U.S. Southern History and Culture
The library's holdings relating to the history and culture of the American South are particularly strong. There are extensive collections of Confederate imprints, Civil War regimental histories, and southern broadsides. Letters and diaries document politics, business, labor, education, religion, race relations, and other aspects of life in the South from the ante-bellum period through the late twentieth century.
Representative Collections
- Clement Claiborne Clay Papers
- Louis Manigault Papers
- Campbell Family Papers
- Robert Carter Papers
- Confederate Broadside collection
- George Washington Flowers Collection of Southern Americana
- Francis Warrington Dawson (I and II) Papers
- Asa T. and Elna Spaulding Papers
- Southern Women’s Economic Coalition (SWEC)
- Alliance for the Guidance of Rural Youth (AGRY)
- Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA)
- Operation Dixie Records (CIO Southern Organizing Committee--Tennessee and North Carolina)
- H. Lee Waters Papers
- Behind the Veil: Documenting African-American Life in the Jim Crow South, 1940-1997.
Digital Collections
- Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
This exhibit probes the life experiences of American slaves from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century. - African-American Women
On-line archival collections featuring scanned pages and texts of the writings of African-American women. Includes the memoirs of Elizabeth Johnson Harris (1867-1942), an 1857 letter from Vilet Lester, a slave on a North Carolina plantation, and several letters from Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson, slaves on the estate of David Campbell, a governor of Virginia. - Civil War Women
On-line archival collections featuring scanned pages and texts of the writings of women during the American Civil War. Includes the 1864 diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl from Gallatin, Tennessee, the papers of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a renowned Confederate spy, and the papers of Sarah E. Thompson, a spy for the Union.
Collection Guides / Finding Aids
- The Civil War
A Guide to Civil War Materials in the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. - Slave Letters Bibliography
A Guide to Slave Letters in the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. - General: RBMSCL manuscript and archival finding aids are fully searchable under various topics relating to Southern history and culture as is the online catalog, especially the “advanced” search, limiting the location to "Special Collections."
Collection Policies
Southern U.S. History and Culture (exclusive of overlapping in other collecting categories). Existing Collection Strengths: records of families and plantations; Confederate military and other Civil War materials; 19th-century imprints (especially concerning slavery and race issues); broadsides; maps; newspapers; trade catalogs; political life; industry; sheet music, tobacco; local Durham materials. Current Collecting Focuses: Categories listed above; materials concerning race relations; social change and reform; substantive papers of ordinary Southerners (especially prior to World War II).
Contact Information
For general information about finding materials in the library's collections and how you can use them, requesting permission to reproduce, or other information as well as reference questions about the holdings in this area:
| E-mail: | special-collections@duke.edu |
|---|---|
| Phone: | (919) 660-5822 |
| FAX: | (919) 660-5934 |
If you are getting in touch via e-mail, please be sure to include your return e-mail address in the body of the message, since it sometimes gets stripped from the header in transit. Also, if you expect a response, make sure to include a phone or fax number or postal address where we can reach you, since sometimes it is difficult or impossible to respond via e-mail. Thank you!
Last modified July 5, 2007 4:20:10 PM EDT
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