Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Kimberly Papers #398, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Rebecca Kimberly in 1940, Mary Kimberly in 1943 and 1948, and Marguerite Kimberly Carter of Asheville, N.C., on 21 August 1997 (Acc. 97111).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Adera Scheinker, October 1997

Encoded by: Bari Helms, February 2005

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, November 2020

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Agriculture--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Chemistry--Study and teaching (Higher)--North Carolina--History.
• College teachers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Family--Tennessee--Social life and customs.
• Fugitive enslaved persons--North Carolina.
• Kimberly family.
• Kimberly, John, 1817-1882.
• Maney family.
• North Carolina--Genealogy.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Otey, James Hervey, 1800-1863.
• Phillips, Charles, 1822-1889.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Southall family.
• St. Mary's School (Raleigh, N.C.)--History.
• St. Mary's School (Raleigh, N.C.)--Students--History.
• Trafficking in enslaved persons--North Carolina.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History--19th century.

John Kimberly was a native of New Jersey and a descendent of Huguenots who settled in Long Island in the seventeenth century. He spent his adult life in North Carolina and was a staunch advocate of the Confederate cause. He received a degree in chemistry from Harvard University and taught chemistry in Hertford County, N.C., where he was married to Caroline Capehart of Hertford County. He later married Bettie Maney of Nashville, Tenn., and became a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 1857-1864. He was the chair of the agriculture department at the University, 1875-1876.

Personal correspondence, lecture notes, laboratory notebooks, and accounts of farmer and University of North Carolina professor John Kimberly. The personal correspondence was mostly written by and pertains to members of the Maney and Kimberly families in North Carolina and Tennessee. These letters are predominately concerned with daily life and family news, but also discuss current events such as the slave market, runaway slaves, and crop conditions prior to the Civil War, as well as the quality of life in antebellum Chapel Hill, N.C. Most of these letters are not overtly political in nature except for those written in 1861 by Bettie Maney Kimberly's sister, Annie Maney, of Nashville to her friends in the North discussing sectional differences and the potential effects of the Civil War.

Folder 47 contains several letters describing the occupation of Chapel Hill. A 12 March 1865 letter from Kimberly to his wife states, 'All communication . . . has been stopped at least for the present - we can only communicate by Flag of Truce.' Kimberly's 17 April 1865 letter talks of houses being plundered and his fear that a 'reign of terror will begin after the U.S. Troops are withdrawn.' Several lengthy letters to his wife document other aspects of the war, such as the condition of the University and the arrest of Governor Vance.

Most of the letters dated prior to 1930 are transcribed (see folders 57-59). Letters after 1930, which are not transcribed, are primarily the correspondence of Rebecca Kimberly of Columbia, S.C. concerning family genealogy.

Also included are calendars, commencement invitations, and other documents. There are newspaper clippings from North Carolina papers regarding University and Civil War news and from European newspapers and other southern newspapers regarding the Civil War. There are a few pictures, including prints of engraved portraits and scenes, and notebooks containing financial records, class plans, and research materials of John Kimberly. Most of these notebooks combine various types of materials and several overlap in dates.

• Pictures (P-398/1-10)
• Oversize photographs (OP-P-398/1)