So long, 2025! After spending nearly two years planning, preparing, and moving Special Collections materials into our new digs in Discovery Hall, it felt great to settle in last year and resume day-to-day collection management activities. This was especially true for the largest collection under the stewardship of Special Collections staff—manuscripts.

Last year, staff spent time catching up on processing new accessions and reprocessing older collections to improve discoverability. We also made significant strides towards processing portions of the largest manuscript collections in our care. This work included:

• Completion of a preliminary inventory of folders (over 25,000!) in the Star-News Image Archive (shout out to student employees Sarah, Hannah, Ry, Bella, and Kenzie for their hard work on this project!)
• Time spent preserving and describing materials in scrapbooks held in the Edwin E. Kirton Family Private Papers.
• Work towards (re)processing materials in the Herman Blizzard Rotary Archive with the assistance of a student funded through a donation from the Wilmington Rotary Club.
• Publication of a digital collection containing descriptions of 457 episodes of WHQR’s long-running program, Sounds Local, which is part of the WHQR Public Radio Archive.

In addition to the work described above, staff also completed processing for the following collections, which are now available for research use in the Center’s reading room. Learn more about how you can access these materials here. 

MS 110 The Hawk’s Eye: This collection contains material relating to "The Hawk's Eye," a regular feature article about Wilmington College published in the Wilmington Star-News during the late 1940s and the 1950s.

MS 211 John Jay Burney Jr. Personal Papers: This collection contains the personal papers of John Jay Burney, Jr. (1924-2010), a Wilmington attorney and former North Carolina state senator. Content represents all aspects of his life--personal, professional, and political--from his time serving in World War II in the 1940s to his North Carolina-based political and legal career that lasted into the early 2000s.

MS 392 St. Stephen A.M.E. Church Records: This collection contains material belonging to St. Stephen A.M.E. Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, from the mid-1800s through 2020. Material includes a poster of the officers of the church in 1896, a photograph of the church's interior, historical ledgers of meeting minutes and conference records, souvenir booklets and programs, newsletters, flyers, calendars, and construction funding paperwork. The majority of the material is focused around regular church services and special events, like Women's Day and Men's Day, from the 1980s to 2020.

MS 393 Earl Sheridan Papers: This collection contains materials relating to Dr. Earl Sheridan, a former Wilmington City Council member, UNC Wilmington professor, and NAACP chapter president. Much of this collection consists of newspapers and newspaper clippings (1981-2009) of articles written by or about Dr. Sheridan. Many articles discuss local and national civil rights issues for African Americans. Of note are stories that report on the NAACP’s opposition of the 1994 New Hanover County school bond referendum and on the police shooting of John Franklin Jones in 1989.

MS 399 Wilmington and New Hanover County Naval Affairs Committee Collection: This collection contains the materials of the Wilmington-New Hanover County Naval Affairs Committee, a City of Wilmington subcommittee responsible for coordinating the visits of foreign and American military ships to Wilmington during the 1980s to the early 2000s. Much of the records in this collection document the visits of military vessels to the Wilmington area between 1983 and 2000. Although most of these records center on the visits of foreign ships, especially British Royal Navy vessels, a small number focus on the arrival of American ships.

MS 400 Larry Kessler's Research Papers on Charlie Soong: This collection contains the research materials of Dr. Lawrence "Larry" D. Kessler (1936-2020), an author, researcher, and professor of East Asian and Chinese history. Part of Dr. Kessler's research papers focuses on China-North Carolina history, including certain significant individuals like Charlie Soong and Dr. Ma Haide. Other records include Kessler's research papers on the American missionary site of Jiangyin Mission Station and two missionary families.

MS 402 Gilbert H. Burnett Papers: This collection contains the papers of Gilbert H. Burnett (1925-2020), the Chief Judge of the 5th Judicial District of North Carolina from 1970 to 1991. This collection consists of materials related to Judge Burnett’s judicial career and community service advocacy, his publications and local television show, and his personal life, including life history, hobbies and interests, and military experience. Of note are newspaper clippings and correspondence documenting Burnett’s role as the preliminary hearing judge in the Wilmington Ten case.

