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 Nisbet and Marye Family Papers #4478, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Gift of Alexander Heard of Chapel Hill, N.C., in July 1955, and of Edwin R. MacKethan in September 2003 (Acc. 99656).

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.

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.

• Architects--Georgia--History--20th century.
• Atlanta (Ga.)--Social life and customs.
• Camps--New Hampshire--History--20th century.
• College students--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Commission merchants--Georgia--History--19th century.
• Courtship--United States--History--19th century.
• Education--Maryland--History--19th century.
• Family--Georgia--Social life and customs.
• Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Germany--Social conditions--1918-1933.
• King family.
• Marietta (Ga.)--Social life and customs.
• Marye family.
• Marye, Florence Nisbet.
• Marye, Jack.
• Marye, John Nisbet.
• Marye, Philip Thornton.
• Newport News (Va.)--Social life and customs.
• Nisbet family.
• Nisbet, John.
• Nisbet, Nanni.
• Savannah (Ga.)--Social life and customs.
• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence--History--World War, 1914-1918.
• Spanish American War, 1898--Personal narratives.
• St. Timothy's School (Catonsville, Md.)--Students--History--19th century.
• United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces. Motorpool, 3rd.
• University of Virginia--Students--History--19th century.
• Women travelers--Europe--History--19th century.
• Women--Education--Maryland--History--19th century.
• Woodberry Forest School--Students--History--20th century.

• T. Butler King Papers (#1252)
• Wilder and Anderson Family Papers (#1255)

Born in Danzig (now Gdansk), West Prussia, the son of Christopher and Marianne von Boehm Nisbet, John Nisbet (1841-1917) worked for most of his life as a cotton factor in Savannah, Ga. In 1870, he married Virginia Lord King (1837-1901), whose father, Thomas Butler King (1800-1864), had been a prominent antebellum planter and Whig politician from St. Simon's Island, Ga. By the end of the 1870s, John and Virginia Nisbet had at least five children: Jack, Marie, Florence, Nanni, and Lordie.

During the Spanish American War, Florence Nisbet met Philip Thornton Marye, a young officer from Newport News, Va., who was then stationed in Savannah. Married in January 1900, Philip and Florence Marye had at least one child, John Nisbet Marye. By 1917, the Maryes were living in Atlanta, where Philip was an architect. In 1918 and 1919, Philip Marye served in the American Expeditionary Force in France and Germany.

The collection includes correspondence and other materials relating to the Nisbet family of Savannah, Ga., and Marietta, Ga., and the Marye family of Newport News, Va., and Atlanta, Ga. Family letters dealing with everyday matters form the bulk of the documents in the collection. Early letters are chiefly those of John Nisbet to his wife, Virginia Lord King Nisbet, who he called Bush, Buschibus, or Appie. They deal primarily with the pleasures and perturbations of family life, but also with Nisbet's political activities in Savannah and his business concerns as a cotton factor there. In addition, there are letters written by Nisbet from numerous European capitals concerning economic conditions in England and Europe and his business contacts in those places.

Correspondence from the 1880s and 1890s is much more diverse, both in terms of the number and ages of the writers involved and the topics they discuss. The Nisbets and their three oldest children Jack, Marie, and Florence (called Flip or Flippenchen) are the major correspondents, as is Virginia Nisbet's sister, Georgia King Wilder, wife of another cotton factor in Savannah, Joseph J. Wilder. Many of the letters were written by the Nisbets from Savannah and Marietta, Ga., to their daughters Marie and Florence, who lived in England and various European capitals with their aunt Georgia Wilder, 1889-1890. Most of the letters, however, were written by Marie, Florence, and Georgia to the Nisbets and relate to the schooling of the Nisbet children while in Europe and to their travel experiences.

Letters to the Nisbets from their son Jack and their daughter Florence dominate the correspondence from the early 1890s. Most of these letters are related to Jack's education at the University of Virginia and to Florence's at St. Timothy's Academy in Cantonsville, Md.

Florence, her husband Philip Thornton Marye (called Thornton), and their son John Nisbet Marye (called Baby or Nisbet) wrote most of the letters, 1894-1917. These include Philip's courtship letters to Florence from the various places where he was stationed during and after the Spanish American War, including New York and the Carribbean. The majority of the letters from this period, however, were written by their son John, 1915-1917, and concern his summer activities at Camp Marienfeld in Chesham, N.H.

The letters of Philip Marye and his son John form the bulk of the correspondence, 1918-1925. Those from the elder Marye were written to his wife from France and Germany during 1918 and 1919, while he was in command of the Third Army Motorpool of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. John's letters were written to his mother from Camp Marienfeld, Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry, Va., and from the Lanark Inn in Lanark, Fla.

Also included are letters from Nanni Nisbet in Germany reporting on the dislocation of German society after World War I and a few school reports, receipts, and genealogical charts.