849-1921) lived in the Charlotte area and worked in the Louise Textile Mill, and recorded a diary during the latter part of his life, from 1915 to 1921. For the most part, he recorded the weather on a daily basis, routine activities of his family and friends, as well as more noteworthy activities in his community. Such news included the deaths of friends and neighbors, as well as more prominent people that he did not know personally (such as Mrs. Stonewall Jackson, who died on March 24, 1915).

This collection documents H. H. Baxter's civic and community activities primarily from the 1940s through the 1960s and include some personal memorabilia including correspondence from his service in the U.S. Army. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army, Infantry Division, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. His training was conducted partially at Camp Greene in Charlotte.

Vintage sheet music including patriotic marches, love songs, show tunes and spirituals, some with vocal scores, including "God be with our boys to-night", "Laddie in Khaki", and "Just a baby’s prayer at twilight."

Conza Howell Claney, a native Charlottean, lived in New York City where she was the stylist for the Decorative Fabrics Division of Burlington Mills of North Carolina. The papers include business advertisements and local memorabilia for special events; including 1917 Christmas Celebration for Company "D" 60th U.S. Infantry held at Camp Greene. The collection primarily consists of correspondence and photographs.

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.

Kenneth Wilson Whitsett, (1894-1983), a native Charlottean and World War I veteran, was a renowned artist and engraver. His collection includes World War I correspondence of Whitsett and his brother, as well as photographs.

The McCoy family papers include primarily the papers of Albert McCoy, his in-laws (the Gluyas family) and some of Albert’s children. Two of Albert’s sons served in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. These were Robert Oates and Joseph Bennett McCoy; and several of their letters are included in this collection. One of Albert’s daughters, Ella Letitia McCoy Nisbet, and her husband William, opened their home to a few of the American recruits stationed at the army training camp at Charlotte. These were Fred Guthery and J. A. Peterson; and the Nisbets carried on a correspondence with these two “doughboys” and their families throughout the war. A poem found among the McCoy family papers (unsigned, but probably written by Ella) elaborates about the Nisbets opening their home to these soldiers.

Minnie Leona Stowe Puett was one of the organizers of the Belmont Women's Club and the Gaston County Federation of Women's Clubs. As the member of two of the most prominent Gaston County families, Puett was particularly well-suited to write "The History of Gaston County in 1939. Her collection contains forty-four papers of a Gaston County resident, including broadsides (ca. 1917) published by the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina and the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, Inc.

This collection contains the professional and personal papers of Dr. Roy E. Hoke and his family. Hoke served in the army during both world wars. In World War I he was a sergeant in the Medical Corps and assistant to the chaplain at Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga.

Charlotte Mayor Victor Shaw joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War I, serving to second lieutenant at his discharge in 1919. He inherited his father's business in Charlotte, Shaw Tires, in 1920.