MS 406 Bellamy Mansion Collection: This collection contains historical records from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s of members of the Bellamy family, down the Dr. John D. Bellamy (1817-1896) line, and related family members. A large portion of these records are related to the business dealings and financial matters of the Hargrove family, connected via Emma May Hargrove Bellamy, wife of John D. Bellamy, Jr. (1854-1942). Material also pertains to the Bellamy family home, the Bellamy Mansion on Market Street in Historic Downtown Wilmington.

MS 413 Marsden Bellamy Family Collection: This collection contains material related to members of the Bellamy family, mainly down the Marsden Bellamy (1843-1909) line, including photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, ephemera, and two family Bibles. Content largely relates to major life events, such as marriages and deaths, as well as Bellamy family ancestry, with an emphasis on material related to Chesley Calhoun Bellamy (1887-1957), son of Marsden, and Chesley's wife, Caroline Louise Mallett Bellamy (1891-1978). 

MS 420 Harry Bethea World War II Papers: This collection contains documents pertaining to the World War II service of Harry E. Bethea of Wilmington, North Carolina. Bethea served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force as a bomber pilot in both the European and Pacific theaters. Included are documents from 1944 pertaining to his training and service in the United States before deploying to the European Theater. 

MS 423 Tolis Vardakis Collection of World War II Photographs: This collection contains approximately 165 photographs from World War II. Photographs document the European and Pacific Theaters, with emphasis on the invasion of Poland, Greece, and France, as well as on various types of bomber aircraft used during the war. Most photographs credit the Associated Press or International News Photos Inc. and are stamped as being part of "The Evening Bulletin Reference Library," the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania newspaper from which they were originally generated. Photographs date from 1939 to 1945.

Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Photograph Collection: This collection, on loan to the Center by the Historical Society, contains photographs of the Lower Cape Fear area around Wilmington, dating from approximately 1860 to 2007. The images capture people, places, artworks of Wilmington and its inhabitants, and notable area landmarks across that time. They also document members of and activities undertaken by the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, with particular emphasis during the 1980s-1990s. This collection is also available to view through its digital collection counterpart. 

In October, the Center for Southeast NC Archives and History is excited to host an open house! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30, from 4-5:30pm and come join us!

In the Center’s Reading Room (Discovery Hall 2095), we will have items on display related to our collecting areas: government information, manuscript collections, rare and special publications, and University records. Our team will be on hand to chat about the Center’s collections and services – we are available for use by faculty, staff, students, community members, and all kinds of information-seekers looking for information about the history of Southeast North Carolina!

We will also be celebrating the library’s 60th year of being part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which helps the public access federal government information. 

Folks from all around may find this open house helpful: students, faculty, staff, community members of all kinds. Our collections document the University and its history and Southeastern North Carolina encompassing New Hanover County and the surrounding region including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Pender, Onslow, and Sampson counties. 

Off-campus visitors may find this information about visitor parking on campus useful. Please email csencah@uncw.edu with any questions. 

Light refreshments will be served. Please stop by, for 5 minutes or 50 – and bring your research questions! 

From 1944 to 2020, the servicemembers of U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (with the assistance of some additional civilian staff) published a weekly newspaper called The Globe. The articles in this newspaper are vital pieces of evidence towards reconstructing the lived experiences of individual service members stationed at Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, N.C., throughout the second half of the 20th century.  

Extant issues of the Globe are few and far between, and it can be difficult to track down historical issues of the newspaper. The good news is that a nearly complete run of issues has been digitized and made freely accessible to the public online by the U.S. Department of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS). Researchers can browse and download issues via the DVIDS database. 

