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 Mary Claire Engstrom papers #4684, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mary Claire Engstrom in December 1993; from John Kennedy of Hillsborough, N.C., in October 1994 (Acc. 94158); and from Philip M. Griffith of Monroe, N.C., in March 1998 (Acc. 98067).

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: Barbara Aschenbrenner, December 1993 with subsequent revisions

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Arrangment is only roughly to the box level and the collection has not been archivally refoldered.

Updated by Rebecca Stubbs and Laura Smith, January 2022

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.

• Berry, John, 1798-1870.
• Burwell School (Hillsborough, N.C.)
• Cemeteries--North Carolina--History.
• Engstrom, Alfred G., 1907-
• Engstrom, Mary Claire, 1906-1997.
• Genealogists--North Carolina--Correspondence.
• Genealogy.
• Hillsborough (N.C.)--History.
• Historians--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Historic Hillsborough Commission (Hillsborough, N.C.)
• Historic buildings--North Carolina.
• Historic districts--North Carolina.
• Historic preservation--North Carolina.
• Historic sites--North Carolina.
• Hotels--North Carolina--History.
• North Carolina--History, Local.
• Orange County (N.C.)--History.
• Quakers--North Carolina--History--18th century.
• Street, Margaret Berry, 1892-1967.

• Mary Claire Engstrom Collection, Photographic Archives, North Carolina Collection, Library of the University of North Carolina at chapel Hill.

Mary Claire Engstrom (1906-1997), daughter of Lester L. Randolph and Florence Alberta Toynbee Randolph of Kansas City, Mo., served as chair of the Historic Hillsborough Commission, Hillsborough, N.C., 1963-1983, in addition to acting in an official capacity for other Orange County, N.C., historic groups. She received her Ph.D. in 18th-century English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did postdoctoral research at Harvard and Yale, specializing in 18th-century satire. She was married to Alfred Garvin Engstrom (1907-1990), Distinguished Alumni Professor of French at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The collection consists primarily of historical research files compiled by Mary Claire Engstrom from various sources. Her historical research was predominantly concerned with Orange County personalities, buildings, institutions, and groups, and resulted in the documentation and description of 18th- and 19th- century Hillsborough deed records, 122 historic sites in Hillsborough, a colonial history of Hillsborough, numerous biographies, and a survey of all cemeteries and isolated graves, both black and white persons, in Orange County. Among other topics she studied in depth were early Quakers in the area, local inns and taverns, mills, and the Hillsborough Academy for boys and Burwell School for girls. In addition, she assisted in genealogical research in response to individual requests. Her research files contain final published versions of many of her historical essays.

Additionally, the collection contains some personal correspondence, including letters from other local historians sharing details of their discoveries and intended research strategies. Carbon copies of detailed weekly letters sent by Alfred Garvin Engstrom from 1977 to 1983 to his childhood friend Dez Dwyer of Belvedere, Ill., discuss philosophy, literature, remembrances, current events, weather, sports, local events, and include descriptions of nature, all written in an entertainingly erudite manner. Also included are letters, chiefly 1983-1988, about books and literature from Alfred Engstrom to Philip Griffith of Monroe, N.C.

While the collection has not yet been formally arranged, the papers have been somewhat organized. Please note that this organization is superficial; that is, some files will not be in the "proper" box. Also, there is considerable crossover between files compiled on historic individuals and families and files compiled for historic buildings associated with those families.

Related photographs may be found in the Mary Claire Engstrom Collection in the Photographic Archives, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The collection is organized as follows:

• Oversize Papers (OPF-04684/1)
• Extra Oversize Paper Folder (XOPF-04684/1)