Timeline extended for launch of Wilson Library facilities work.

Collection Number: 02785-z

Collection Title: William Pelham Papers, 1820; 1856-1861; 1922

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size 12 items
Abstract Members of the Pelham family of Alexandria, Ala., included William; his mother, Martha Montford McGehee Pelham (b. 1805) of Person County, N.C.; and his father, Atkinson Pelham (b. 1797), physician and cotton planter, who attended the University of North Carolina, circa 1820, and later settled in Alabama. William had many siblings, among them Peter (b. 1840), and Confederate hero Major John Pelham, "the gallant Pelham." The collection includes nine letters, 15 June 1856-31 March 1859, to William Pelham at school from his mother, and a few other items. Pelham's mother wrote chiefly of family and neighborhood sicknesses and deaths, about her garden, and about feeling deserted by her children. There is one letter, dated 24 May 1861, to William from his father, describing the destruction by hail of the corn and cotton crops and telling about local preparations for war. Also included are Atkinson Pelham's 1820 certificate of membership in the Dialectic Society of the University of North Carolina and a typed transcription of an autobiographical fragment written by Peter Pelham.
Creator Pelham, William, 1836-1889.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

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 William Pelham papers #2785-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Mrs. D. W. Sullivan of Atlanta, Georgia, in May 1944; Peter Pelham autobiography lent for transcribing by Mrs. J. D. Hank of Richmond, Virginia, in October 1941.
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.
Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, May 1991

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Dawne Howard Lucas, May 2021

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The collection includes nine letters, 15 June 1856-31 March 1859, to William Pelham at school from his mother, and a few other items. Pelham's mother wrote chiefly of family and neighborhood sicknesses and deaths, about her garden, and about feeling deserted by her children. There is one letter, dated 24 May 1861, to William from his father, describing the destruction by hail of the corn and cotton crops and telling about local preparations for war. Also included are Atkinson Pelham's 1820 certificate of membership in the Dialectic Society of the University of North Carolina and a typed transcription of an autobiographical fragment written by Peter Pelham.

Back to Top

Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse William Pelham Papers, 1820; 1856-1861; 1922.

Folder 1

Papers

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-2785/1

Atkinson Pelham certificate

Back to Top