If you need to access an issue that isn’t featured in the database, tracking down a print copy is challenging. A largely complete run of print issues dated 1944-2013 are held at the Harriotte B. Smith Library at Camp Lejeune, but not all issues are present. Also, access to the Harriotte B. Smith Library may be difficult if you aren’t a member of the Marine Corps. You can contact the library directly for information about accessing these issues. 

The Center has a handful of print issues available for onsite access, in MS 195 USO Club, Jacksonville NC Collection, but coverage is scattered, and many issues are incomplete fragments. A few libraries across the country hold microfilm editions of the newspaper, which researchers might be able to borrow via the Interlibrary Loan program from a public or academic library with which they are affiliated. To our knowledge, these are the only libraries with microfilm copies in their holdings: 

• State Library of North Carolina: 1944-1945
• Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill: 1944-1948; 1992-2003
• University of Wisconsin-Madison: 1944-1976; 1978-1991; 1994 

For more information about historical newspapers from this part of North Carolina, check out our Guide to Southeast North Carolina Newspapers, which explains how to find and access back issues of newspapers known to have been published in the Center's eight-county region from the 18th century to the present. 

Introduction

UNCW Library’s Special Collections unit is housed within the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, located on the second floor of Discovery Hall. Special Collections focuses on collecting cultural and historical materials pertaining to the eight-county region known as southeast North Carolina (SENC), including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, and Sampson counties. The Center is also home to federal and state government resources and records documenting the history of the University.

When thinking about archival materials, what comes to mind first is most likely old things – whether that’s rare books or letters and deeds from generations past – and it is true, we do collect those items; however, our collections especially reflect the contemporary growth of the SENC region during the 20th and 21st centuries. They trace economic development, environmental concerns and coastal area management, and politics at all levels of government, as well as the cultural output that uniquely defines the Cape Fear area. Special Collections staff curate, process, describe, and provide access to a wide variety of materials falling into two primary categories – Rare Books and Manuscripts Collections.  

Rare Books

There are four primary collections of published materials held in Special Collections. 

The Southeast North Carolina Collection consists of books and other published items pertaining to our eight-county region. From church histories and broadsides to county records and scientific reports, this collection contains a wide variety of rare and unique items that document all historical aspects of this region.

The Local Authors Collection contains the creative output of SENC writers, including works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more. You might recognize names such as Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, and Nina de Gramont.

Special Collections also collects locally published magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and other similar publications – a group of materials that libraries collectively call periodicals. This collection includes out-of-print titles such as Encore and Life Around Wilmington, as well as active titles, including current regional newspapers. The unit collaborates with the Library’s Digital Initiatives team and state and local partners to digitize and make available newspapers such as Carolina Beach’s Island Gazette and Columbus County’s News Reporter. 

Finally, the Special Books Collection contains publications that meet one or more of the following criteria: items pertaining to North Carolina history, items published before 1850, and rare items owned by less than 50 libraries. An additional (and very neat!) sub-collection within Special Books is a collection of miniature books measuring less than 5 inches by width or height.

Pictured here is a selection of rare books ranging in size from Mark Catesby’s 23-inch folio, Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, to the miniature book, Lute & Lyre and Other Musical Instruments of the 6th Century A.D., a generous 1 inch in height. 

Manuscripts and Archives

Manuscript collections differentiate the Center’s Special Collections unit from other libraries and archival repositories due to their inherently unique character; manuscript collections reflect their creators and owners and often contain materials that were not kept or organized by anyone else. As mentioned previously, the Special Collections unit collects and documents the cultural and historical output of the SENC region. Our collecting scope includes subjects such as the arts, business, development, education, environmental history, faculty research, local history, politics, religion, and war and military history. Researchers can discover physical items such as diaries, letters, and photographs, as well as digital items including electronic documents, audiovisual content, and more.

The Center's collections document the lives and careers of individuals such as Dr. Hubert Eaton, Sr., and Hannah Block, the operations of organizations such as the local USO chapter and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and events such as the USS North Carolina battleship homecoming and the Southport 4th of July Festival.

Items pictured include a letter from James R. Womble to his father describing the fall of Fort Fisher during the Civil War; a button Wilmington citizens wore while advocating for funding for a new bridge over the Cape Fear River during the 1950s and prior to the construction of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge; and marines stationed at Camp Lejeune during the 1960s enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Access and Research

All of the materials mentioned here and more are available to be explored by researchers near and far. Visit the Center’s website to learn more about finding materials, planning a visit, or requesting research assistance. 

Reflections

• Records Management (RM) had a presence at UNCW's celebration of Love Data Week in February. Seventeen people attended the online session “Let’s Talk about Administrative Data: A Conversation about Archiving the Data in Your Office.” Slides are available here. What RM topics do you want to see addressed during next year's Love Data Week? The theme will be “My kind of data.”
   
• Records and Information Management Month, April 2023 - University Archives held a total of 4 workshops–one on Zoom and 3 others around campus. There were 48 attendees altogether. Check out this handy Records Management Guide customized for UNCW.

News & Updates

• Please continue to refer to the UNC System Records Schedule (2021). The Record Analysis Unit at the State Archives is currently short-staffed with only two analysts in Raleigh and two regional analysts.  Please send suggestions for schedule updates and revisions to University Archives for consideration by the State Archives.
   
• Following the RM workshops this past spring, we in University Archives have had the opportunity to consult with several staff members at UNC Wilmington on records management questions. A valuable reminder: Adhering to the records schedule is a process! Making a plan, testing, and communicating with stakeholders and the public are components of a records management project. It is fine to build time into your projects to complete these steps as you move toward compliance.
   
• Do you produce state publications? Examples are university and departmental magazines, books published by the university, the Atlantis and other creative magazines, strategic plans, exhibition catalogues, and more. NC General Statute 125-1A established a process for schools in the UNC system – as state agencies – to send 10 printed copies and/or a digital version to the State Publications Clearinghouse at the State Library of NC. Copies are then distributed to designated libraries throughout the state in addition to the Library of Congress. See guidelines on donating to the State Publications Clearinghouse. We continue to acquire these publications for University Archives as well.
   
• I hear from you that video recordings of Zoom presentations on Records Management are appreciated. We will try to accommodate this request going forward.

RM Phrase of the Day

Capstone Approach to Email Archiving: The Capstone Approach is a method of email management that bases appraisal for long-term retention in the Archives on the account owner’s role or position rather than individual email content. This approach has benefits for a successful email archiving program.

Electronic Records Day and Archives Month

Electronic Records Day is observed in the United States every year on October 10, which can be expressed as 1010 in honor of binary code. October is National Archives Month. UNCW will help raise public awareness about archives throughout October.

Good luck on your Records Management projects and all your other endeavors this summer!

--University Archives

RECORDS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOPS

UNCW Faculty, Staff, Administrators--Choose from four convenient workshops, including virtual. No Registration, See You There!

Tuesday, April 11, 2023
11:30am – 12:30pm
Randall Library 2042 (Special Collections Reading Room)

Thursday, April 13, 2023
10am – 11:15am 
Zoom

Wednesday, April 19, 2023
10am – 11am Workshop
11am – 12pm Q & A and Activities 
Education Building 162

Tuesday, April 25, 2023
1pm - 2pm Workshop
2pm - 3pm Q & A and Activities
MG 1105 (Center for Marine Science Auditorium)

What is Records and Information Management Month?

• Records and Information Management Month (RIMM) is celebrated internationally to highlight the importance of organizing and maintaining records and information.
• A record is any document, paper, e-mail, picture, recording, video, or other material that can prove the transaction of business.
• UNCW workshops will introduce you to the Records Retention Schedule and offer tips on how to make it work for you.

Guide to UNCW Records Management